Why AlumiTubs Wood Fired Hot Tubs Use Canadian Western Red Cedar

Canadian Western Red Cedar withstands cold, wet weather better than almost any softwood available. It is beautiful, durable, renewable, and an excellent thermal insulator. Every piece we use to build our handcrafted wood fired hot tubs is sourced locally on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.

Here is why it is our preferred wood, and how to look after it.

Iconic

As a Canadian-owned company we can hardly help loving cedar. Canada holds the world's largest stock of standing Western Red Cedar, growing largely in coastal BC, where we are, and on the western slopes of the Rockies. It makes up nearly twenty percent of BC's coastal forest.

Western Red Cedar has always carried significant economic, ecological and social importance. Indigenous peoples have used it for millennia, relying on its strength and versatility for ocean-going canoes and longhouses, for baskets and jewelry, and for clothing. Today it is prized as a building material, whether in a hot tub or a home.

Scenes from our local mill.

Strength

Cedar produces timber with long, straight grain that resists twisting, warping and shrinking. Like any wood it absorbs moisture from the air, but its low shrinkage factor makes it more stable than other softwoods. It also has a natural resistance to decay, rot and insect damage, which is exactly what you want in cladding that lives outdoors year round.

And although it is strong, it is light. That is part of why an AlumiTub can be moved into position by two people rather than machinery: 200 lbs empty on the Small, 220 on the Standard, 300 on the Large.

Durability

Western Red Cedar trees grow to around a thousand years old. As a building material it lasts a lifetime, and wrapped around a marine-grade aluminum structure it is built to keep going far longer than most things bought for a garden. The structure itself carries a 25 year structural warranty.

It is naturally resistant to exposure, including sun, rain, cold and heat. Useful, in a hot tub.

Renewable

Cedar is a renewable material, harvested using sustainable forestry practices and milled locally. Set against plastic, concrete and vinyl, which are either manufactured or extracted in ways that carry a real cost, it is a different proposition entirely.

Ours comes from a neighbor, Robert, who lives down the road in Gibsons. He mills only trees that have already fallen or that pose a fire hazard, pulling them out of the forest with a small tractor and a logging arch, and every board is milled on site. We have sourced wood three times now from a single 110-year-old cedar that came down on his property during a winter windstorm. It is slower and more labor-intensive than buying graded lumber, and it keeps the chain of custody about as short as it can be: one tree, one mill, one road.

It is fully biodegradable and has one of the longest lifespans of any North American softwood. More on the wider picture in how sustainable a hot tub really is, and on where ours comes from in how we source our materials.

Insulation

Wood is a good insulator, which obviously matters in a hot tub. The low density of Western Red Cedar is what makes it a particularly good one, better than brick, concrete or steel: the cell cavities in the wood fill with air, trapping heat as the wood warms.

On an AlumiTub the cedar works alongside 360 degrees of insulation: 3.5 inches of rigid board beneath the base, a full wrap around the tub behind the cladding, and a floating layer on the water surface. On a wood fired tub that combination holds a soak overnight with a loss of only two to three degrees Fahrenheit. Cold weather testing covers what that means below zero.

Timeless appeal

There is something lasting about cedar. The hue and grain of a cedar plank, ranging from light to medium brown, is beautiful on its own, and around the classic shape of an outdoor tub it settles into a landscape rather than imposing on it.

Then there is the scent, wet or dry: warm, earthy and unmistakable.

Constant sun exposure dries cedar out and draws some color from it over time. Left alone it silvers, which many owners come to prefer. Either outcome is available to you.

Caring for cedar

Cedar needs very little, but a few things matter.

• Never apply paint, stain or any finishing treatment to the interior seats or fence. It will leach into the water.
• Nothing containing copper, anywhere. Copper reacts with the aluminum structure. If you stain the exterior boards, confirm the product is copper-free first.
• To refresh the exterior, sand the boards, flip them over, or apply a copper-free stain or clear coat to hold your preferred shade.
• Mineral oil can be used on cedar components to bring the grain back.
• Clean with a soft-bristle brush and rinse. Keep the base boards out of standing water and clear of soil.

Extra cedar boards are supplied with every tub for seasonal shrinkage. Keep them, because gaps will open as the wood moves and they are what you fill them with.

Tannins on the first fills

Cedar releases natural tannins during the first several fills, turning the water a brown or rust color. This is normal and the water is safe to soak in.

Tannins clear after approximately five full water changes. Do not add sanitizer during that period, because tannins in the presence of bromine can bond to the aluminum surface and stain it. Keep balancing alkalinity, pH and hardness throughout, and do not let water stand longer than seven to ten days before changing it.

Once the tannins have cleared, the full routine begins: alkalinity 80 to 120 ppm adjusted first, pH 7.4 to 7.8, calcium hardness 150 to 250 ppm, then bromine at 2 to 3 ppm. Good Clean Living Water Care is built around those ranges and around aluminum.

Full detail in the ultimate guide to keeping hot tub water clean and the beginner's guide to hot tub chemical balance. For the tub itself, how to clean a cedar hot tub, and for the whole first year, what to expect in your first year of ownership.

Explore the cedar hot tub range, or read more on the pros and cons of cedar.