Scandinavian Hot Tubs: The Nordic Wood Fired Soak, and How to Bring It Home

Scandinavian Hot Tubs: The Nordic Wood Fired Soak, and How to Bring It Home

A Scandinavian hot tub is a wood fired soak taken outdoors, often between rounds in the sauna and a cold dip. Here is where the tradition comes from, what makes the experience, and how to bring it home.

The Cabin Hot Tub Guide: Power, Access, Water and Winter

The Cabin Hot Tub Guide: Power, Access, Water and Winter

Power or none, how often you are there, how it gets in, the water, leaving it empty and winter.
Fire and the Wood Fired Hot Tub: Fire Pits, Smoke, Firewood and Fire Bans

Fire and the Wood Fired Hot Tub: Fire Pits, Smoke, Firewood and Fire Bans

Space between tub and fire pit, smoke that drifts away, dry wood within reach, and a plan for fire season.
Outdoor Kitchen and Hot Tub: How to Plan the Two Together

Outdoor Kitchen and Hot Tub: How to Plan the Two Together

Two zones a few steps apart: how to lay out a kitchen and a hot tub so they become one evening.
Cabins With Hot Tubs: 11 Places to Stay With an AlumiTub

Cabins With Hot Tubs: 11 Places to Stay With an AlumiTub

Eleven lodges, cabins and resorts where you can book a soak, from the Yukon to the Catskills.
Landscaping Around a Hot Tub: Base, Paths, Planting and Privacy

Landscaping Around a Hot Tub: Base, Paths, Planting and Privacy

Start underfoot and work outward: base, paths, drainage, planting, privacy and light.
Hot Tub vs Sauna: How They Differ, and Why Owners Build Both

Hot Tub vs Sauna: How They Differ, and Why Owners Build Both

Dry heat in short rounds, or a long soak with the view. How they compare, and how to plan both side by side.
How to Choose a Hot Tub: Seven Decisions, in Order

How to Choose a Hot Tub: Seven Decisions, in Order

Seven decisions, in the order that makes the rest easy: who uses it, size, heating, site, materials, water care and longevity.
Cedar Hot Tub Maintenance: Caring for the Wood Through the Seasons

Cedar Hot Tub Maintenance: Caring for the Wood Through the Seasons

No oil, no sealant. Let it silver or tone it any shade, avoid copper, and give it a little attention each season.
An Off-Grid Island Cottage in Minaki, Ontario

An Off-Grid Island Cottage in Minaki, Ontario

A Large Wood Fired on the deck of an off-grid island cottage in Minaki, Ontario: filled from the lake, used most summer days, and closed up for a minus 40 winter with a routine worth copying.

About the Hot Tub Journal

The Hot Tub Journal is AlumiTubs' guide to outdoor living with a cedar hot tub, whatever heats it. It covers choosing between wood fired, electric and hybrid heating; sizing a tub and what one costs to run; where to put it, from a city deck to an island cabin, and how it gets there; what an electric hot tub needs from a site and how the equipment is housed; how a wood burning hot tub works and how long it takes to heat; onsen rituals, cold plunges and soaking after a workout; and what it is like to own a tub for twenty years, told by the people who do. Most of it is written for anyone weighing up a hot tub, not only an AlumiTub owner.

Every AlumiTub is a riveted 5052 marine-grade aluminum structure clad in Canadian Western Red Cedar, handcrafted on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia since 2001 and backed by a 25 year structural warranty. Three heating systems share the same tub: the Electric, which holds a set temperature on a schedule and needs no fire; the Wood Fired, which needs no power and heats a Standard in about three hours; and the Hybrid, which does both. Water care has its own home in the Water Care Academy.

Start with the guide to heating options, hot tub dimensions and sizes, or the electric cedar hot tub.