Hot Tub Journal

What buying a Canadian-made AlumiTub from the US involves: CAD pricing, $750 USD flat freight, duty free entry, tariff costs covered, customs handled by our broker, and AlumiTubs does not charge US sales tax.

The best wood fired hot tub depends on what it is built from and where the stove sits. A plain comparison of cedar-only, stainless, fiberglass-lined and cedar-clad aluminum tubs, and the questions that separate them.

An inflatable hot tub costs a fraction of a cedar one and is easy to set up, but it heats slowly, struggles in the cold and is usually replaced within a few years. Here is how the two compare, and who each one suits.

Yes, a hot tub can run with no electricity at all. A wood fired tub heats the water with a submerged firebox, circulates by convection, and needs only a flat surface, water and dry wood. The short version, with the off-grid guide for the rest.

Stainless is not a better hot tub material than aluminum; it is a different one. Neither corrodes in a tub kept in range. Aluminum is a third the weight, conducts heat better, is riveted like an aircraft and takes sea water; stainless tolerates chlorine, which matters only where chlorine is required. Fourteen buyer questions, one at a time.

A kit arrives as parts and becomes a tub over a day or two of assembly and days of swelling. A pre-assembled tub arrives as a tub and is heating water the same afternoon. What each involves, side by side, and who each one suits.

The best electric hot tub runs on a standard 240V circuit, holds its temperature in the cold, stays quiet, keeps a fill clean for months and can be repaired part by part. How to judge each, and what Electric owners say.

The best hot tub for a small space is a round one. A 5 foot cedar tub takes a 60 inch circle, seats two or three upright with shoulders under, rolls through a 38 inch gate and needs no crane. What a small hot tub has to get right, and what to check first.