Anyone got a Lay-z-spa or similar

[Ikeameatballs]

I doubt that we’ll get a summer holiday away from home and the dc have asked about a hot tub. Does anyone have a lay-z-spa type or similar? If so would you recommend? Do you deflate it in the winter?

I got one just before lockdown and it's brilliant but prices seem to have doubled now!

They are pretty much sold out everywhere but managed to track down one on Saturday in Tesco at £325 plus you need to buy the treatment stuff which is about another £25. Also you need a plug socket it can reach. Absolutely brilliant as a bit of variety in the current situation.

We had an inflatable one when DS was young - pumps didn't seem to survive the Scottish winters but it is built in on the cleverspa one we've got. I wouldn't figure on a cheap one lasting longer than a year, but we thought about it and decided with all the money we're saving by not going on holiday or out for meals we could definitely afford it.

Places to try and get one : Argos, Tesco, B&Q, B&M but be warned you'll need to look hard.

I was looking at the lazy spa website and was thinking of getting direct from them but a lot out of stock until the end of June.

Hi after looking for weeks as everywhere I tried was out of stock, I finally got one yesterday from Tesco, kids are loving it so far. A bit pricey but I thought if it keeps them entertained it well worth the money.

Can I ask the people who bought from Tesco - was it from the shop or on the website? Thanks

We've had one for a few years. You need an outdoor plug. Not extension lead. And to regularly clean, change the water etc. We brought ours in every winter except this last one.

@snop you are meant to blast it with chlorine before first use in new water

We stored the unit in the garage (wrapped up) and the tub, this year we left outside but upside down and it was the cleanest it’s ever been (after storage). Also bulk buy generic magic sponges eBay etc they are brilliant at cleaning of any marks after you put them away

I've had two... first one (Lay-z-spa "Miami") punctured and despite trying puncture kits galore it still seemed to leak air..

Second one (lay-z-spa "Bali") was a slightly more expensive version which seems a lot more robust and comes with a mat to protect it from the ground. Had this one for a few years now.

Simple to use although as previous posters have said you will need to have an outdoor plug to keep it heated up otherwise it can take all day to warm through. I don't have an outdoor plug, but I have the tub near the kitchen, so just bung the rubber hose of the kitchen tap through the window and turn on the hot water! It takes a couple of hours to fill but I'm not on a meter and guess the heating costs is only like running a few baths / or leaving the electrical supply on to keep it heated.

The hot tub can be left outside over winter although I would turn it upside down as the weight of water / snow can put a strain on the cover clips. I bring the unit indoors if it is going to be particularly cold as if it goes below a certain temperature you have to reset it and wait for it to warn up again before using.

We have had one for a couple of years, we are really pleased with ours, we have the Miami model. Much better performance than we were expecting for such a reasonable priced product. Get one if you can OP, they are great fun.

My daughters boyfriend got one from freecycle. There was nothing wrong with it, but the couple who gave it away hated it. He thinks it’s amazing.

Thanks @crustycrab I didn't realise this, I've done it now though, hope it doesn't effect it too much.

I was looking at these yesterday but was put off by how shallow they appeared. Where does the water go up to? Up north anything below the chin isn’t worth it 😂

We’ve had one since last year, it is good but there is the added expense of chemicals, we also have a big frame pool so use the chemicals for that aswell. It has a hole in the bottom so we are repairing that tomorrow. It is relaxing but it does cost a lot to run it. I suggest you fill up with hot water and keep it on all night on a lower temp and then turn it up a couple of hours before you want to use it, we found it cheaper that way.

We put ours away over winter.

Ooh, that’s a good point about depth. I’d need to be in up to my chin!

I have a Miami. Love it but my darling do pulled a repair patch off it today so I'm having to empty it to repair.

You need to buy the starter kit. It comes with ( if I remember right) chlorine granules, ph upper, ph downer, floculant ( clarifies) and an algaecide. Oh and test strips. Without the chemicals you will need to change the water every 3-5 days as it gets milky with dead skin etc very quickly. You will also need to rinse or change filters too. We bought the foam washable filters from eBay and they are great.

When you fill the pool you need to do a loading dose of chlorine to "shock" the pool so it can easily deal with pollutants like dead skin. Be careful with calculations and double check. Then we add a 5 in1 chlorine tablet in a floating dispenser ( some larger spas need 2 or 3) and that pretty much maintains it for us. We occasionally add a v little floculant to bind dead skin and biological stuff together so it gets filtered and some algaecide is is sunny when we use it and that's it. We check the water before every use and haven't had any issues at all. Water lasts MUCH longer if you tell everybody to shower and exfoliate before every use.

All the people saying you think it's cheap to run.... same as a few baths..... you know it's a 3+ kw heater that runs 24x7 right? Let's say 1kw is 10p for argument's sake, that's 30p an hour . 24 hours . That's £7.20 a day to warm it up and around £4.50 a day to maintain the warmth. It may not run at full capacity but it's still not cheap to run constantly. Depending on the out door temperature mine costs me between £25 and £38 a week in electricity.

Yes! Lazy Spa Vegas and we love it.
Bought it ex rental 4 years ago for 200 quid and came with extras and chemicals too.
Have a look online for your local hire places and give them a call see if they have any ex rentals for sale.

As for depth I am a porky 5ft 6 and can fully submerge and starfish in it on my own.

Yes we got one just before lock down. I've loved sitting out in it under the stars!

Emptied it with a little water pump thing I got off amazon today. I fill off the hot tap to, to save the water taking ages to heat up.

Thanks for all of the tips! I’ve been in touch with a local hire place and I’m going to hire one from them to decide if I actually want to buy one.

Hiring is a fantastic idea. I don't expect we'll use ours that much after lockdown.

We have a lazy spa. We are on our second one, the current one is a Monaco and this is our third year using it. We love it. The kids are in it at least twice a day and DH and I like it too. We leave it set up over winter and chuck a chlorine tablet in every so often, then empty and clean it before we start using it in the spring.