Think about what you do when you get to the parking garage.  You park your car.  You turn off the engine. You check your lovely grin in the mirror.  You grab your purse or your papers or your shopping list or whatever you need to take with you.  Finally, you close the door and lock it.

Close.

Lock.

Safe.

Yes, that last step is pretty important.  You don’t just leave the door open.  Why?  Because anything can get in or out. (Don’t look at me funny like that; how would I know what you keep in your car?)  Closing the door means that until you return, you know that no would-be burglar, speed-happy teenage joy-rider or curious animal will just mosey on into your car.

Close and Lock the Hot Tub

In your backyard, you have a vehicle, too.  It’s called a hot tub…and it can take you places that your car simply can’t.  It can carry you off to a world of relaxation, perhaps in a planet the other side of Elsewhere.

And when you return from that trip – back in your back yard – there are certain steps you take.  You grab your towel.  You step out (maybe do those two things in the reverse order?).  You grab your drink or your crossword puzzle, and you head into your house.  Oh, wait…before heading into your house, you put the cover on your hot tub.

Close.

Lock.

Safe.

Just like your car, you don’t want to let anything in or out while you are away. (Stop looking at me funny.)

What might fall in while you are in the house or out running errands?

• Leaves blowing in from nearby trees and bushes
• Trash blowing in the wind (the more debris, the more chemicals you need to use, the more frequently you need to clean, and the more often you’ll need to replace the filter, which might not work as well as it should with all the debris accumulating.)
• Creepy crawly things (Yuck!  Bugs!)
• Small animals (You don’t want to wake up to a dead skunk in your hot tub, do you?)
• Children (Yes, just like swimming pools, hot tubs can drown a small child who wanders in by mistake.)
• Vandals, who are just wandering the neighbourhood looking to make mischief

What might escape from the hot tub while you’re gone?  I know, I know – you’re looking at me funny again.  But you do keep something in your hot tub that can escape…two things, in fact: heat and money.

Keep Heat and Money Hostage

You spend quite a bit of money heating your hot tub.  Even when you turn down the heat during the week or while you are away, keeping the hot tub hot is a fairly costly proposition.  Leaving your tub exposed allows the heat to escape in several ways:

• The wind blows across the hot tub and cools the water.
• The sun evaporates the water, which needs then to be replaced and heated.
• The night air also cools down the water, along with everything else.
• Steam may rise, taking heat with it.

As heat escapes, so, too, does your money.  There it goes.  Bye-bye money.  The more heat escapes, the more money it costs to reheat the water.  So a hot tub cover is not just an investment in keeping all sorts of unwanted items, creatures and people from falling into your hot tub.  It is also an investment in lowering your hot tub energy costs.  In fact, when you look at the net cost, a hot tub cover costs you nothing; it actually makes you money.

If you own an outdoor spa or hot tub,buying a cover is a no-brainer decision.  There are many styles to choose from, and they can easily be custom-fitted for any size or shape of tub.  Whatever your spa is, wherever it is located, a hot tub cover is a wise investment.  Close it.  Lock it.  Keep it safe.

And if you hear banging on the cover coming from inside your hot tub, just remember…I really don’t want to know what – or whom – you keep in your hot tub.