Jacuzzi in garden - good idea or not? Post Reply

[love island]

My two young teens are very keen for us to have a jacuzzi in the garden. My husband and I are not so sure on many levels - cost of putting it in and heating it included. Has anyone put one into a garden and has it worked or was it an expensive five minute wonder.

[SWtastic]

We bought an inflatable one and it was a one-summer wonder.  It was noisy, expensive to run and we all grew bored of it after a while so I sold it.  I think Aldi or Lidl may be doing the inflatable ones if you did want to try one.

[uptheoctave]

My partner bought a 2nd hand wooden one off eBay. It was a great price and he loved it. I had never wanted one but he'd wanted one for ages so I gave him the go ahead. 

The kids loved it for about 5 mins, I went in a couple of times but was bored, it was extremely noisy and I felt as though I was sitting in a chemical-laced pube swamp. 

My partner had assured me that once it was up and running it was cheaper to keep it on all the time rather than let it cool down and only switch it on when it was needed. So he kept it on all winter.

Our March electricity bill was just over 1700 quid. That's right seventeen hundred pounds.

Needless to say, he paid that bill and has since sold the hot tub. 

Lesson learnt! 
 

[OLBC Group]

You cannot expect a back garden stand alone hot tub to perform like a fully fitted unit with a plant room.

You do need a proper filter and dosing system to keep the water clean, get the scum off the top of it and not end up with soup like water.

You can make heating them cheaper using a heat pump, or connect them to the central heating circuit, but as @uptheoctave has rightly stated the heat losses are substantial however you slice and dice it.

£1,700 seems extraordinary for a heating bill for month - that is as much as my whole gas bill was last year for a 5 bed victorian house even at present crazy prices - it must have been almost totally uninsulated to achieve that level of heat loss!

Even emptying and refilling the hot tub with fresh water, frequently, is going to be quite expensive.

[uptheoctave]

Sorry, I should have made it clearer - that was our bill from October to March (normally a fraction of that, and obviously before the price hikes in April). We had a really good filter (apparently) and it was as insulated as a stand-alone hot tub can be. 

Still a huge expense though.