Hot Tub Covers Turn to Technology

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by: amabaie
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Word Count: 775
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 Time: 11:02 AM

Technology is a astoundingly new thing. Sure, they had the wheel and the lever since caveman days, but those were both obvious. What you saw s what you got. It's big, it will take place.

Those days are over. Technology haschanged the way we think. It has hidden unseen qualities in almost everything.

Consider all the ways tech can be invisible to the naked eye.

The exterior might be treated with chemicals.

A microchip could be enclosed.

The material might be synthetic, with some amazing properties.

The item might be built from multiple layers of various materials with different properties fused together.

Parts might be affixed using a variety of methods:

- glue and epoxy
- tape
- Velcro
- screws
- nails
- zippers
- knots
- bolts
- twist-ties

HOT TUB COVERS GET TECH MAKE-OVER


Consider the lowly hot tub cover. Really, all you need is a board of wood, perhaps a vinyl lining across the top of the wood, to keep your hot tub covered and safe from the elements and from little kids and creatures falling in. Yes, your spa cover has is filled with invisible technology.

Take the exterior, for example. A closer look reveals that, the outside wrapping is much more than just “wrapping”. The surface is chemically treated with a chemical designed to resist wearing down from the UV rays of the sun and to impede mildew.

The fold is important, because it makes it easy tomove the cover on and off the hot tub. A good spa cover has double reinforced hinges, so as to remain durable, in order to resist wear and eventually breaking down even with heavy use of your spa.

Even the carefully tailored skirt around the perimeter of the cover has a specific purpose - to provide extra protection against snow drifting in and heat leaking out.

The cover is wrapped - but not shrink-wrapped. As a result, there is stitching along the seams. A quality cover has double-stitched threading – it bears noting how high-tech even this detail is - stitches finely sewn by industrial machinery with precision threading. Let's not forget the zipper. And the gasket. And the tie-down straps. And the padded handles. All created with exacting precision, and each one adding a function to the cover (which we all assume just sits there without doing anything at all).We continue our "tour" inside the cover...Once again, technology creates an illusion. You might think a "cover" is solid and thin. Surprise! More high-tech. The hot tubcover is hollow- and there is a lot going on in there.

The foam core is most of what's going on, and you can imagine how much technology is required to form the foam and shaping it. The shaping itself is a clever bit of technology; a tapered spacover ensures that rain, ice, hail and snow slide off your cover, rather than accumulating on top and weighing it down.

The cover's reinforcements are manufactured from extra strength aluminum. They strengthen the center and, if they are properly designed, won’t rust in what is, after all, the most humid environment around your home. Aluminum, like the foam itself, is fairly light, making it easier for you to lift it off the hot tub and back on afterwards for protection.

A polystyrene layer wraps it all up. The heat-sealed coating - yes, more technology - protects the core from moisture.

Beyond all that we have looked at inside the cover is yet one more layer. This one is both another moisture protection and also a mildew inhibitor, often made from a double-ply (fused) material.

You would think with all these layers and moisture barriers and defences, that there is no way moisture could ever get in. However, there is a back-up plan nonetheless. There is a little hole in the middle of the double-ply liner- the “drain grommet”. So, even if any moisture does somehow get past the layers of protection, this mechanism removes it, keeping the inside of your hot tub cover dry.

There is more to hot tub covers than meets the eye. Ah, but that's technology - the clever manipulation of things the eye cannot perceive. Does this matter? Yes! Do you care? Probably not. You'll just want to hop into the hot tub and relax.

About the Author

The author is Canadian David Leonhardt, writing forHot Tub Covers Canada. You can find an exciting selection of hot tub shapes and sizes they fit.

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