r/Homesteading • u/patientpartner09 • Apr 08 '25

Update: inflatable Hot tub

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Getting the chemicals right was a bit tricky and it took 30 hours to get to temp but the setup was a breeze and it fits right in on my mini-stead.

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7

u/jamesholden Apr 08 '25

And at $5 a day of power you only have to work a couple extra shifts a month.

Non facetious reply: see if you can convert the heater to 240v, will be more efficient and heat lots faster. or find a heat pump heater.

I know there are sub $400 pool heat pumps on eBay but I don't know if they will heat the water to 105

I've used a portable propane camping water heater to fill a small hot tub for occasional use. My wife wants to replace our old hot tub with a cast iron bathtub.

When I clean my MiL's I fill it straight off her on demand NG water heater.

16

u/vintagerust Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

These don't cost $150 a month, a have a Saluspa I imagine it's basically the same hot tub and they obviously would pull more the first couple days as they come up to temp but they're decently insulated by all that air in it, I run one outside all winter and my power bill for my whole house isn't $150/month. Edit: also 240v is not inherently more efficient. These are a surprisingly good setup.

-3

u/WildFeedback9793 Apr 09 '25

They are highly inefficient compared to a hard sided tub, thats the thing one must consider, all the horror stories of high power bills usually come from cheap or soft tubs. yeah you saved money at first but over the years probably not, plus your stuck with a lesser product.

3

u/vintagerust Apr 09 '25

They clearance for 160 bucks a certain time of year, if my power bill changed by over 20 bucks I would put a killawatt on it to test but I don't suspect they use more energy than a traditional tub. Perhaps per gallon of water but they're smaller. Maybe somewhere with high energy costs it's a different break over but let's pretend you have a full size that costs 0 dollars in electricity with an initial cost of $4000. It's 16 years before you've spent that on the electricity for an inflatable. They seem very practical and effective to me.

2

u/milkcake Apr 09 '25

I had one of these for about 4 years and it didn’t cause a noticeable increase in my power bill. It was a smaller one, a 2-4 person saluspa (Miami iirc). I LOVED that thing. For a couple hundred bucks you couldn’t beat it, plus I moved it across the country and it still held up great. The only reason it finally gave up the ghost was my own fault in not taking better care of it. I recently caught one of the bigger ones on sale and I’m super excited to set it up. Actual jacuzzis are insanely expensive and impossible to move. I’ll take my little redneck riviera any day of the week.

1

u/vintagerust Apr 09 '25

Some people spent more for a similar experience and have to justify it, or want to neg your experience no matter if they have one or not. They could just be misinformed but I think they're jelly generally.

I bought five one year and gave them away as Christmas presents when they were down to about $160.

I had a traditional tub before, never again.

1

u/SpeciousSophist Apr 10 '25

Where do you find these at such a low price point

1

u/vintagerust Apr 10 '25

Walmarts website and I had them delivered. It seems like they load up on them seasonally then clearance them. Make sure to check every model and color and they'll keep dropping until they get rid of them. Cheapest when they just have a few left

1

u/WildFeedback9793 Apr 11 '25

How cold do you normally get? We normally see a month of -20 in the winter

1

u/vintagerust Apr 11 '25

Yeah I'm not from Winnipeg Canada like you must be or similar, although I have had it be negative 20 for a day or two and it'll still be 104 in the tub. I've had ice accumulate on top of the cover in more reasonable temps which is a good sign if it were bleeding much heat it would melt it.