The Secret Life of Hot Tub Covers (Redux)
Did you know bears love hot tub covers, specifically the smell and taste of vinyl? For hot tub owners in rural settings, it’s true that bears will sometimes steal covers and take a dip in the war water while they’re at it.
By Eric Herman
Back in 2018, I wrote an article for AQUA Magazine discussing various hazards that can befall thermal spa/hot tub covers. It covered the mundane such as UV degradation and debris, as well as a number of prosaic pitfalls including falling tree limbs, kids using the cover as a trampoline or a dance floor for adults.
I also included a one of the most strangely delightful passages—how bears are attracted to vinyl and in some areas are known to destroy and/or steal covers for their own pleasure and use. Overall, it was an oddly fascinating discussion that unexpectedly links human and animal behavior. Bears also like soaking in hot tubs, an event that has been captured and gone viral on numerous occasions, presumably for much the same reason as we do–and the humans just can’t get enough of it.
It’s worth noting that hot tub covers perform a noble set of tasks, conserving heat energy while reducing evaporation, ensuring safety and keeping dirt and debris out, and the pristine water in. Cleaning and basic maintenance go a long way toward extending the life of a cover, but when it comes to properties visited by bears sometimes it’s best to let nature be nature.
From the original AQUA article:
Creature Discomforts
Although not a major issue in densely populated areas where bears are scarce, members of the animal kingdom do on occasion visit hot tubs located in more-natural settings or in areas bordering open country.
“Bears are a major issue in our area,” Juliet Phelps, co-owner of Ajax Pool & Spa in Aspen, CO, told me when I first explored this topic years ago. “I know it sounds strange, but it turns out that bears are attracted to the smell of vinyl because it’s similar to the scent of ant eggs, which they love. And based on what I’ve read, they can pick up the scent from a mile away. Also, they like to chew on covers because of the way it feels on their teeth. They come onto the property, rip the cover off and then you have a ‘soaker.’”
That was interesting enough and she was definitely on the right track, but more recently, scientists have determined conclusively that bears are highly attracted to formic acid, the compound ants use for defense (and what gives crushed ants their sharp smell). Vinyl, as it ages, can apparently mimic some of those olfactory notes—making your hot tub cover smell to a bear like an all-you-can-eat ant buffet wrapped in a giant chew toy.
According to Phelps, not only do bears enjoy having their way with vinyl, they also like to steal covers to use in their hibernation dens. “We’ve seen that especially on properties by streams and rivers where bears like to make their nests. They will remove the cover and drag it all the way down the hill to their den where they’ll sleep on it all winter.”
Try explaining that to your insurance company.
The only real solution in bear country, Phelps advises, is to turn to covers made with materials other than vinyl. Something a little less ant-like. Something less chewable. Something less… cozy.
Goldilocks & Other Squatters
But bears aren’t the only creatures that “poach” hot tubs.
“We also have an issue with Goldilocks,” Phelps adds. “Here in Aspen, where vacation homes often sit empty, it’s surprisingly common for uninvited human guests to let themselves into a backyard spa.” Unlike the bears, she explains, these two-legged intruders don’t want to eat your spa cover—they want to ignore it entirely. They slip it off, slip themselves in, and leave behind the kind of “evidence” you hope never to discover when you return to your mountain retreat.
“I’ll leave that to your imagination,” she says. And honestly, imagination is bad enough.
That’s why it’s important to have a secure locking mechanism on your cover. Not just for energy efficiency. Not just for safety. But to prevent the local fauna—and the local riffraff—from turning your spa into their personal lodge.
Perhaps there is something oddly humbling about the whole situation. No matter how carefully we engineer and install hot tubs, the natural world finds ways to intrude. Bears craving the ant-smell of vinyl. Goldilocks with poor hygiene.
It’s enough to make you wonder: maybe humans aren’t that different from the bears after all. They drag off spa covers for dens, we drag them off because we’re too lazy to fold them neatly. They chew on vinyl because it feels good on their teeth, we gnaw on pen caps for the same reason. They follow their noses; we follow our whims.
At the end of the day, whether it’s bear or human, everyone’s just looking for a warm soak. The hot tub’s cover’s job is simply to stand between your water and the world—and given what it’s up against, maybe it deserves a little more appreciation than it usually gets.
WaterShapes editor, Eric Herman, worked as senior editor for Aqua Magazine from 2011 to 2020.
Image by Stocksolutions | Shutterstock.