Any experiences with hot tubs?

patrickphimr said:

Hi everyone

I’m looking for life advice more than anything.

I have always really wanted hot tubs. My wife’s and I have made our big purchases so far (house obviously being the big one), and have no debt.

Is fishing out $15,000 for a hot tub that unreasonable?

Has anyone here purchased one and regretted it?

I’d like to think that We would use it a lot, however my wife is reasonably concerned that it might sit and be a waste of good money.

Any experiences?

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You might change your font color to something else. The text should be a dark color. White on white background is gonna be hard to read.

It is not uncommon for owners to use it less frequently once the newness wears off. I call it "new toy syndrome".
It often comes down to 2 main factors, convenience and need. If you're buying it just because it might be nice and you put it 30ft from the door it will likely become the thing in the yard, but if you have a herniated disc, bad knee, and it's right outside the door you'll use it until you're sick of fixing it then buy a new one.
I'd suggest you shop used and get someone else's mistake to find out at 1/4 the cost. If you like it after 2 years, then buy the tricked out party tub.

It is going to vary person by person. For us, it varies week by week.

Sometimes we are in our hot tub every day for 8 out of 10 days. Other times we will go 5-6 days in a row without using it. the main reason we end up not using it is because of schedules.

$15,000 was about what we paid. After 2 years, I still think it was worth it. But, we waited a long time before pulling the trigger on one. Friends and relatives had them, and we knew we liked used them.

Mine is also about 4 steps from my back door, and the path and part of the tub is covered by a deck (with a rain shield, so it is like a roof). Having it close makes it a lot easier to use.

You can get them cheaper than that of course. A rotomolded (e.g. Freeflow) but will be around the $6k - $7k mark. Our Hotspring Relay was just under $10k out the door delivered to the house as they were willing to haggle a bit on the price.

The wife and kids use it more than me. They are normally in it 3 days a week (Fri - Sun) with school and work taking up most of their time. I may only use it a couple times a month. If you are retired and have more free time you may find you use it more.