When we had a popup, we kept it covered. We had Adco, and some other brand I can't remember. 2-3 years was all we got out of them even with patching them. One no-name lasted 3 months and literally fell apart. We got a refund and bought an Adco. We decided that even though we like to protect the finish, on a cost/year basis and the fact that it is kind of a PITA to uncover and recover it every time we use it, we decided to not cover our Lance. We'll see in a few years whether we think we were smart or not.