My wife and I bought a vacation cabin where we plan on spending a lot of weekends. We are toying with the idea of getting a hot tub to give it that trashy chic vibe.
If we did, would we: keep the tub continuously running while not there, or would we have to drain it when we left on Monday and refill it when we arrived on the following Friday? I’ve never had one before and wasn’t sure how to maintain it when you using it four days out of seven.
Thanks for any advice from people who have one.
We have a hot tub at home and use it all the time. It’s fun floating around, talking, and looking at the stars.
If you’re really there every weekend, you can leave it filled. There are floating chlorine or bromine (whichever you prefer) dispensers that will keep the chemicals balanced for a week, easily. But if you are going to skip a weekend, you’re probably better off emptying it. This can get expensive, obviously. If you think you’ll be emptying it a lot, I’d look for a smaller tub. Ours is about 400 gallons, it takes a while to fill and to heat.
Can you set it on a timer to run the filter and heater occasionally while you’re gone? If so, go ahead and leave it full. Plus you can set the heat to come on before you get there rather than keeping the water hot in your absence. Saves $$$!
I envy you - I miss having a hot tub, but we’d have to build some place to put one here and that ain’t gonna happen…
Thanks all. My boss (a very nice person) has already agreed to let me work from the cabin Friday’s and Mondays, so yeah, most weekends. I’m leaning very much to doing it.
We have one on our deck, it’s runs 365 days a year, even if we’re out of town for a week or two. Never had a problem.
Hell yeah - go for it!!
Another hot tub owner and definitely this. I would not empty it just because you aren’t going to use it for a week or two, or even a month. What a huge waste of water and electricity, not to mention the time waiting for it to fill and heat up. We use ours year round (in WI) and might go a couple weeks between uses in winter and never had a problem. You should be able to set it at a lower temp to save energy while you’re gone and the pumps will still cycle once or twice a day. I wouldn’t be surprised if some newer ones offer remote access so you can crank the temp back up a few hours before you arrive.
We have a small house in Michigan that has a hot tub and it stays filled year round. We have to keep an eye on it though, just like a pool you have to keep the chemicals and the pH balanced. Ours is bromine, which seems fine, though it has more of a “metallic” smell which is a bit different than chlorine’s distinctive smell and it took me a little while to get used to it. Maintenance isn’t too bad though, you have the chemicals like I said, plus the filter needs to be rinsed off at times. Hair (head hair) also gets caught up in the bottom jet so that needs to be cleared out.
We have one. Get a good cover to keep the heat in when you’re not using it. This will keep the heater from having to work too hard.
We have a young man come out once a week to do maintenance. You may want do to that on Thursdays so the tub is ready for you on the weekend.
We drain ours every six months. YMMV.
We did turn off power to the hot tub when the hurricanes came through, so keep that in mind if you are in the path of storms.
Trashy chic? We enjoy ours, finding it very relaxing and soothing. I don’t consider it trashy.
Thanks for the advice, I had no idea how labor intensive it is to maintain one. it sounds like it’s not that big of an issue. We keep it running at a minimum heat when we’re away and turn it up the day we arrive. Trashy chic was just a joke.
Another vote for: if you’re in it even only on weekends, go for it. Maintenance is no thang. When you fill it you dump a bottle of ‘metal-gone’ to demineralize the water. Leave it to heat up (12-18 hours). Check the pH and dump chemical in as indicated. Check the water chemistry once a week and adjust as needed (I’m not super scientific about it, I give it maybe 5 minutes/week and eyeball the chemicals. I rinse the filter about monthly–never, NEVER USE SOAP ON THE FILTER! Chemical stuff is typically “spa-up” or “spa-down” to adjust the pH, and bromine (which naturally boils out over a few days), occasionally “renew” if the water gets cloudy or smells off, and “foam down” if we start getting suds. Suds usually is the result of someone hopping in with some kind of body oil/lotion, or poorly-rinsed laundry. Replace the water at about 8-12 month intervals (based on only weekend use). Ours is outside in Denver. A good lid is all it takes to keep it warm even in winter.
See, now I want to leave work early and go buy it right this minute. Stupid job.
It’s really maintaining the chemicals, hosing out the filters, filling with water when needed, and wiping down the sides of scale. We’re willing to pay someone to deal with that hassle so all we have to worry about is making sure we don’t spill wine. 
My parents had a hot tub when I was growing up. This was pretty much the extent of the maintenance, although I’m floored that anyone would pay someone to come do that. Maybe if you’re Robert Crawley and you can just add “hot tub maintenance” to the groundskeeper’s to-do list it would make sense. Otherwise, in our case at least, it took longer to walk out to the tub then it did to do the weekly upkeep.
For the OP: weekly maintenance takes all of five minutes. Checking the chemicals involves using one of those little plastic dipsticks that has the color changing pads on them. Dip it, hold it horizontal for 15 seconds or so, compare the colors to the chart on the side of the bottle of strips. Adjust as needed. Sometimes the chlorine / bromine will be low and you’ll have to add some—get one of those floating chlorine tablet dispensers you see in swimming pools. There are small ones made specifically for hot tubs. If you want to bring it up really fast you use “shock”, essentially a powdered concentrate that can bring the chlorine levels up in minutes. You can also just place a tablet against the intake screen and let it dissolve as the water flows past. The second chemical that you’ll likely have to tweak with some regularity is the alkalinity / pH. Again, there’s powder additives that you use to adjust it. As noted, once in a while you need to give the inside a wipe-down and top off the water, but these aren’t weekly chores and when they are needed will only cost a few extra minutes.
The filter is a large canister type that you simply pull out of its housing and rinse off with a garden hose. Replace the filters every once in a while and you’re set. My parent’s tub was outside, so they replaced it a bit more often then the manufacturer recommended, but it still was only 3 or 4 times per year.
Most hot tubs have a setting that will cycle the pump and heater on (on a specific low-speed setting) for an hour or so a couple times per day. This keeps the water hot and and recirculates it through the filter so its ready to go whenever you need it.
If you drain it and fill it up again, prepare to wait at least 12 hours for it to be hot enough to use, and once the chemicals are balanced you want to wait a couple of hours to make sure the water is safe otherwise you might end up with this shit. I’ve had it, the only time I got it was when I was a kid. My mom to me to urgent care and the doc knew what it was before my mom even told him about the new hot tub. He said to let the chemicals do their thing for a while before using it after changing the water. Sage advice I’ve followed ever since.
So go get your tub, make sure you get a thick cover for it, and don’t worry about the maintenance. You’ll end up loving it, I promise.
A good cover also keeps dirt/dust and crap out.
To OP: Do you take baths?
For us, Ivylad is disabled and tends to get bogged down in projects. He was spending more time stressing about maintaining the hot tub than he was enjoying it, so I took that stress away so he could relax and not worry about chemical balance and when it was time to drain, since we don’t have a sump pump.
But if you’re ready, willing, and able, by all means, save $75 a month and do it yourself.
This is what we do with ours since we first got one in 1996. We have a Softub brand, and it’s great, I highly recommend it. Low maintenance, standard electric connections (save for a heavy duty cord, but no special wiring or circuits), and add enzymes and bromine once a week, and it stays pristine. Fills with a garden hose. We change the water 3 or 4 times a year, or at need.
We have one as well and I agree with those above who say they can be on 365/year. However, the normal tubs have to have their own dedicated 220 electrical service. Will that be a problem in a cabin?
I have one as well, but I drain it during the summer months (Texas). Draining is more than just pulling the plug; you’ll probably need a shop vac to suck the water out of all the low spots, and everything below the lowest intake (probably 2-3 inches of water).
Some additions to the advice above. (Warning: I’m kind of an extreme DIY-er)
-They’re actually tall, and can be troublesome to climb in and out of, especially with wet feet. I built our back deck to hold the tub, and built sunken supports below the opening so it’s only a couple of feet above the deck itself. Much easier to use this way.
-Supports. Tubs are extremely heavy, and it’s important the supports be level with the surface, and with each other. Otherwise the tub can warp when it fills and settles. IMO, the installers are whoever the contractor found awake at the bus station that morning, so you’ll need to watch this. I had to finally shoo them away and take over this portion – they were content with gaps between some of the supports and the mounting portions at the bottom of the tub. After I got the workers out of my way, I installed shims to ensure everything was in contact before adding water.
-Power. As said above, it requires 220 service, and in my case I had to install a second breaker box specifically for the tub. I ran both 220 and 115 service out to the deck so I could have lights and outlets also. Remember to check codes, there are probably strict rules on proximity of switches/plugs to the tub itself (usually 4-6 feet to ensure no electrical equip can be reached by bathers) along with the usual GFCI requirements.
-The cover. A good cover isn’t an option, it’s absolutely necessary. I built a roof over the deck and tied it into the house, but still needed a cover to keep crap, pollen, and critters out. A good cover can also be heavy, and I’d recommend some thought as to how you’ll remove and replace it with each use. In my case, I built a small hinged platform that folds down (out over the yard) so bathers can simply push the cover off as they walk into the tub. When leaving the last bather can pull the cover back and the platform folds up against the deck, out of the way of the yard again. (I put privacy lattice all around the deck, so there’s a cover-sized slot for it to slide out of – I hope this makes sense, still on my first cup of coffee).
Anyway, add me to the “go for it” group. Soaking after a long day is worth the minor effort to maintain the water/etc. Mine is a bromine type, and is now in it’s 13th year with no problems.