What hottub!?

[Superleg48]

PushedDover said:

Superleg48 said:

PushedDover said:

Superleg48 said:

PushedDover said:

My untrained eye suggests style / substance ratio needs addressing
I’d also mot touch a 13A personally

Why not?

Because they lack the ability to heat whilst giving any meaningful jets or pumping.

We have a 13A and it works just fine on both counts.

I stand corrected then- my understanding is for any decent heating and pumping you’re gonna need a bigger current draw

It is the subjectiveness of “decent” that matters. We had a Hotspring that drew 16amps, had two pumps (single speed and a 2 speed). The jets and full throttle actually became uncomfortable after more than around 15 mins of battering against your body. Our new one, which is 13amps has a single 2 speed pump, which at full throttle is more than enough power and you can sustain the battering a bit better. I tend to only ever have the pumps on low as that is much more relaxing.

In terms of heater performance, we set the tub at 39C and you can sit in the Tub for well over an hour and the temp will drop to about 38 or 37.5C even if you run jets periodically during that time, so never gets “cold” so to speak. If the ambient temp is warmer, that loss is slowed over a longer period of time.

It is generally recommended that you don’t sit in a Tub for hours on end anyway, so we find the overall performance of 13amps just fine for how we use it.

[PushedDover]

Ok

So that sounds like it won’t use pumps and heat at the same time as I said?

[Superleg48]

PushedDover said:

Ok

So that sounds like it won’t use pumps and heat at the same time as I said?

No the heater is heating all the time the pump runs creating a flow of water through the heater unit. When not in use, the pump will engage low speed when temp drops by more than 0.5C as in my case there is no separate circulation pump. When in use, the heater will heat when the pump is running.

For sure I agree that 16amp or higher unit will be more efficient, but my disagreement was the blanket statement where you would avoid 13amp because they are not up to the job, which was the inference. I guess it is like comparing a small engine car with e large engine car. Both can be extremely capable of what they do, but the larger engine car does it easier as it has more power.

Anyway, we are happy with ours, having directly compared a 16amp Hotspring tub with our new Palm Spas 13amp tub. Each to their own I guess.

[greengreenwood7]

FWIW - i've just been doing the rounds on all this; 13amp vs 32amp, makes, models etc etc.

We decided to get one to see whether it helps with Mrs recovering from a broken knee - so for therapeutic more than just lazing in the sun.

TBH, I got frustrated with the long lead-in times that so many suppliers had - 8-16weeks. Plus i'm not sure in truth how much use it'll get, so was loathe to 'invest' big £'s.
For us running a 32amp supply was a minor hassle, as its a bungalow and we could go straight in through a gable/loft and drop into the consumer unit cupboard. Had that done yesterday. That opened up a number of different options.

Found a company selling 2nd hand units, many of which were/are known brands. So Thurs we're due to get a Hotsprings Aria delivered, at the price we paid i can't see that we should lose a whole heap if its a 5 minute wonder.....18k new, a shade over 5k delivered, warrantied ( hopefully we wont need to test that).

OP - maybe that's an alternative route for you?

[PushedDover]

I got an Ex Demo Jacuzzi delivered within the week - and their 0% finance is a softener

Tried Jacuzzi dealer? We used Jacuzzi Manchester, can pm you the sales fella details..

[8bit]

Question for the fellow Lay-Z-Spa owners - any idea how much your electricity bills have jumped since you bought your spa? I got a shock when I worked ours out last night, we've had our tub for three months now and comparing the electricity usage for each month with the same month last year, we're up about £100/month on average. That's quite a bit more than I was expecting, thought it would be in the order of £50-£60/month.

Wondered if I can get some sort of additional cover with some sort of thermal insulation lining to fit over the top to reduce heat loss, found this which looks like it might be OK - https://controlla.co.uk/product/insulated-and-weat...

Anyone got one of those or something similar? Seems pricey for what it is but I guess if it works well then it'll pay for itself and then some.

[Rampant Golf]

Julietbravo said:

Has anyone got one of the wood fired ones? The ones that look like a barrel with the flue running up the side.

I'm about 12 months into ownership of our wood-fired hot tub. Findings in that time:

Good:

- Love the fact we use freshwater rather than chemically treated water
- It takes 1 hour to fill it and 2 to heat it to 37 degrees
- I live next to a forest so I have access to free wood
- Our electricity bills have gone down as we spend more time outside watching the stars not sat inside playing ps4 or watching tv with the lights on
- The temperature is very easy to regulate - chuck a log on and close the dampner. It'll tick over for hours and lose very little heat
- The price. <£4k

Bad:
- It takes a bit of forward-thinking - you cannot just jump in.
- you do need to empty it after a weekend of use. I can drain it into a bit of waste ground but i can imagine it would be a pain if you had to drain 800 litres into a normal drain
- you need a fair amount of wood. It has to burn full bore for 2 hours to get it up to temperature. I use a wheelbarrow of wood each time
- The features are not as good as some of the electric ones - temp control, waterfalls, back masage etc.
- Its a bit on the small side if you wanted any more than 4 adults in there. Fine for me but something to consider.

https://www.auldtonstoves.co.uk/product/deluxe-woo...

[brake fader]

8bit said:

Question for the fellow Lay-Z-Spa owners - any idea how much your electricity bills have jumped since you bought your spa? I got a shock when I worked ours out last night, we've had our tub for three months now and comparing the electricity usage for each month with the same month last year, we're up about £100/month on average. That's quite a bit more than I was expecting, thought it would be in the order of £50-£60/month.

Wondered if I can get some sort of additional cover with some sort of thermal insulation lining to fit over the top to reduce heat loss, found this which looks like it might be OK - https://controlla.co.uk/product/insulated-and-weat...

Anyone got one of those or something similar? Seems pricey for what it is but I guess if it works well then it'll pay for itself and then some.

We have a lay-z- spa i found that placing the spa on a piece of the foam stuff you use for sleeping on whilst camping out it's about half a inch thick, helps keep the heat in over night, i also put a piece on top of the water as well, it heats up for about 5 hours a day starting at 2 pm its ok then for a dip in the evening, i find this keeps the bill down quite a lot.

[Tye Green]

brake fader said:

8bit said:

Question for the fellow Lay-Z-Spa owners - any idea how much your electricity bills have jumped since you bought your spa? I got a shock when I worked ours out last night, we've had our tub for three months now and comparing the electricity usage for each month with the same month last year, we're up about £100/month on average. That's quite a bit more than I was expecting, thought it would be in the order of £50-£60/month.

Wondered if I can get some sort of additional cover with some sort of thermal insulation lining to fit over the top to reduce heat loss, found this which looks like it might be OK - https://controlla.co.uk/product/insulated-and-weat...

Anyone got one of those or something similar? Seems pricey for what it is but I guess if it works well then it'll pay for itself and then some.

We have a lay-z- spa i found that placing the spa on a piece of the foam stuff you use for sleeping on whilst camping out it's about half a inch thick, helps keep the heat in over night, i also put a piece on top of the water as well, it heats up for about 5 hours a day starting at 2 pm its ok then for a dip in the evening, i find this keeps the bill down quite a lot.

we also have one (Bahamas model) and drain every couple of days and refill when needed. it takes about 10 mins to drain and 30 mins to fill up ready to use hot via combi boiler. Edit: (we don't have a water meter!)

Edited by Tye Green on Tuesday 15th June 13:13

[Belle427]

brake fader said:

8bit said:

Question for the fellow Lay-Z-Spa owners - any idea how much your electricity bills have jumped since you bought your spa? I got a shock when I worked ours out last night, we've had our tub for three months now and comparing the electricity usage for each month with the same month last year, we're up about £100/month on average. That's quite a bit more than I was expecting, thought it would be in the order of £50-£60/month.

Wondered if I can get some sort of additional cover with some sort of thermal insulation lining to fit over the top to reduce heat loss, found this which looks like it might be OK - https://controlla.co.uk/product/insulated-and-weat...

Anyone got one of those or something similar? Seems pricey for what it is but I guess if it works well then it'll pay for itself and then some.

We have a lay-z- spa i found that placing the spa on a piece of the foam stuff you use for sleeping on whilst camping out it's about half a inch thick, helps keep the heat in over night, i also put a piece on top of the water as well, it heats up for about 5 hours a day starting at 2 pm its ok then for a dip in the evening, i find this keeps the bill down quite a lot.

I set ours up last week and bought the lay z spa foam tile base from b&q as it's supposed to help.
The supplied lid with ours makes a difference too.

[8bit]

Thanks all. I should have said, ours is already on a foam mat (maybe not as thick as 0.5") and we do keep the inflatable top cover on it whenever it's not in use. For those with similar tubs who answered, do you know roughly how much yours is costing in electricity per month?

I switched the heating function off about 6.30 last night as we weren't going to use it, it's lost about 5*C (down to 33 from the usual 38) in about 12 hours overnight. Just interested to see how quickly it loses heat and how quickly it heats back up if we were to switch the heating off when not in use and switch it on prior to use. Not sure how effective that strategy would be to reduce energy usage though - I said in a previous post, I found our hot-water underfloor heating in the dining kitchen extension actually uses less power just kept at a steady air temp in the room 24/7, rather than having a daytime and lower night time temperature settings.

[Silverage]

A friend of mine has recently got a hot tub and was a bit taken aback by the running costs. I recommended to her that she switch her electricity tariff to Octopus Go (I have this for my EV) to take advantage of the 5p per kwh rate for 4 hours each night.

[8bit]

Thanks for that, it's been on my radar to look for a cheaper provider, I'll get on it.

Another question around draining a Lay-Z-Spa tub. Ours has the stopper in the bottom which runs through a pipe out the side to attach a hose to. I tried that and ran the hose to a nearby drain and nothing came out. I guess that's because the drain was higher up than the bottom of the tub, I thought the weight of the water would push it through the hose but no.

Wondering about some sort of pump to use in between that drain pipe and the hose but struggling to find anything, surely there must be some sort of hozelock-compatible, electric, in-line pump for this purpose?

[Pheo]

8bit said:

Thanks for that, it's been on my radar to look for a cheaper provider, I'll get on it.

Another question around draining a Lay-Z-Spa tub. Ours has the stopper in the bottom which runs through a pipe out the side to attach a hose to. I tried that and ran the hose to a nearby drain and nothing came out. I guess that's because the drain was higher up than the bottom of the tub, I thought the weight of the water would push it through the hose but no.

Wondering about some sort of pump to use in between that drain pipe and the hose but struggling to find anything, surely there must be some sort of hozelock-compatible, electric, in-line pump for this purpose?

In-line would be a pita for priming. Chuck a water butt pump in there.

[snowandrocks]

Out of interest - are any of the electric tubs capable of maintaining temperature while in use?

We used one at a recent holiday cottage and the temperature dropped off quite quickly with the lid removed. The weather was relatively mild and calm - I like the idea of sitting surrounded by falling snow but slowly getting cold doesn't really appeal!

[8bit]

Pheo said:

In-line would be a pita for priming. Chuck a water butt pump in there.

Thanks, will look at those. I take it you mean a submersible one?

snowandrocks said:

Out of interest - are any of the electric tubs capable of maintaining temperature while in use?

We used one at a recent holiday cottage and the temperature dropped off quite quickly with the lid removed. The weather was relatively mild and calm - I like the idea of sitting surrounded by falling snow but slowly getting cold doesn't really appeal!

We found our Lay-Z-Spa only loses heat when you use the airjets, if you're just sitting in still water then it seems to hold temperature well at least for the 30min to an hour that we tend to use it for at a time. If I'm in on my own I'll use the jets more than my wife will. Sometimes after a while it will feel cooler than when you get in but I think that's just cos you get used to the temperature, like when you've been in a bath for a while.

[ObSceney]

snowandrocks said:

Out of interest - are any of the electric tubs capable of maintaining temperature while in use?

We used one at a recent holiday cottage and the temperature dropped off quite quickly with the lid removed. The weather was relatively mild and calm - I like the idea of sitting surrounded by falling snow but slowly getting cold doesn't really appeal!

13amp won't heat while the other pumps are in use but a 32amp will. Our hot hub supports both 13amp and 32amp, but we run it on 13amp as we don't generally stay in it for more than 30 minutes, so the heat loss is acceptable.

Edited by ObSceney on Wednesday 23 June 09:38

[Zoon]

snowandrocks said:

Out of interest - are any of the electric tubs capable of maintaining temperature while in use?

We used one at a recent holiday cottage and the temperature dropped off quite quickly with the lid removed. The weather was relatively mild and calm - I like the idea of sitting surrounded by falling snow but slowly getting cold doesn't really appeal!

You can't really beat Thermodynamics, although a large body of water should hold heat quite well.
If it's snowing and you are outside wet through there's only going to be one outcome.

[Steve Campbell]

8bit said:

Pheo said:

In-line would be a pita for priming. Chuck a water butt pump in there.

Thanks, will look at those. I take it you mean a submersible one?

We just use a "dirty water" submersible pump. You can get them for about £40 off amazon / screwfix etc. Cleans out our 1500L tub in about 15 mins and that's pumping over a 6ft 6 wall to drain.

[snowandrocks]

Zoon said:

You can't really beat Thermodynamics, although a large body of water should hold heat quite well.
If it's snowing and you are outside wet through there's only going to be one outcome.

I'm well aware of the physics but just wondered if there are electric models that have a powerful enough heater to maintain the set temperature.

I know from past experience with a wood fired heater that cold weather only improves the hot tub experience - that would quite happily boil you if you kept the fire stoked!

Thanks for the other replies - sounds like a 32A model might manage.