Duck Brand Stairway Attic Cover, Energy Saving Attic Insulation Cover Fits Openings up to 25.5 Inches by 54 Inches for Year-Round Weatherization, Black, 286209

When it comes to sealing off your attic, you apparently have two options. You can either put a tent over the ladder door just like this one. Or you can get an aluminum monstrosity which you have to staple gun in place. If you think through where and how you would have to reach to staple that in place, you can see that the tent is by far the easier option. Also, you can move the tent out of the way whereas the aluminum option will forever leave a tall border you will need to cross. Again, tent for the win.There is absolutely positively no question that this item works. Even as I was putting it in place, I felt the sudden shift from feeling “attic air” to feeling the cooler “house air”.As I type, it is July in Florida. And what a July it is, even for Florida. We have routinely been having 95 degree days, which is unusual even for here. Our AC just can't keep up with that. By sunset, our AC was typically reading 3 degrees higher than whatever it was set at. We tented the attic door yesterday morning. Our AC kept up all day – a first!The directions are both detailed and incomplete, so here is my version:HOW TO SET UP THE TENTThis works very much like a child's tent or a ball pit. You assemble the two poles. (Most of that work is already done for you; you just have to line everything up so it's connected properly.) You will have one long pole and one short pole. Start with either one, but know what you're starting with because the short pole will need to go UNDER the long pole.Find the fabric tube which you will need to thread the pole through. This is on the black side. It can be a little hard to spot, so look for it. Then thread one pole through. Place one end into the little pocket. The other end will be far more challenging. This took more effort than with any other item like this that I have ever assembled, but we eventually got it. Repeat with the other pole.Only after you have it all assembled will you want to make the trek up the attic ladder. At that point, the biggest challenge is just getting it through the attic door. Lining it up and positioning it was a breeze. There's really nothing to it. It just sits in place perfectly. No real need to fuss with the border. That just did what it was supposed to do all on its own.BOTTOM LINE: Get it! You'll be glad you did.

Product was somewhat easy to put together, although adjustable rods weren't as easy to bend into place as advertised. Cover fits perfectly over attic stairway opening, and is easy to remove when needing access to attic. Put in place during hot summer months when attic fan blows hot air through stairway opening, and it seems to greatly reduce, if not eliminate, that. Cover does seem to guard against high temperatures in the attic coming down into the house, but not as much as I would like. Temp in attic is 105°+, temp directly below cover is 93°. Cover could be insulated a little more to reduce the amount of heat seepage. Overall satisfied with product.

This keeps the dusty old wood attic smell out of my living space. I did use a few thumb tacks through the flaps to keep it in place when closing the attic door hatch. You just slide the poles through the fabric, end to end in an X and it forms a little tent. To access the attic I just take out the thumb tacks, and then pop the tent up and over into some space to the side. 10/10 would recommend.

I was having an issue with the hot attic air coming through the attic door and heating up my house. Bought and installed this. I don't have that issue anymore. It does a great job at separating the attic from the rest of your house.

Replaced an attic cover that was made with fiberglass insulation. This cover fits much better and doesn’t leave the mess that the insulation did (ladder mechanism poked holes in the insulation).

The instructions are plain and simple. However, there is one detail they left out. You need to form an X with the flexible rods to create the proper structure. Took me a few minutes to figure out where the "channels" where to place the rods. A different colored fabric would have been nice. Then about 5-10 minutes to assemble it without the X which was not going to work. Then about 10 minutes to dis-assemble it and re-assemble it. Not difficult.Using a B&D Thermal leak detector, I measure before and after. I did wait for 20 minutes after closing the attic stairs to measure the after. Before the temperature dropped about 5 (F) between the wall and the attic opening. After maybe about 4 degrees. Not much of a difference. Might need to wait longer, for the heat that is leaking through the opening to collect under the tent structure and back up or at least start to mingle.

Hard to assemble because the rods needed to bend so much to be inserted into the tent edges.

This product paid for itself the first month in energy savings. It helps prevent hot air from escaping the attic to the cooled living space in the summer, and prevents heated air from escaping to the cold air of the attic in the winter. I have kept data each month since I bought this product and compared my energy usage since I bought it to my energy use for the two prior years when I didn’t have it. My thermostat temperature has remained the same. My kilowatt hours use have gone down in the summer and my therms use have gone down in the winter. I bet I have saved hundreds of dollars in the one year I have had it. Great value for the money and so glad I bought it.