Hot Tub and Spa Cover Lifter Guide

Hot Tub and Spa Cover Lifter Buying Guide Why buy a lifter? What is available? Why buy a lifter? The simple answer is to gain the full enjoyment and opportunity of use of your spa or hot tub and to save the hot tub cover from wear and tear. Many people who own a hot tub, have to schedule their relaxing hot tub time, around the availability of enough people to remove the hot tub cover, or around the official cover remover in the family being available. This especially holds true in the 3rd - 5th year of your hot tub cover, when the saturated cover can weigh over 100 lbs. (by the way it is time for a new cover at this point). The point is, with a lifter one person can remove the hot tub cover and enjoy the spa, no struggle, no pain. The other important feature of a hot tub cover lifter is that it saves major wear and tear on your cover. How many have torn their skirt pulling off their cover? The lifter keeps the cover out of the way in a neat and tidy manner and when you're done your relaxing soak returning the cover to its position is easy as well. This is extremely handy in the middle of winter! What is available? There are many lifters available. There are assisted, non-assisted, bars, baskets, shelf's, low mounting systems and lip mounting systems. Assisted vs. non-assisted - clear and simple choice if you are not on a budget go with the assisted version. Assisted simply means that the hot tub covers moves up and down with the aid of hydraulics, for the non-assisted you will need to push the cover up into position. The Valet and Cover Caddy assisted Pneumatic piston system makes them the jewels within the sea of cover lifters available. And at under $200 this should be the simple choice. The Valet is perfect if you have limited space as well because the mounting is on the lip of the spa and only 8" of space is required behind the spa. The Caddy is also a great lifter and hides the cover behind the spa while the tub is in use. The Caddy requires about 40" behind your spa so this might not work for everyone. If you are on a budget you can pickup a great lifter called the Rockit for under $100. The Rockit hot tub cover lifter fits most spas up to 96". This is a non-assisted lifter that requires 30" of clearance in the back of your spa. If you are not sure what lifter to buy because you are not sure which will work in your application the look to the Ultralift Hot tub cover lifter which has telescopic bars that allow many variations to your installation and will work for any spa in any location.