A Long Hot Summer

Soothe aching limbs or just relax with family or friends in your very own hot tub

Hot tubs are brilliant things. They’re great for massages, hydrotherapy and relaxation; they can help ease aches and pains after exercise or from conditions such as arthritis; they’re fantastic stress busters and sleep helpers; and big ones are brilliant for socialising with friends and family.

How much do they cost?

The cheapest hot tubs are inflatable ones, running from around £300 to £1,500. Inflatables are usually but not always circular and they have a padded base and a fairly basic heating and inflation system. Like hard-shell hot tubs you’ll need a solid, level place to put them. Inflatables are a great option for occasional use but they’re not designed to be used constantly or left outside all year round. Hard-shell tubs cost more but are much tougher and generally bigger too. Prices start at around £3,000 and go up depending on the materials you prefer and the features you want: some have more entertainment technology in them than the average house. Hard-shell tubs are usually insulated, making them more energy efficient, and you’ll generally get a better selection of jets, lights and other features. Hard-shell tubs are permanent structures designed to sit outside all year long and aren’t easily moved or stored.

Should you rent or buy?

This question is rather like asking whether you should rent or buy a car: it depends on how often you’ll use it. Renting means you’re only paying for the time you’ll actually be using the hot tub, so if you only think you’ll need it for a few weeks in the summer that’s obviously much cheaper than buying the hot tub outright. Many hire places

will hire you a hot tub for periods as short as a weekend. But longer term hire starts getting expensive. For example, a six-seater hot tub that’s £4,200 to buy may be around £900 a month to hire. You’ll find many rental firms offer repeat customer discounts but if you and your family or friends are water babies, buying is often the more cost-effective option. You’ll find that some retailers offer hire before you buy schemes, particularly for more expensive models. It’s effectively a hot tub test drive, enabling you and your family to put a particular tub through its paces before you commit to buy.

How do I make a hot tub safe for kids?

Hot tubs are perfectly safe for kids over 5 – experts strongly advise against letting under-5s use hot tubs, even for a short time – but there are a few things to remember. First of all, don’t leave young children without adult supervision, even for a moment, and if any children have long hair tie it back or up so it can’t get caught by the filter system. Secondly, turn the temperature down and don’t let them stay in too long: little bodies can’t tolerate hot water as well or for as long as grownups, so don’t go beyond 35ºC and 15 minutes at a time. And thirdly, make sure the cover is secure when the hot tub isn’t in use, so that younger children can’t open it when you’re not around. The single most important thing you can do for safety is to ensure that you use the correct amount of chlorine and clean it regularly in accordance with the manufacturer’s or supplier’s instructions.

What maintenance is involved?

Generally speaking, permanent hot tubs with automatic filtration need very little maintenance; if the filtration isn’t automatic you should run it a couple of times a day to keep the water circulating. If it’s covered you should open the cover daily to let gases escape, and you’ll want to use pH strips weekly to ensure the water isn’t getting too acidic or alkaline. If your hot tub is in regular use you should rinse the filter(s) weekly and clean them monthly with a hot tub filter solution, and the water should be fully drained and the lines flushed several times a year. None of these things are particularly time-consuming but it is important that you do them to keep bacteria at bay.

I’m sold. What do I do now?

To find out what’s available in your area, Hot Tub Chooser (www.hottubchooser.co.uk) is a comparison site specifically for hot tubs. Tell it what you’re looking for and it’ll show the available options from retailers near you. Miami Spas Excalibur 7 Seater Hot Tub, £6,999 from miamispas.co.uk

Lay-Z-Spa Vegas inflatable hot tub. £830 from amazon.co.uk