Are Hot Tubs Worth It? A Real Owner Perspective

Only if you use it. That is the whole answer, and it is why the question is worth asking properly. A hot tub that gets used four nights a week for a decade is one of the best things most people ever buy. One that runs for two summers and then sits under a cover is an expensive way to store water. The difference is rarely the tub. It is whether the tub fits how you actually live.

Here is what the decision comes down to, and what owners say once the novelty has long since worn off.

What you are actually buying

Not hot water. Somewhere to be. The owners who use theirs describe the same thing over and over: the tub became the place the evening ends, the reason the kids come up to the cabin, the spot where the conversation happens. That is the value, and it does not show up on a spec sheet.

Brought our family together. My kids come up to the cabin just to use the hot tub. It's our family staple and we've loved it for 8 years now.

Metallier

It's the absolute best buy we've ever made. When we get in the hot tub, we're just transported to a different place somehow. All of a sudden everything slows down, you can appreciate everything that's going on around you.

Chris and Susan Kelsey, Thetis Island BC

Owners at cabins and remote properties say it most strongly, because a soak after a day of hauling water or building a deck is not a luxury there. It is the reason to stay another day.

Day after a day of doing major repairs to our cabin, living in a construction zone with none of the usual comforts, we found a soak in the tub before bed to be absolute heaven.

Joanne McSporran, BC coast

What it actually costs to own

This is where a lot of hot tubs stop being worth it, so it is worth separating the kinds.

A conventional jetted spa draws power around the clock whether anyone soaks or not, needs a treatment routine to keep plumbing you cannot reach clean, and when a pump or heater fails inside the sealed cabinet, it is a service call. That standing cost is what turns a spa into something people resent.

A wood fired cedar tub, the wood burning kind, costs nothing when it is not in use. The running cost is firewood per soak, water per fill, and light water care if you hold water rather than draining after each visit. An electric cedar tub holds temperature on a schedule with a single quiet jet and equipment that sits in the cedar steps where you can reach it. What it costs to run goes through it line by line. Neither kind needs a crane to deliver or a contractor to install; an AlumiTub arrives pre-assembled, rolls into place at 200 to 300 lbs, and sets up in about an hour.

It's literally the lowest maintenance thing at our cabin. Durable, well-built, fast heating.

The Rural Runaway

What it asks of you

A wood fired tub asks you to plan. The fire goes on two or three hours before you soak, and someone has to split the wood. For people who want the ritual, that is the point; for people who want the water hot at 9pm on a Tuesday without thinking about it, it is a chore, and they should have the electric or the hybrid instead. Being honest about which person you are is the single most useful thing you can do before buying. The heating options guide exists for exactly that.

Any tub asks for water care. On an aluminum cedar tub that is four numbers tested a couple of times a week and a filter cleaned every fortnight, not a chemistry set. How hard a wood fired hot tub is to maintain is the honest version.

It gets used pretty much every weekend at Thetis Island, except when there is a complete fire ban. I try to stain the cover ever year, and the sides every other year.

Chris Kelsey, Thetis Island BC

How long it lasts

Worth it also depends on how many years you divide the price by. An acrylic spa is usually limited by its shell and electronics. An AlumiTub is a riveted marine-grade aluminum structure under replaceable cedar, with a 25 year structural warranty and owners writing in at nearly twenty years. We still supply parts for tubs built two decades ago.

We have happily been using our AlumiTub for nearly 20 years. I can't tell you about the countless happy hours we have spent in its warm confines.

Heidi and Bruce Reugg

When it is not worth it

Plainly: if you travel most weekends and the tub would sit at home. If nobody in the household wants to be the one who lights the fire, and you are buying wood fired anyway. If the site has no flat spot and no way to drain water. If you want massage jets and are buying a soaking tub, or want quiet and are buying a jetted spa. And if the budget only stretches to a tub that will need replacing in five years, in which case waiting is cheaper than buying twice.

So, are they worth it?

For the people who use them, without reservation, and the reasons are never about the tub. They are about the evening, the view, the kids who come up to the cabin, the neighbors who end up in it. Buy the kind that fits how you live, put it where you will see it every day, and it pays back in hours outside that would otherwise have been hours on a screen.

Nothing beats sitting in the hot tub under the stars surrounded by nothing but trees and snow.

Alex Boikoff

More owners, in their own words, at where AlumiTubs live. Sizes, heating options and the warranty are on the cedar hot tubs collection.

Common questions

Are hot tubs worth the money?

If you will use it regularly, yes, and owners consistently describe the value in terms of time outside and time together rather than the tub itself. The tubs that stop being worth it are the ones that do not fit how the household lives, or that carry a standing cost in electricity and servicing whether or not anyone soaks.

How much does a hot tub cost to run?

It depends entirely on the kind. A conventional jetted spa draws power continuously. A wood fired cedar tub costs nothing when unused and a bundle or two of firewood per soak. An electric cedar tub holds temperature on a schedule with good insulation, so the heater cycles rarely.

How long do hot tubs last?

An acrylic spa is usually limited by its shell and electronics. A cedar tub on a marine-grade aluminum structure carries a 25 year structural warranty, with owners at nearly twenty years of use and every component replaceable rather than sealed in.

Is a hot tub a lot of maintenance?

On an aluminum cedar tub, four water readings tested a couple of times a week, a filter cleaned every two weeks if the tub has one, and a drain and clean every three to four months. A wood fired tub used weekend by weekend can simply be filled, used and drained.