Hottub - yeah or nay?

[TheLetterZ]

It is a cold, wet miserable December day so I am indulging in some pleasant day dreaming.

Do you have a hottub? An inflatable or rigid one? Do you love it, hate it or indifferent?

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MNHQ

Shamelessly place marking cos I'd love to know the answers to this too!

Human soup!

I don’t have one because they are common, bowls of human soup. Yuck.

I have a hard shell fixed one. I love it. It’s great for just sitting in the garden on a cold evening watching the stars and being outdoors, and it’s great when friends come around. It also has a cool setting which was wonderful in the summer. Would recommend. The service package is really reasonable.

Just to tick all the bingo card responses in advance: Yes, we are also swingers. No, we don’t care what our neighbours think. We are also probably working class and chavvy, I’m not sure, I haven’t checked the latest MN thread which tells me the indicators of each.

I wouldn't have one unless I had a big garden and could adequately screen it.
My friend bought one that you can dismantle when not in use and used it at a NYE party. It was full of kids and they had a hoot.
But if you have a small space and would be bothering neighbours, I wouldn't. Not sure how hygienic they are unless you empty them often and/or fill with chemicals.

Mumsnet hates them. We have one though. It's a "proper" one, so can't be moved.

It costs way more than I expected and can't really be properly emptied so we have to keep it at least semi warm all the time (can drop to 10). We don't have sex in it and we keep on top of maintenance which again is a ongoing cost which is more than we expected. It also had some issues, thankfully my husband is pretty good with stuff like that and repaired it, but for a £6,000 purchase it's not been as robust as I expected.

However, we love it, we have had it nearly 4 years now and we still use it. Made loads of use this summer with the children being off, was great.

Yay!!

If I had a garden with more than half an acre I'd have one

The ones from costco are AMAZING.
My friend has one

*Sorry I thought you were asking whether you should get one or not. I don't have one, but would absolutely love to get one if I had a garden large enough

We bought one in lockdown, an inflatable one. It was great. The kids loved it. It was very relaxing.
Currently I’m cold miserable and aching, we’ve put it away and I’m dreaming of when it’s time to get it out again.

I think there is a difference between the high end ones and the cheaper/inflatable ones. We have friends with a fixed / high end one and it was spotlessly clean and big enough that it didn't feel overly personal.

We've hired an inflatable one - lots of companies that hire them out now (at least the inflatable ones). We had one over October half term (as children were self isolating and we couldn't leave the house). It was fun, but by the end of the 3rd day, it looked a bit murky! I guess if you had a proper one, the filtration etc would be superior.

Maybe do that for a few nights and see if you'd make use of it?

We have had our rigid hot tub for a week and so far it’s brilliant. It’s so nice to sit outside in the lovely warm water when the weather and everything else is so gloomy at the moment. We bought it with the money we saved from our cancelled summer holiday. Our DSs have been in it every day so far. We have no plans to have sex in it though DH and I do refer to it lovingly as the Sex Pond. We have a large garden and it’s right outside our house and nowhere near the borders with our neighbours. Even so, we quite often sit in it with the pumps off to reduce any noise that they might hear.

I would say though that the hot tub shop is only a couple of miles away so if we have any issues at all they can easily pop round and sort it out for us. I’m not sure that I’d want to be left with no ‘back up’ when getting to grips with the chemicals, pumps and two boys who will no doubt turn it into a swamp at some point!

I’ve just realised how defensive my post sounds! “We have a large garden! It’s right outside our house!” Just making the point though that yes we have a hot tub but no we are not the neighbours from hell! (Hopefully!)

I have a lazy spa and I love it. Contrary to belief they are not giant bowls of human soup. The water is filtered and if you change the filter every day then the water stays crystal clear providing you dip test and treat it. I use chlorine to break down any biological load and in the 7 years of having it I haven't had skin problems even Once. I change the water every 3 weeks and refill with 1/3 cold and 2/3 hot. I have indicated it to within an inch of its life and now it's freezing if I turn it off I lose about 4c in 24 hours. Costs me £15 -25 a week to run depending on the season.

I love it. It has brought me and my husband really close as we both use it to soothe arthritis pain and when you are in the hot tub you can't use phones etc.... so we talk a whole lot more than we did before. We've got a gazebo over ours and twinkly fairy lights etc.

I don't have one, nor do I have the space or funds, but if I could, I would.

I’d love one. My favourite cottage has one in a converted stable. For people who have the rigid ones at home - where do you have it that you can use it year round? Is it under cover?

Having spent some great times in German spas etc swimming in hot springs outside at night amongst the snow and forests and stars I understand the general allure of hot water outside but there are very few settings in the U.K. where I think a hot tub in a garden makes much sense.
It’s a topic of wild extremes of views. I wouldn’t ever contemplate one I think.
Good luck if you get one.

Ugh, no. Ghastly things. Body fluid soup 🤮.

My brother and his wife got one a few years ago and invited me & DP to a ‘hot-tub party’. I made my excuses and declined.

I don’t understand them. Our neighbours have one. You can look over the wall from the main road and see them sitting in it. We live in the Lea of the Pennines and the weather is generally shite. I can’t imagine popping my cossie on and tramping down the drive to sit in warm water. In the dark. And rain.

Can anyone tell me why the are more in hygienic than swimming pools? Surely you use chlorine too?

I think they are pretty naff to be honest.

@Plussizejumpsuit

Can anyone tell me why the are more in hygienic than swimming pools? Surely you use chlorine too?

Yes, but the volume of water:volume of users is completely different!

I have a big garden pool (live in warmer climes) & if all 4 of us plus friends are in it, that's still a huge amount of water to be 'polluted' by half a dozen people - skin flakes, hair, toiletries residues on both, sweat, etc.

Whereas a Sex Pond with 6 people in it is going to be quite crowded.

So whilst a swimming pool can just quietly filter the water on an ongoing basis, whatever grot is sloshing about in a hot tub is going to be more concentrated & need more treatment.

I do really fancy one though! Pool today was freezing

I'm very common (apparently) and have an incredibly naff-but-lovely hot tub. We have a large, private garden and built a summer house around it so that we had a changing area. It costs quite a lot to run but the spa jets are lovely if you have an aching back. Sitting in the hot tub in the dark at the bottom of the garden, with a glass of wine watching the stars is bliss this time of year. There is no way on this planet I would allow anyone outside of our house in it, so as much as friends and family in the past have hinted the lid stays firmly on when we have (or used to have) visitors!

They don’t appeal to me on hygiene grounds.

I think they are disgusting to be honest. Stagnant water with chemicals. Yum. We call them sex ponds in our household.