Spa-Plus

Spa-Plus spa cover cleaning and care

A spa cover spends its whole life outdoors, pressed between hot, chemically treated water below and sun, rain and frost above. It is also the single most expensive soft part of most hot tubs. Here you will find the Spa-Plus cover care range, which exists to slow down that wear with routine cleaning rather than replacement.

The range is deliberately small. Rather than a shelf of overlapping products, it covers the one job that most owners neglect: getting dirt, pollen, body oils and chemical residue off the vinyl skin before they start to break it down.

What the range covers

At present the brand is represented by a single item on this page:

• Weathershield Care Spa Cover Cleaner 500 ml (PRI-SPWCC1) – a cleaner intended for the vinyl outer skin of hot tub and spa covers, supplied in a 500 ml bottle.

Order by the part number PRI-SPWCC1 if you want to be certain which bottle arrives, as cover cleaners, shell cleaners and cabinet or surround products look similar on a shelf but are not interchangeable. Shell cleaners are formulated for rigid acrylic, cabinet products for timber or composite panels, and neither is designed for the flexible, welded vinyl used on cover skins.

Why spa covers wear out

Understanding the failure modes makes it clearer why cleaning matters. A typical cover is a pair of tapered foam cores sealed in plastic film, wrapped in a stitched and welded vinyl jacket with a hinge down the middle. Each layer fails differently:

• The vinyl skin dries out and loses its plasticiser with sun exposure, which is what leads to chalky surfaces, fading and eventually cracking along fold lines and corners.
• The stitching and hinge take the most mechanical strain, because the cover is folded over the hinge every time the spa is opened.
• The foam cores absorb water once the inner vapour barrier splits, which is why an old cover becomes unliftable and begins to sag in the middle.
• The underside is attacked by chemical vapour rising off the water, particularly where sanitiser levels have been allowed to run high or the spa has been shocked with the cover closed.

Dirt accelerates all of this. Pollen, leaf tannin, bird droppings and airborne grime hold moisture against the vinyl and stain it, while body oils carried up in the steam leave a film on the inside that traps grit. Cleaning two to four times a year, and more often under trees, removes the material that does the damage.

Using a cover cleaner sensibly

Work in the shade on a cool surface rather than in full midday sun, when products dry before they can be wiped away. Brush or hose off loose debris first so you are not grinding grit into the skin. Apply the cleaner to the vinyl, work it with a soft cloth or sponge rather than an abrasive pad, and rinse thoroughly, taking care not to flood the stitching or force water into the seams.

Lift the cover and check the underside while you are there. Wipe off condensation film, look for splits in the inner wrapping around the foam, and press along the centre fold to feel for soft, waterlogged sections. Avoid household solvents, bleach, degreasers and anything containing petroleum distillates on cover vinyl, and keep detergent runoff out of the spa water where you can. Always read the label on the bottle before use and follow the instructions it gives.

Spa-Plus at PoolParthub.com

Here we list the Spa-Plus cover care item alongside the rest of the spa and hot tub consumables, so a bottle of cover cleaner can be added to the same order as filter cartridges, seals, pillow clips or test strips. Keeping maintenance chemicals and spare parts in one place saves ordering twice when a service visit turns up more than one job.

Covers are stocked here because they fail predictably and expensively. A cover that is cleaned, kept out of standing water and checked for waterlogging will usually outlast one that is simply left alone, and 500 ml of cleaner goes a long way on a domestic spa. If you are unsure whether a product suits your cover material, check the label or ask before applying it to a large area.