Ask 'Dr. Spa' Q & A Message Board

: The following is my current collection. Email addresses and IP numbers
: have been changed to "protect the innocent" (however I do
: have them on file.;

: Hi Guys,

: Thanks for your posts. I was searching for a new top for my spa and came
: across Spacap. I started to research it as it appeared to be an
: interesting idea.

: I contacted Jeff Sliger of Another Company who makes the spacap.
: I said I was interested in his cover but, due to the unique nature of
: his cap I was a little nervous. I asked him if I could see a copy of
: his R value testing. Or, was there customer near me that I could ask
: about it.

: His response was that he would not give me any references and "Did
: you ask any hard cover dealers for customer references? No, because
: you know from personal experience they don't work." I replied ,
: that I did in fact ask my spa maker for references on a spa cover
: with a radiant barrier. He gladly gave me a number of them.

: I then , again, asked Jeff Sliger for a copy of their R-Value testing.
: Had he provided it and it verified his claims, I would have purchased
: it. His claims seem to be very high for just plain air. It
: contradicts all the information I found on R values for dead air
: spaces.

: Jeff Sliger never replied. Very rude. This ticked me off a bit. At least
: tell me, NO you're not going to send it. Of course this peaked my
: curious nature and I did a little searching.

: Spacap.com/ Another Company/ Owner Jeff Slinger have an unsatisfactor
: rating with the Better Business Bureau of Western
: Washington.http://www.oregonandwesternwa.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=13025291

: A further patent search showed the inventor of spacap to be Kingston;
: James E and the assignee to be Sliger.

: This is my experience with this company. I won't do business with them.
: Thanks to the forum for a heads up.

: ==============================================================

: Author: drumstick (67.130.87.---)
: Date: 09-15-04 18:45

: I've come to the conclusion that the spa cap should be SPA CRAP. AFTER 6
: MONTHS OF TEMP. TESTING 2 TIMES A DAY WHEN THE AM TEMP IS in the 40s
: I will lose 5 degrees in 5 hours . Thats extreme. The cap with 3
: bladdes is a pain in the butt to get on and off. It is a farce that
: sounds good but RUN RUN RUN

: ==============================================================

: Author: mkamdar (---.dyn.optonline.net)
: Date: 07-19-04 15:55

: When It would rain, the top layer would let water seep in and it would
: get trapped in the middle with the air making it extremely difficult
: to lift it. Also, it would waver in the winds and that caused the
: fasteners to rip off - It was a horrible decision on my part to fall
: for the little video clip on their website. This is just my
: experience but my spa guy had warned me agianst this cover for
: precisely what I am describing. I was foolish enough to ignore him
: thinking that he is just saying that crap because he wants me to buy
: the cover from him.

: ================================================================

: Posted By: wethe002 (CPE-24-163-252-228.mn.rr.com)
: Date: Tuesday, 30 November 2004, at 5:29 p.m.

: Had one for 3 years (it eventually leaked), uncertain if it insulated
: well. Also bought one for a second home, it arrived defective, and
: they have not replaced or repaired it. Bought it in 12/03, returned
: it 3/04, and have called many times. Still don't have a new one
: 11/30/04! Would NOT deal with this place- am about to contact them
: again!

: =================================================================

: Posted By: gary tass
: Date: Monday, 20 December 2004, at 8:07 a.m.

: I got a spacap but im not real happy with it . it is real hard to get on
: and off. one person is a real chore. i have the one with 3 bladders
: and im not really sold on the insulating factor it should have.
: sounds good though.

: =================================================================

: Posted By: laurie lsduke@xxxxxx.com > (65.220.66.222)
: Date: Wednesday, 23 March 2005, at 8:13 a.m.

: In Response To: alrighty who owns this cover (TomD)

: This cover sucks. We hate this cover. It is very difficult to get on and
: off. If you don't fill it enough, water gathers in the top and causes
: the edges to lift up. when I bail out the cover after a rain, the
: water is WARM!!! That's when it's 25 degrees out!! Gee, I wonder how
: it's getting heated? If you fill it so that water doesn't puddle, it
: looks like a mushroom and you cannot fold it over. It's just a
: super-filled blob that is very difficult to move around. We are not
: at all pleased and our electric bill has gone up 25% since we
: installed it (that's $100!!!) due to the convection issue that we
: didn't realize.

: ADDITIONALLY;
: We have had hot tubs for 30 years and decided, after having to replace
: the foam ones every 4 years that it was time for a change. We have
: not been happy with the cumbersome on/off maneuvers needed for this
: cover (not an easy one-man job), the water-pooling in the center (I
: got soaked this morning getting the 4 gallons of water out of the
: pool in the center of the cover - just so the sides would go down!!),
: and the poor, POOR insulating qualities. I am furious about this
: purchase. Their site is nothing but complete misrepresentation and
: when I called them, they said that no one else has ever complained.
: HMMM.

: =================================================================

: From: littlestick (gptass@ironriver.tv )
: Date: Friday, April 01, 2005 08:56 PM

: does any one else out there have a SPA CAP spa cover??? it is the one
: filled with 2 to 3 bladders of air. i have one and i am not happy at
: all with it. my electric bill for feb. was $240 !!! last year same
: month was half of that. it is not as easy as it shows on their
: website to take off and put on. it is a joke.!!!

: =================================================================
: tomm1963
: Joined 28 Dec 2005
: Posts 2

: I am a long time Spa owner and when it was time to replace yet another
: foam filled traditional hot tub cover I decided to take a look on the
: web for some new ideas or maybe a good deal on a cover. If you do a
: simple hot tub cover Google search you will surely come across the
: SPACAP by Another Company. The problem I had was that no other info
: was available about this product except what the maker had on his
: site. I read through his info and it sounded great. Supposedly more
: efficient than traditional covers and it will last longer. The theory
: made sense to me but I couldn't figure out if this was such a great
: idea why 25 other companies weren't offering the same thing. I tried
: to research and talked with as many knowledgeable people as I could
: with no definitive opinions anywhere. So I bit the hook and bought
: one.

: I ordered it in the fall of 2004. I am writing this opinion in December
: of 05. I have owned it 18 months or so.

: The cover came from the manufacturer quickly and was well constructed
: with a perfect fit. But the jury was still out as to wether an air
: bag works as well as foam insulation. The first thing I noticed was
: that snow (I am in Wisconsin) never accumulated on the Spacap. I used
: to have to sweep snow off the top of my traditional cover after every
: storm. But snow melted off the Spacap as fast as it fell.....HMMMMM.

: Next I noticed my spa pump running more and my electric consumption
: never went down. Contrarily my power consumption went up.

: I still needed more concrete evidence. A bit more scientific. Here is
: what I did......You be the judge.

: I got a thermal imaging camera. This is used by energy annalists to
: check homes for heat loss and efficiency. It is also used by Fire
: Departments to check for hot spots in burning buildings. It uses
: infrared technology to get spot on accuracy. The camera allows you to
: point at any object and get a pinpoint temperature reading of the
: object.

: I did the test on a day that the outside air temperature was 12 degrees.
: The thermal camera was reading ambient objects at around 14 degrees.
: It was reading the outside of houses at 19 degrees. Now the big
: moment......lets point this puppy at the Spacap. It read 40 degrees.
: What? Yes 40 degrees. The hot tub water is at 100 degrees. Gad that
: doesn't seem good at all. One last test to do. I needed to compare it
: to a foam cover. So to the neighbors yard I went. I turned the camera
: on to a traditional foam cover with a 102 degree hot tub. The camera
: read 19 degrees.

: Needless to say I am seriously bummed out that I got taken by a slick
: web site. I like to think I am smarter than the average bear. Anyway
: I felt I needed to post this info to the web so others can have a
: fair opinion before spending $400 or more on a Spacap.

: =========================================================

: 01-19-07, 11:02 PM
: popper36

: SpaCap-Ultimate Disapointment

: In the spring of 2006, I too needed a replacement for my spa cover. I
: found the Spacap website intriguing to say the least. I live in the
: mountains of California, and we are all about extremes. Summer temps
: can get into the high 90's, and we can receive upwards of 6 feet of
: snow in winter storms with 60 MPH winds. Needless to say, I needed a
: spa cover that would on one hand keep the warmth in, and on the other
: hand keep the elements (sun, wind, snow, leaves, rain, etc) out.
: After much consideration and many chats with the Spacap people, I
: decided to give this thing a try (with much skepticism). I ordered
: their top of the line product with 3 air chambers and protection by
: sunbrella.

: Things did not get off to a good start with the Spacap company with my
: order. After 8 weeks and probably a half dozen phone calls, my cover
: was finally being shipped (They had told me when I ordered the Spacap
: that it would be shipped in no more than 21 days). I inflated the 3
: chambers, during which, one of the intakes was already starting to
: separate from the material that it is affixed to. Once inflated, I
: affixed the fasteners ready for any wind that might come up.

: Within days, we were blessed with some gnardly 45 mph gusts-all seemed
: well with the Spacap; that is until we went to get in the spa the
: next day. The spa was completely dirty with leaves and dirt, not to
: mention our filters needed cleaning as well at this point. Our first
: test of mountain weather and the spa cap was not living up to its
: bidding.

: After several weeks, we also noticed that the once inflated Spacap was
: losing its dome shape. This became quite a nuisance, we were
: inflating the Spacap every two weeks or so. As we got into summer,
: our next mountain weather phenomena raised its ugly head. We were
: getting daytime highs in the 90's with nighttime lows in the 40's. If
: the Spacap was inflated to its proper level in the early evening,
: that night it would deflate because of the cooler temps (Boyles Law).
: By midday the next day, it would be so over inflated that we were
: unable to undo the fasteners to get in the spa. This sequence
: repeated itself multiple times throughout the summer. The overt
: display of Boyles Law was demonstrating to me, that this product
: seemed to be very susceptible to environmental temperature swings.
: Needless to say, a second failure in as many attempts.

: Finally, it was now winter. This is really why we bought this thing, the
: hope of huge savings on our electric bill as advertised by the Spacap
: people. Well, the Spacap didn't live up to this either. With wind and
: rain initially, we were still getting debris in our spa, and now with
: the rain we were starting to get pools of water on top of our Spacap.
: We called the company, and let them know what was going on. They
: informed us that under no circumstance were we to allow standing
: water on the Spacap. Apparently, the impermeable sunbrella is quite
: permeable under standing water. If water were to get inside the
: bladder system, it is very difficult to get out. Well, more work had
: been created for us. Not only were we required to refill the air
: chambers, but also now we had to keep all water off of the Balloon.
: That leads me to winter problem number 2, wind. It is quite
: impossible to get into your spa with any measurable wind (above 15
: mph). The shape of the Spacap is very near the shape of an airfoil,
: i.e. wing or sail. At the point you unhooked the fasteners and began
: to lift the Spacap, the wind would grab it and where it would go is
: up to nature. Finally, snow! What can I say about snow? As previously
: posted, snow initially melts because of the warmth of the Spacap.
: This ultimately creates a really nice layer of ice on which the
: reaming snow accumulates (makes for easy snow removal). Without a spa
: lift or anything of the sort, the Spacap must rest on top of the
: snow-quite a feat of strength when the snow is 3 or 4 feet deep (my
: spa sits flush to a deck). What about all of those electric savings
: Spacap talks about you might ask? Well, with no substantial change in
: any other variable, we saw usage go up by 21.3%.

: Not to drag this out any further, but I must add one more thing that I
: have learned from this experience. Speaking with Jeff (a Spacap guy)
: on about the 1st of November, I voiced my concerns that I have shared
: here. He tried to convince me how great the Spacap was and that if I
: weren't happy I could return the product for a full refund or repair
: for further use. I told him at that time that I was sure I wanted a
: refund. He convinced me that I should continue with the product for a
: couple of months noting that eventually I would have to send the
: product in to be repaired, and if after a couple of months had gone
: by and I still wasn't satisfied the offer of refund would still be
: valid. Fast forward to Jan 2007. I have made multiple attempts to get
: in contact with Jeff; he won't take any of my calls. All I'm getting
: is response from another associate that they are willing to repair my
: Spacap-refund is not an option. I was fully duped by Spacap's
: website, please don't let this happen to you.

: Popper

All I can say is that I wish I found this web-site before I purchased a spa cap. I've got one that won't hold air and has water in the one of the bladders (the top one, I think). Can't get the water out. Talk about getting heavy and not insulating. My cap is still under warranty, but I have not had any response to my email to the company. I can't even ship this back because the of the water inside. NOT THAT I WOULD WANT TO! Even paying shipping to return it would be like throwing good money after bad. I'm buying a conventional cover and chalking this up to one of the mistakes I've made in life. A $500 mistake (plus the wasted energy costs from using spa cap for 18 months) is not the stupidest thing I've ever done. But I've learned - if your buying something like this again be sure to google "spa cap sucks" or something similar BEFORE you buy it.