I have noticed quite a bit of focus on the fold for hottub covers. How critical is that when I order my replacement cover?
Bob B. – Denver, Colorado
Hello to Denver!
Your hot tub size, configuration and setting all play in to how you might want your hot tub lid to fold. In some cases, the fold does not matter because if you want it to fold the other way, you can simply rotate the cover on the top of the tub. This is true for most round or square covers.
This is not true for every round or square cover though. Lets look at an example. In this picture to the left, we present a square hot tub cover. We have drawn on this picture to show the two fold options. To determine the best fold direction, we need to consider the following factors:
- Pop up speakers are in the front right and back left corners
- There is a deck rail next to the spa in the back and on the left sides
- The control panel is on the near side
- Is there an existing cover removal system installed
Even though this spa is square, the speaker locations will prevent the cover from being able to be rotated to change the fold orientation. These pop up speakers are still raised about 1/2 inch above the top of the acrylic lip of the spa, even in the closed position, as shown by the front speaker. Due to this, the cover will need to be manufactured with an allowance for these raised speaker. This cover will not be able to sit on the spa except in the single, proper orientation.
The railing along side this spa looks as if it would prevent human access to either of these two areas. If the cover were folded right to left on the Fold A line, the cover would end up next to the railing and would be difficult to access to remove from the tub. If the cover were folded from front to back along the Fold B line, the same problem would occur. This would leave us with either folding toward the control panel or to the right in this picture.
Folding toward the front of this picture would stack the cover on top of the control panel, so that is probably not a very good plan. That will work if the entire cover is removed but if this owner would like to only open on half of the cover, and leave it sitting on the tub, the control panel could not be accessed. Similarly, if the cover is folded right to left on the Fold A line, the control panel will still be half covered, but may still be accessible.
If there were a cover lifter installed, that would need to be considered also. This picture shows what happens when that is forgotten!
The first picture does indeed show the cover folded to the right and possibly hanging from a cover lifter bar. It also shows spa steps in front of the control panel. This does seem to be a good plan, even for when the cover is folded on top of itself and left on top of the spa.
Happy Tubbing!
Ethel Elliott
