Keep heated or only when used

[Danhottub]

1. What's the average temp to use, for Southern California weather. 100? 102?

2. If I wanna use it like once a week , maybe on Friday nights. Should I keep it heated at 100 always or turn it to temp the night before use? And turn it back down when done.?

Thanks!!

 

[Brian VT]

1. I like 100 because I like to stay in for a long time (1 hr. +/-) and I get overheated after 1/2 hour if it's much warmer than that.
If you're in for 1/2 hour or less then warmer might be nicer.

2. From another thread I posted in:

It's been in the 20s overnight and 30s during the day here.
I turned mine down from 100 to 80. In 2 days it has only dropped to 88. I wonder if it's even worth turning down if it holds heat that well.

I don't believe mine has a "sleep" mode (Watkins IQ2000).

edit: In 2 1/2 days it only dropped from 100 to 84. I opened the cover twice during that time to check water chemistry. It only took 1 1/2 hours to get back up to 100 degrees. This suggests to me that the heater isn't working very hard/often to maintain 100 deg. with the cover on. I don't think turning it down saves much electricity $.

 

[pooldv]

I keep mine at 99 or 100 mostly. I keep mine there all the time. Doesn't have much impact on the electric bill and it is always ready to go. I turn it down to 90 or so during summer.

 

[Isaac-1]

I would say it depends on the hot tub, and how quickly it heats up. Mine is a smaller "3 person tub" but really more like 2 if they are friendly, it can either be wired up 120V using a standard outlet with the heater in 1,500 watt mode, or 240V with the heater in 6,000 watt mode. I have mine set up 120V since I could use an existing 20 amp 120V outlet, which means it takes about 24 hours for the water to heat up after a water change, which makes it not very practical to turn the temperature down between uses.

As to temperature it really is a personal preference, for me I don't tend to soak all that long maybe 20-30 minutes, in the summer I keep it around 99-100 degrees and in the winter I prefer about 103.

Ike