As per our owners manual and as part of the maintenance schedule, cleaning the cover, unzipping and placing in an 'A-frame' position will help dry out the cover and prevent it from water logging (unless there are tears).
See cover maintenance article here.
The inner of the cover is shrink wrapped in a plastic moisture barrier.
Alpines Spas recommends for older covers that may be becoming compromised with water, that you remove the inner foam from your cover every six months which allows it to dry, reducing the further chance of your cover becoming heavy / waterlogged. This is also a great time to check to make sure your cover does not have any rip or tears in the plastic lining that might cause moisture it gets into the foam.
Our manufacture warranty only covers manufacturing defaults and unfortunately a waterlogged or heavy cover does not fall under this.
Solution
Choose a dry sunny day – You need a warm, dry and sunny day to dry out your hot tub cover. There isn’t really any point in trying to do this when it’s pouring with rain! Preferably, try to find a time when there is a good few days of warm dry weather forecast as it is likely to take quite a while to dry out a really waterlogged core. The better the weather is the more success you are likely to have!
Remove the cover – Take the cover off the hot tub and also remove it from the cover lifter if you are using one. This may well be a two or more person job, particularly if your cover is really heavy. Do not attempt to do this yourself if you know that the hot tub cover is too heavy as it will only increase the risk of injury to either yourself or the hot tub cover!
Unzip the vinyl cover – Carefully unzip and remove the vinyl cover. Take care when doing this as any small areas of damage or tears could quickly become large ones if you just pull them in the wrong direction.
Remove the foam core – Once the vinyl cover is undone you should be able to remove the foam cores. These will be heavy and full of water so do this on the ground. Again it might take two people, one to hold the vinyl cover and one or more to pull the foam cores clear. Take care with them and bear in mind that they will be easily damaged if dropped.
Remove the vapour barrier – The core is wrapped in a plastic vapour barrier. If the core is heavily waterlogged the chances are that the vapour barrier will be damaged and be letting in moisture so it’s OK to remove it. Also, the core won’t dry out with the vapour barrier covering it so you need to remove it. As mentioned above you will need a plan on how to reinstate it – are you going to repair it, replace it with new plastic sheeting or heat seal the foam cores inside? Whatever you do the vapour barrier needs to be 100% waterproof when you put it back on (after the foam is dry).
Clean and dry the cover – Next, you need to thoroughly clean and dry the cover. Use a specialist mould remover if you need to and get everything as clean and dry as you can. An old towel will remove the obvious water but you will also need to put the whole cover out into the sun for an extended period of time to dry.
You may well be able to dry out the vinyl cover fairly easily by just folding it in and out and moving it’s position but the foam core may be more difficult. It’s a good idea to get a good circulation of air around it so standing it off the ground on two or three planks of wood is a good plan. Change the position of the core every so often to give the water chance to drain out and test to see if it feels any lighter to assess progress. It may dry out fairly well or you might need to wait several days.
Check the vinyl cover for damage and repair – Once the vinyl cover is clean and dry you can do a thorough inspection for damage and repair or replace as necessary. It’s important that there aren’t any holes or rips in the vinyl cover as these will quickly become bigger and more problematic.
Reapply the vapour barrier – You then need to re-apply the vapour barrier to the core. This is vital as any holes in it will allow moisture to enter and it will quickly collect in the core leaving you back with a waterlogged cover! The vapour barrier doesn’t have to be replaced or repaired in a particularly scientific way. Wrapping with good quality plastic and sealing thoroughly will do the trick but take your time and get the barrier laid evenly and thoroughly sealed.
Replace the foam core – Now you can replace the foam core into the vinyl cover and reassemble the cover before putting it back on the hot tub or in the cover lifter.
