How much does it cost to run a spa/hot tub?

[Polotoo]

Hello all, wondered if any A-Bers out there had a spa/hot tub in their garden, and if so how much does it cost to run a day? (Roughly)

I'm thinking of buying one for those long summer evenings, do you use yours regularly? Is it a good investment, as they are quite expensive to buy!

Any info welcomed, thanks a lot. Polotoo

[Buenchico]

I've no personal experience of garden hot tubs but there's a very useful article here:
http://www.findaproperty.com/story.aspx?*******=5858
The estimated cost of running a 4-person hot tub is given as only 75p per day but the information is 2 years old and energy prices are rising steeply so it might be better to think in terms of �1 per day.

Chris

[Buenchico]

Grrr! I hate it when AB does that. The link, above, contains the letters y, i & d in order and AB's censorship system thinks that I'm being anti-semitic!

Go to this page instead:
http://www.findaproperty.com/storylist0007.html
The features are in reverse date order. Scroll down until you get to 12 Mar 2004. Then click on 'Beginners' Guides: Hot Tubs'.

Chris

[Polotoo]

Hi Chris

I can always rely on you to find the answer! A very useful chap to know!!

Thanks a lot, the article's really helpful, gonna have a sit down and work out the finances this weekend. so fingers crossed in a couple of weeks we'll be splashing around in a tub!

Cheers!

[suzydiamond]

We have been running a Bestway Layzspa during the summer for a few years now and it costs around �1 a day. When you first have your tub it takes about 2 days to get it up to temperature (between 35 and 40 dependent on your preference). Once you are at your desired temperarature we have found it takes about 1/2 hours a day of heating to maintain. If you don't go in for a few days and don't put the heater on and the temperature drops it takes longer to heat it up again and costs more so we tend to heat it for an hour a day even if we don't go in.
We've found the tub a great way to spend the evening and popular with family and friends. Filters need to be changed about once a fortnight if there's only the two of us using it - but we have found that the more visitors we have the more often we have to change it. Replacement filters and chlorine are bought relatively cheap off ebay (though you will find them in lots of places).
That's the good side - the bad side is that we are now on our third tub. The very first one we had had a puncture when delivered, though Bestway did replace it after some messing. Then the heater element packed up on our pump - and it turned out cheaper to buy a whole new spa than to but a replacement heater (you will find many threads on this topic on the 'net). This season we got it out of storage and found a mouse had kindly chewed holes in the tub for us - the patches sold by Bestway for punctures don't do the job (or haven't for us).

All in all we are not really unhappy because we'vehad so much pleasure out of them. At an average of �300 purchase price if you buy from the right place at the right time you get a whole summer's entertainment out of them. We've toyed with the idea of a permanent spa - cost �3K and upwards - but like we said we can have a brand new inflatable every year for 10 years for that cost, and change our mind every year about where we want to locate it in the garden.