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??

We have evolved to register the sound of the human voice....talking, shouting, screaming, everything.......because it may be relevant to us, much more than to register electric thrumming. You enjoy other people's voices; your neighbours may not. And yes, even the sound of a ' joyful' child.........and we perhaps can imagine what that means, has to be tolerated, not enjoyed.

"Which has made me feel really sad because comparing children to a hot tub is just mean?!" They aren't comparing your children to a hot tub, they are comparing a noise that annoys them to a noise that annoys you. This is 100% reasonable. Either agree a reason time for the hot tub to be on and a reasonable length of time for the kids to be outside, or accept that they have no control of your kids and you have no control of their hot tub!

We have one, husband uses it, very very occasionally the children.
And the water is checked and cleaned with the appropriate chemicals

It’s in a tent like structure, so enclosed in the summer, on a base which hopefully reduces the sound, but ours is only switched on when in use, so for one hour a day.

I can hear the bubbles noise if that is running, when outside, but that part isn’t used very much, it does have a quiet hum. But again, it’s only switched on for an hour, if in use, in a day.

I wonder why theirs needs to be on all of the time?

I don’t like them at all.
And I insisted that ours was fully enclosed to spare the neighbours 🤣.

Who wants to see someone else, lolling about in the bath in their garden.

(shudders)

Yes! Ours runs 1 hour a day maximum, if at all. No need to run it all the time.

That said, I'm not accepting any noise complaints about anything from our neighbours on anything, unless they get rid of their son's ball that he bounces all .. the .. time.

You run them all the time to maintain the temperature!

However a good hot tub only makes a noise when in use or when its doing cleaning cycle (half an hour twice a day).

I can't vouch for adult paddling pools also known as lazy cheapo spas.

Mine is a built in, sunken, hard shell one. No need to run it all the time. We just run it to warm it up if we use it, which we don't very often. During peak times we might run it half an hour a day just to keep it moving.

Same - but we might be at cross purposes.

We don't "run it" as in have the pumps on all the time - only when in use and when the cleaning cycle kicks in.

But it is turned on all the time to maintain the temp at 40C

I don't think I use it often enough to justify that. I'd be quite happy not to have it really.

Of course children on a trampoline are doing no wrong, neither is someone running a hot tub, neither are children playing in the garden! What IS wrong is other people encouraging them to make nuisance noise and to be awkward deliberately!

Love these sweeping generalisations about people without children. I always wait to read one when the OP intimates that the people in question don’t have kids

I'm sorry but they're really not that loud. This has become a fixation for you which is making it seem far louder than it is. I have kids, but the kids next door but one are so loud, they have these motorised cars that have a horn (who designed that??), honestly it drives me spare when they beep them constantly, but I just accept it as life in small village! If you don't want noise of neighbours, you'll have to buy detached and remote.

To the people saying they only run them for an hour a day, it is not the noise of the pump making the bubbles, (which would be drowned out by the music and loud, drunken, sweary conversations in my neighbours’ case anyway) it is the low level hum of the heater that is constantly on that is annoying.

No, it’s not very loud but that doesn’t mean it’s not irritating and intrusive.

We only heat it prior to using it.

Surely thats more expensive than keeping it on all the time. We just drained an cleaned ours and the electricity to heat it up again is massive compared to keeping it at the set temp.

We use ours 4-5 times a week, normally about 5-6pm for 45 minutes.

We don't use it much.

From what I've read the inflatable ones do make more noise. They're also less fuel efficient.

I'm mildly surprised people can still afford to run these things given energy costs at present!

A good one costs 2-3 pound a day so not
much

I think you are being unreasonable. You have children who make noise, it’s not fair for you to complain about their house when your house/garden will be noisy at regular intervals also. Fair enough it’s not consistent but I would say a low hum constantly is equally disruptive to an occasional screaming tantrum or loud cry ie a piercing noise. They’re not comparing your children to their hot tub, they’re just saying that both houses make noise for different reasons. They tolerate yours so they expect the same in return. Have they over come round to ask your children to stop making noise? If not, I think you’ve got a fair bit of audacity to complain about this. Parents get used to the noise their children make, but it will be more annoying than you think for a childfree couple. They’ve acclimatised, it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest you do the same.

You don’t get to dictate what your neighbours do with their space. They built you a box, like you curbed your kids outside time.

pretty entertaining and entitled to try tho. And remember, you have kids they dislike, you’re gonna win this one.

Get a grip, you say your children are noisy, bit of pot and kettle going on here.