Five years ago at the 2017 ASES Conference in Boulder, I heard a presentation about a new type of spa cover. The company, Modern Spa Covers, manufactures the covers in my own town of Arvada. I was determined to buy one when the time came. I followed the web page at the time and contacted the supposed distributor in the area but I never heard back from them.
Last fall our spa cover had completely worn out. The vinyl was cracking, the styrofoam was waterlogged, and the top was bent from kids sitting on it. So I contacted the company directly and they were taking online orders. The covers are custom built and they are not covered in vinyl or filled with regular styrofoam. Instead they have a steel and polycarbonate frame insulated with polyisocyanurate insulation. They have small fans inside that transfer the heat from the sun hitting the dark material into the water of the spa. The cover is an outdoor canvas like sunbrella. It is just an additional heat source and not meant to heat the entire spa. The small fans can be run by solar panels but my order had the 110v transformer instead. I can always add a small panel sometime in the future.
Not only is the construction unusual, the cover is more highly insulated than normal. I also included the higher weight bearing option since I never know when kids are going to climb up there to sit!
The company sent a diagram of the proposed cover and I made a few changes. I only have one open side on the spa. One side is against the decking wall, one has the ladder and the opposite side has the access to the equipment so I had to have the fold orient the length of the spa instead of the width. I also requested that the plug for the fans be close to the electric cord I use but that was probably unnecessary since the cord it came with is so long.
While I was creating the order for this spa cover we had the vendor show for the Metro Denver Green Homes Tour. We invited Modern Spas to exhibit and there was some interest in this new design. Later this year I hope our home will be on the tour and the company representative will be here to explain the design of our cover.
