Honest Hot Tub Reviews & Buying Guides for the UK
Swim spa vs traditional pool is a choice between two ways of getting a swim at home. A swim spa is a compact, heated, self-contained tank with a current you swim against, so you stay in one place. A traditional pool gives you free-flowing lengths, but it demands far more space, money and groundwork. Here’s … Read more
There’s a particular kind of silence you only appreciate once it’s gone. You sink into the water, the garden is still, and then it starts: a low, nagging drone from the cabinet, like a fridge motor in a library. More often than not, the culprit isn’t your jets. It’s the circulation pump, the small workhorse … Read more
A hot tub circulation pump is the small, low-power pump that moves your tub’s water slowly and continuously through the filter, heater and sanitiser, usually 24 hours a day. Unlike the noisy jet pumps that power the massage, it’s the unglamorous workhorse that keeps the water clean, warm and safe. If you want the wider … Read more
The best swim spa kit is a bundle of components (a counter-current unit, pump, pipework and controller) that lets you swim on the spot, installed by you or with limited professional help. In the UK, that usually means retrofitting an existing pool or plunge pool, or pairing a self-build pool package with a current generator. … Read more
A swim spa under £5,000 is, strictly speaking, a unicorn. A genuine swim spa has a tank with a current you swim against, and in the UK it rarely costs less than around £10,000 new. The phrase usually means one of three things: a finance-led route into an entry-level swim spa, a pre-owned unit, or … Read more
A wood-burning stove for hot tub use is a stainless steel or aluminium firebox that heats the tub’s water directly, either from inside the tub or through a water-jacketed unit bolted to its side. Burning logs warms the water and, on external units, natural circulation carries it around the loop, so no electricity is needed. … Read more
Here’s the question that lands in every UK garden-renovation group chat sooner or later: wood-fired hot tub vs electric hot tub, and which one won’t wreck your energy bills? A wood-fired hot tub is a timber or fibreglass vessel heated by burning logs in an internal or external stove, warming water in one to three … Read more
There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over a garden once the light drops and steam starts curling off a tub of hot water — and if you’ve never lit a fire specifically to heat bathwater, you’re missing out on one of the strangest, most satisfying rituals a British back garden can offer. A … Read more
There’s a particular kind of British optimism that buys a hot tub in June and forgets that November exists. Six months later, that same person is standing in the garden in a dressing gown, watching sleet settle on a cover that’s doing absolutely nothing to stop the water inside from bleeding heat into a frozen … Read more
A small hard shell hot tub is a rigid, acrylic-lined spa with its own heater, filtration and hydrotherapy jets, built for two to four people and usually no more than about 2.2 metres long. Unlike an inflatable, it is insulated and permanent, so it can run year-round in a British garden without collapsing into a … Read more