I was just on a vacation in Iceland. I feel very blessed to have visited this AMAZING place and they have the coolest hot tubs (that they call Hot Pots) throughout the country.
The first Hot Pot we came across (1st photo below) was at a rural bed and breakfast. At this location (and I think throughout the country), they pay for hot water delivered to there house that comes from the naturally heated water underground due to the extensive geothermal activity found throughout Iceland. Apparently, this heated water is constantly running into their house so any unused water at any time flows out of the house to a drain location in the yard via a hose or pipe and the water is just absorbed back into the land. This property used the excess heated water (113 degrees F.) to flow directly to their Hot Pot via the black hose in the photo. The Hot Pot was built out of wood into the ground with square rubber pieces on the floor. As the water constantly flowed in, any excess water will overflow the wood cut out in the top of the tub (or the excess water pipe in the photo) and was returned into the land. They were planning to use an adjustable cold water line from the house to regulate the temperature when they used it if it was too hot (113 F is too hot for me). This Hot Pot had no chemicals added because the water was constantly being added. The owner reported that they would need to add sanitation and have it inspected if they officially marketed their property as having a Hot Pot. In the photo, the tub is not full yet because they had just finished building it and just added the fill hose to fill it. I wish I would have stayed another 20 minutes or so to join the owner as the first users of this Hot Pot.
Other Hot Pots, like in the 2nd photo looked like typical above ground hot tubs but all of the jets were plugged. They had one hot water inlet coming from the excess naturally heater water that constantly flowed from the property and one drain in the tub that regulated the water level. This drain was fed to the location where the water drained on the property. On this tub, there was a cold water line that fed into the hot water line that was regulated to turn on and off via a thermostat based on the temp of the water and the temp that the thermostat was set at by the owner. This was at a larger hotel so they may have been adding some sort of chlorine or something to sanitize the water.
The ultimate Hot Pots, however, were the completely natural ones found throughout the island. The third photo is a natural stream in the hills that you can hike to that is naturally fed by a naturally heated underground water source. The water temp on this river varied from approximately 125 degrees F. to 99 decrees F. or less as small cold water streams fed into the heated river. AMAZING!!!
There are some cool resources for Iceland's Hot Pots such as Iceland's best hot pots and pools – Outdoor Swimming Society
The first Hot Pot we came across (1st photo below) was at a rural bed and breakfast. At this location (and I think throughout the country), they pay for hot water delivered to there house that comes from the naturally heated water underground due to the extensive geothermal activity found throughout Iceland. Apparently, this heated water is constantly running into their house so any unused water at any time flows out of the house to a drain location in the yard via a hose or pipe and the water is just absorbed back into the land. This property used the excess heated water (113 degrees F.) to flow directly to their Hot Pot via the black hose in the photo. The Hot Pot was built out of wood into the ground with square rubber pieces on the floor. As the water constantly flowed in, any excess water will overflow the wood cut out in the top of the tub (or the excess water pipe in the photo) and was returned into the land. They were planning to use an adjustable cold water line from the house to regulate the temperature when they used it if it was too hot (113 F is too hot for me). This Hot Pot had no chemicals added because the water was constantly being added. The owner reported that they would need to add sanitation and have it inspected if they officially marketed their property as having a Hot Pot. In the photo, the tub is not full yet because they had just finished building it and just added the fill hose to fill it. I wish I would have stayed another 20 minutes or so to join the owner as the first users of this Hot Pot.
Other Hot Pots, like in the 2nd photo looked like typical above ground hot tubs but all of the jets were plugged. They had one hot water inlet coming from the excess naturally heater water that constantly flowed from the property and one drain in the tub that regulated the water level. This drain was fed to the location where the water drained on the property. On this tub, there was a cold water line that fed into the hot water line that was regulated to turn on and off via a thermostat based on the temp of the water and the temp that the thermostat was set at by the owner. This was at a larger hotel so they may have been adding some sort of chlorine or something to sanitize the water.
The ultimate Hot Pots, however, were the completely natural ones found throughout the island. The third photo is a natural stream in the hills that you can hike to that is naturally fed by a naturally heated underground water source. The water temp on this river varied from approximately 125 degrees F. to 99 decrees F. or less as small cold water streams fed into the heated river. AMAZING!!!
There are some cool resources for Iceland's Hot Pots such as Iceland's best hot pots and pools – Outdoor Swimming Society
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