Do you open your garage door by hand ?
We guess no.
If this is you, why not add the same comfort to your spa?
With a foldaway automatic spa cover lifter.
Foldaway is a fully automatic electric lift system for standard covers on spas, hot tubs and pools. The patented system moves the original cover to a position behind the spa with the turn of a key. No heavy construction around, no roof above, no wet cover in your neck. The new model is stronger, smarter and makes life definitely easier.
Here our story begins. Why didn´t we talk about the cover in the showroom ?
We agree - the cover is something you should think about since nobody talks about in the show room. You buy a spa, a pool or a hot tub and you will get some square feet of heavy foam for free. After a while the cover gets even more heavy from soaked water and it gets dirty, like anything you install outside. A typical foam cover gains around 25% weight in year one, depending on design and pool location.
What we have seen so far..
Gazebos are heavy duty installations around and above your pool. Some involve electrical lifting and replace your standard cover, some do cost more than your hot tub. In any case you will end up underneath a canopy, maybe a stylish one but still a canopy.
Roll Up Covers entered the market together with swim spas. Covers like on hot tubs are more than twice as heavy when installed on a swim spa and the height of a typical swim spas makes everything more challenging. A roll up cover requires cleaning the complete cover area before starting roll action from inside.
Mechanical devices are sold under many different names and are among the cheapest solutions for cover handling. A fragile framework that uses the cover itself to sync action. Some assist with hydraulic actuators but all require gust lock handling, lifting and pushing the front cover all over. The package then plunges into a fixed parking position behind the spa.
Does your hot tub come with molded stairs inside ? If not, embedding is maybe not a good idea. Stepping in will be difficult since hot tubs are generally not designed to be lowered into the ground due to limited access to service areas. The same is true for decks that slide across embedded tubs. Even more space and rails to clean.
The foldaway electric spa cover lifter is different in many ways.
The cover is lifted in perfect sync to a parking position of your choice.
The patented mechanism lifts and folds the cover elements simultanuously in one orbital movement. foldaway starts lifting the front cover very gentle and continues its travel upwards. Debries and contamination (up to a certain amount) fall off behind the spa and never into the water. The cover is lifted from and lowered on the spa surface without horizontal movement means without scratching. Parking position depends on pool height, cover size and site conditions. Simply stop cover movement where suitable.
The patented folding sequence.
The illustration above shows an opening sequence on a typical hot tub. From fully closed to fully open in less than 30 seconds. Any position in between can be used as parking position. foldaway is the missing link between pool and pool cover, we use existing structures and add automation to available components, similar to the electric drive on your garage door.
Different pool, different parking position.
The cover can basically park on either side of the pool. In the illustration above the cover folds to a parking position behind the pool, folding along the long side.
New foldaway full integral arm with 24V DC drive, sensors and spa size selector.
Polyurethane platform
The lifter arm is a major part in the foldaway system. Molded from UL outdoor rated black Polyurethane they match all spa cabinet colors, surface is micro textured and passed intensive UV test. There is no coating and no maintenance beside cleaning with fresh water. The equivalent of 6 years direct UV exposure caused no significant deterioration.
New foldaway Key Panel with interchangeable Silicon front.
A turnkey solution.
Lift operation is simple and safe. Push the safety button and simultanuously turn the key. Once the lift started to move the cover, the button may be released. There is no need to watch out for travel limits beyond normal supervision duties when operating a spa power cover.
The foldaway controller knows and continuously learns loads and adapts to normal wear and weight changes of a cover that soaks water over time. A green LED in the key panel indicates a correctly closed spa. You can stop in position between fully closed and fully parked.
The complete panel has been tested for direct sun light, rain, snow, frost and salt spray conditions and meets ASTM F1346 requirements for covers on pools, spas and hot tubs.
New foldaway Controller
Lift a water soaked cover from behind the spa and stop on a towel at the same time ?
Correct, a 32 Bit ARM Cortex microprocessor holds a three dimensional picture of your lifter installation in memory. foldaway uses no physical sensors instead we rely on a virtual map generated during the lifter setup and real time signal processing. Algorithms have been developed and improved over the last 14 years. The operator controls the lifter at any time.
The controller tracks the arm position and assigns load limits to programmed sectors between parked and fully closed. Each sector offers a set of unique algorithms performing different tasks at the same time, e.g. position error elimination, arm synchronization, envelope protection and more.
The foldaway controller detects overcurrents, short circuits, stuck motors, broken wires, over temperature, over and under voltage, lost sync between arm pairs, obstacles and even a faulty key switch.
A green/red LED next to each coded connector gives a quick good/bad feedback on the attached component. All system parameters and connected components are permanently monitored for a safe operation.
A build in Low Energy Bluetooth On Demand Access Point allows updates of the controller firmware without the need to open the spa. Enable the Wifi Access Point on the key panel and read logs, power curves, modify parameters and monitor system health.
We care about costs and maintenance.
1/2 Components = 1/2 Costs
A single spa cover requires only two motors and therefore only two power stages. Less parts mean less costs.
Integrated cable management and moisture control.
All cables going in and out pass a new rubber gasket. This gasket seals off the housing and clamps all cables at the same time as soon as the lid is screwed to the lower base. A vent in the base controls moisture.
No more loose cables.
No more installation errors.
No more condensation.
Intelligent Setup without app
The controller auto-detects connected components and adapts the setup menu accordingly. Spa size and cover weight are auto-setup. The dynamic LED island will acknowledge a completed step and move to the next one automatically. Not required steps are not enabled.
24V DC SELV
Power supply is modular, you attach what you really need. foldaway supports 1 to 4 power supplies attached to the controller and does power distribution automatically. Number of supplies depends on cover size and weight.
After five years of development the new foldaway lifter is ready.
foldaway was shown in 2011 for the first time. A few months later foldaway was available in 30 countries. We took the feedback from our selected dealers very serious and the result is a radical new design. The new foldaway lifter is designed to automotive standards, has significant less parts, allows a faster installation with no additional device needed and shows no deterioration after thousands of hours in simulated sunlight.
You are a spa pro or even manufacturer interested in our product ? Leave a message and we will contact you.
Split cover on a Swim spa.
