HEATWAVE Low Mount Spa Cover Lift – Compatible with Rectangular/Square Spas up to 8 ft Wide – Easy to Use Hot Tub Cover Lifter with Durable Power Coated Steel & Adjustable Spacers - Black

After reading the mixed reviews, I wasn't sure what to believe but I decided to give it a try since the other lifts cost so much more and I figured that I could probably work around some of the issues others raised, if in fact I ran into those same issues. I'm glad I did decide to try it. The lift was not hard to install, the quality is good, and I've had it installed for a few weeks now and it works great.My take on some of the issues raised-The instructions are not difficult to follow. In fact, it doesn't seem fair to even say anything other than that they are good instructions. I had no trouble whatsoever following the instructions. All I can assume is that these must have been updated since all the negative reviews were written. There's no way these are the same instructions people have complained about, they are fine.To the fellow who hasn't installed his and is sure it won't clear the back of the tub, you don't have to install the bracket parallel to the ground. I angled mine at only about 5 degrees leaning downward toward the hinge and it clears the tub just fine.As far as getting a wrench inside the bracket, it wasn't necessary to turn it more than about 1/16th of a turn to get it tight, so just put the wrench on the nut then turn the pin by hand until it's snug, then use the wrench. I had no trouble with that and it was not necessary to put the pin in a vice or even in pliers since it is thick enough to get a good grip on by hand. It doesn't have to be as tight as Dick's hatband, there's no torque on the pin once it's installed, you just want to get it snug so it won't back out.The arms that go up and over the cover are not predrilled, so get a good high quality drill bit, you'll need to drill quite a few holes. The upside of this is that it will fit pretty much any top within the specs of the lifter. One tip I would pass along- when you go to drill the vertical arms, this will determine where the crossbar falls over the cover. Be sure to err on the side of being short of the joint in your cover when you drill the arms. You want the crossbar to lie along a parallel plane about 4 inches toward the hinge side. That will allow you to fold the cover over it without rubbing the cover and causing wear.One thing that is really bad, almost inexcusably bad, is the quality of the screws included with the lifter. Luckily I keep boxes of torx head screws around because phillips head screws strip so easily. I had most of the screws I needed but nothing I could use in place of the ones for the arms and the crossbar, so I used the junk ones included with the set, which was dumb. A quick trip to the local hardware store would have well worth it since one of the cheap self tapping screws snapped into pieces as I was pushing it in with my drill and I ended up sending the screw about 4 turns into my palm. I had to literally unscrew it from my hand to get it out and it still hasn't fully healed after about 10 days.So buy this lifter if you are feeling a little confused about the reviews like I was. It is good quality, the instructions are not hard (I installed mine one evening after dinner), but take the bag of screws to the local hardware store and get some help and buy high quality screws. You'll be happy with this lifter, I know I am. It's such a pleasure to not have to wrestle with that cover anymore, and what a great price! I spent $100 less than I planned! Gotta love that.

I guardedly purchased this lift cover after reading all of the reviews about the difficulty of installation. Like another purchaser I figured for the price, I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did. I will concede I may have been more careful because of the reviews and I will say the pictures are a little dark but I really didn't have any problems at all. The pieces were easily identified to the parts list. The steps of installation were clear. The brackets are easily identifiable. Bracket placement is a little ambiguous "horizontally, with the angle mounted on the radius of the spa". But with the clear drawing and even the dark picture, it made sense to me (I did use a different bit than recommended, just under the mounting screw diameter, for the pilot holes). Maybe because I saved my drinking for later in the day? I also put together a "landing support" for the cover to sit on when open because it does seem like a lot of weight to be hanging free. But other than that, so far so good. I'll update if things go South.

Once installed this lift works just fine. I found that the metal bracket where it attaches to the spa was a little bit poorly designed in that, unless you have a seriously thin walled socket, you cannot use a ratchet on the nuts on the backside to secure the hinge assembly and the bumper. I elected to use the normal nuts on the front side of these two items as a head for my impact gun to attach to and secured the nuts on the back with a wrench. I also elected to use the four Nylock nuts on the hinge and use the normal nuts on the bumper, as the hinge would be the part that moves and more likely to loosen a nut, as they did not supply any lockwashers.Using a quarter inch impact I did not find it necessary to pre-drill any of the holes for the metal bars as the instructions suggested, as they provided self tapping screws that worked just fine. I also found that, in my case, the screws for the radius part of the bracket assemblies merely went into the foam and provided no support whatsoever, so I will likely be replacing those with longer screws that can go all the way into the wood behind.As this is a one-size-fits-all contraption, the height that the cover will sit once removed will vary from tub to tub. My roughly 79 inch square spa left the cover sticking up about a foot over the edge of the spa. That’s fine, as the lift made removal much easier and keeps the cover off the ground so that the vinyl does not get damaged by my concrete pad.Improvements could be made. I hope that the company that makes these sees my review, as I believe the hinge point and the bumper could be spread out a bit to allow the cover to move a little farther away from the spa. Also, the little rubber caps that they provide to go over the screws are absolutely useless, even though I tried to secure them with black RTV they popped off as soon as the cover was manipulated. Those things suck! Also, the directions were extremely well written, but very poorly printed. They should be much larger, and it’s obvious they were supposed to be in color but did not get printed that way. That would’ve been helpful.Nevertheless, I’m happy with the product and installation was easy enough.