Ask 'Dr. Spa' Q & A Message Board

There is a lot of exageration and fraud going on in the hot tub business in general. We've all seen the flagrant exageration of motor HP ratings. Covers are no different. There are plenty of outfits around who will not use a high quality, marine grade vinyl. Instead, they use a vinyl that gets chewed up by the sun. They stitch it together with thread that rots after a year or so. The vapor barrier is a joke and the cover is waterlogged in short order.

Every one of these fraudulent outfits is banking on the gullibility of customers who are consumed with finding a "bargain". They sell them a BS story about the "quality" of their product, but they are selling it at a give-a-way price. Yet, people continue to fall for this stuff. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

It kind of reminds me of the various forms of the Nigerian Found Money scam. I cannot believe that people would fall for that scheme, yet it must be working. I see those types of emails on a nearly daily basis. Obviously, we must have some gullible people in our midst.

John

: Not unusual. Besides retailing covers we also wholesale to a lot of
: other companies. Some of them sell for less than we do............
: but we also do a lot of "custom" work for larger customers,
: and what they sell for less, is also of a lessor quality.

: WELL DONE! Some of the exaggerating going on out there is approaching
: fraud.

: For the most part, thicker vinyl shouldn't make a lot of difference. It
: would on a cushion your constantly sitting on, but not a spa cover.
: The most important thing is the UV resistance.

: This is so true.......... but remains a selling point for many. The
: thing to remember is if the vapor barrier fails to the point of some
: C channel rusting, it wont be long till the foam is soaking up
: moisture like a sponge. I think the only time I've seen the C channel
: fail on and old cover was when the foam had already gained 150 pounds
: of water.

: Just a little FYI, and I had to check to be sure. The added
: manufacturing costs to using sunbrella in place of vinyl are only
: about $150.

: I've been saying for years that this is THE most important aspect of a
: cover.

: I've been considering testing a 20 mil vinyl, something like what
: swimming pool liners are made of. the problem is we have a $20k
: computerized impulse sealer for sealing the PE and I don't think it
: will work properly on 20 mil material.