Another neighbours and hot tub one

[nooverheadlighting]

I would love anyone's input here. AIBU to be really upset over my neighbour's new inflatable hot tub? For context, we are a family of four in a family neighbourhood. We do make some noise but just the usual family stuff. Sometimes music practice, singing etc can be heard from the garden but we mostly shut windows etc. Our children play in the garden too, but never late and not excessively.
Basically, we're really sensitive to our neighbour's noise dislikes as they live alone and have said they don't like the sound of children.
However, they have recently acquired a hot tub and it is driving me insane. We don't have big gardens. Ours is around 7m across and theirs 3.5m across. This means the tub cannot be positioned more than 0.5m from our boundary fence. It's on all the time, 24/7 with a hum that's impossible to tune out. We can also hear it from bathroom, kitchen and two back bedrooms if the windows are open.
We told neighbour this and at first they were fairly amenable, building a soundproof box to encase the pump. But it's barely made any difference and we're bathed in the sound as soon as we step outside. Neighbour has said it's just like a fridge and that we should get used to it as they've had to get used to our children. Literally, as in you have laughing, babbling, crying children, I have a hot tub, c'est la vie. Which has made me feel really sad because comparing children to a hot tub is just mean?!
Plus, our children are not outside all the time.. older one no more than an hour or so during the week, little one maybe more but always supervised and rushed indoors as soon as they make a grumpy sound (but apparently even joyful sounds have to be 'tolerated').
We haven't asked for the tub to be removed, just to be able to aid in building an improved sound dampener, with an expert if necessary. We are being friendly but honest in sharing how we feel because it's literally ruining our outside space. It's much louder than a fridge.. more like a substation. Our youngest says 'zzzzzz', making the sound of it when we go outdoors.
We don't want to fall out with neighbour any more than this and moving from this otherwise lovely neighbourhood seems rash and expensive.
What would you do??

How loud can it really be? It will probably end up costing them a fortune and they will turn it off or they will get bored of it.

Stop rushing your child in or limiting their time outside, your neighbours aren’t considerate towards you.

They can be really loud depending on what they are sat on and how well that surface transmits sound. Decking is the worst I think. They can help this by putting those interlocking mats underneath which will also help insulate it from the ground and save money when heating up. It needs to be under the pump too.

I have one, it isn't used daily but the pump really doesn't need to be running 24/7. Heating it is roughly just the over1 degree per hour so if going from ambient temperature of say 12 degrees it has to run until it gets to 37ish.

I would probably ring environmental health for guidance, I am sure this would come under noise issues.

You both need to move to detached homes, not new build detached but proper detached! 😆

I sympathise slightly from both sides, they don’t want to hear children- you don’t want to hear a hot tub. They must be able to hear the zzzzz too? You’ll soon get used to it, or they’ll get bored of it. There’s not much either if you can do as I don’t think either of you are being unreasonable. It’s called living.

We are detached, our neighbour is semi. They cannot tolerate any kind of sound, when we moved in they told us all about their neighbours who played music, who had the occasional party which meant they wouldn’t use their garden so if we wouldn’t mind using ours that would be great. Initially we both worked and travelled, were never really at home. All was well.

Then we had DD and started using the garden more, not early, not late, no parties, no music and never for long. They no longer speak to us. We’ve been hosed, he’s hosed our washing, he’s burnt his household waste outside and it stinks, so we’ve had to go inside. We’ve heard his wife crying screeching “I can’t go out there”. We heard her because we weren’t making any bloody noise. We’ve heard them screeching and swearing at their attached neighbour to get inside. Batshit.

Every time I go outside now I play music, to drown out his swearing and his muttering. Every single time, he’s moaned so much I’ve given them something to whinge about.

Don’t start a war with your neighbours!

(but apparently even joyful sounds have to be 'tolerated') - honestly some of us do dislike it. I'd never say anything though

We had an inflatable one and also a foam walled one, both had a hum from the pump but it was never loud or particularly noticeable and we had ours less than a metre from the boundary fence. We did put it furthest away from the house but the neighbours could probably still hear it if they were outside / never said anything through.

You can't really do much, they can do what they want in their garden - same as you can in yours.

You are probably just being hyper aware of the noise at the moment, eventually you won't notice it.

We got rid of ours years ago as we got fed up with the constant chemicals and water changes and found we weren't using it much. These days, they will cost a fortune to run so I don't expect they will have it that long anyway.

They made a box for the pump so they tried?! I think you underestimate the amount of noise your family probably make, I have four kids and went into the neighbours one day and was horrified at how noisy a not noisy day was at our house. When she got a barky dog I was fine about it because we're hopefully even now!

Play Copacabana on repeat next to the fence whenever they use it

Why do they have to be on 24/7 I don't get that.
I just think of hot tubs as being so yuk but I guess people must clean them but would not be for me. When did the 70's craze come back into fashion. If you have a large garden so it is not near neighbours it would be fine or in an insulated room as one poster said they have but the buzzing would be really loud at night time when there is no other noise over it. I would play music in the garden when I am out to drown out the noise and if you want to sit in your garden to relax get headphones that block out sound. May just get some myself for summer as kids next door and would never complain as they are just playing but the constant ball against the wall can grate on you.

Noise from children is a bit different to a bloody hot tub! If they are so averse to the sound of other humans, perhaps they should live in a detached house, away from them.

Hot tubs are ghastly things, I'm sure they will get bored of it eventually but for now OP you'll have to suck it up I'm afraid.

I sympathise. This would drive me mad, also. On the plus side. I know loads of people who have bought hot tubs over the years, not one of them still has it now! They’re usually a novelty purchase. Hopefully your neighbours will follow suit!

The hum indicates that the heat is on.
(The filter setting doesn’t need to be on constantly)

to heat an inflatable hot tub is very ££££
(£8 -£10 a day I find) so when your neighbour gets their next energy bill, they will likely switch out off and only heat it when they know they are going to use it!

Well, you can stop draggimg your kids is inside as soon as they make a noise! I’d have to hire full time help if I did that, I’d never have time to do anything else, so that misery alone saved should help your quality of life. Play music outside if you like and let your dc celebrate life (in a normal way, I’m not suggesting you be a public nuisance, but children and noise is normal) your very sensitive neighbours might find they aren’t happy with a situation where neither of you try to accomodate the other anymore.

Wait until they get in the hot tub then mow the lawn. 😁

I find the comment of comparing kids to hot tubs really mean a bit school girlish, it’s not mean, they are making a point.

however these hot tubs are really not that loud. So either it’s faulty or you’re so focused on it, it appears louder to you. For some reason I suspect the latter.

To be frank, I would definitely be a lot less disturbed by the noise they are making compared to the noise you are making, and it is complete nonsense to talk about not being "evolved" to tolerate that sound - there are plenty of natural sounds that are similar.

They are doing nothing wrong, they have shown good will by the sound proof box, even though you say it doesn't make much difference.

Your only option is get used to it, and the sooner you accept that, the less stressed you will be

The good news is you can relax a bit about your children's noise

I have a hot tub, I also have a chronic pain condition that sitting in it massively relieves. It makes a very low level hum that you can only hear is sat next to it, if there’s is that loud I’d question the set up, it sounds like it could be vibrating against something? Ours is on a concrete area but we have padded underneath so that the pump doesn’t vibrate.

we also have neighbours whose kids scream, whack the fence with sticks, bounce on their trampoline whilst throwing balls into the garden. I know which noise I prefer.

People without kids will often notice noise from kids far more than their parents will

It would annoy me too but if I was forced to choose between a humming hot tub or children noise I would pick the hot tub.

This made me laugh. I've said this before on another thread, before I changed username but one good thing is that neighbour isn't inviting all the local trollops to the hot tub at 2 in the morning. We had a queue of taxis, lots of whooping and laughter followed by crying (probably due to too much alcohol 😕). My other neighbour had a very noisy pond filter on constant, sounded like a waterfall. Luckily I don't mind the fast, rushing water sound. The problems of living in semis and terraced houses unfortunately.

The neighbours are right, hot tub is white noise, you tune it out.

so I suspect the op is focusing on it so she’s really conscious of it, hence it appearing a huge deal to her. And she’s not realising sudden noise ie kids is much more disruptive and can’t be tuned out.

it appears she wants silence. There is no way they are bathed in it as she says when she steps outside, not unless it’s majorly faulty.

This, I’m afraid. Your kids annoy them, their hot tube annoys you. No one has the moral high ground here, you both have to suck it up.

Not sure there’s much you can do about it. But don’t be so worried about making noise yourselves. Put music on to drown out the humming. Let the kids have fun and make noise (just not excessive screaming!).

This

They cost a bomb in electricity. Wait a couple of months and they'll soon get rid of it.