We have an inflatable one, that usually gets put up outside around now after it has started to warm up, and then gets put away again in Sept/Oct when the temperature difference is too great for it to be effectively heated. I’m not a massive fan because my wife and I both like different temperatures of heat and running it costs a fortune, even with a programmer. In the summer, I find the water too hot for my liking, and cycling the temperature up and down merely pushes the cost of running it up. Other annoying things about these small spas are:
deflation (with the inflatable type) over time, especially with high amplitude temperature swings, e.g. before/after a T-storm, and early and late season;
the cover filling with water and stretching due to rainwater from T-storms;
too small for me to stretch out completely, so no just floating around;
when the jets are on, the small volume of water in the spa inevitably gets thrown into your face when you’re trying to relax.
If I had the money, I would have a proper pool built, and run it off solar, or as near as possible. As the investment for that to happen, including major earthworks, is more than I’m prepared to spend for just for a few months of the year’s use, that probably isn’t going to happen.
Back in UK… we would use a local sports club… for swimming as regularly or as little as we wanted.
likewise the rest of their stuff… sauna, gym etc etc…
we paid an annual subscription and certainly got our money’s worth… for a couple of years, then our interests changed and we moved on to other things…
Whatever, it was cheaper than investing and upkeep of such bits and bobs
We bought a preloved inflatable one from LBC for neat nothing as it was broken! DH loves a project and has got it running, albeit with manual switches rather than the stalk thing which has had it. We noticed after the first one we felt a bit funny, read it gets rid of toxins ect. When we’ve used regularly only positive feelings. Particularly for DH with his fibromyalgia, yesterday he’d been in pain all day and it all went within minutes of getting in.
We only heat to around 36.5c, also forked out to buy under floor insulation (4cm i think) which we cut to size and sat the spa on. I think this was a very wise choice! As long as its not cold cold it only drops a few c overnight. Hot days, like yesterday we didn’t heat it for Remy during the day and just for little while to boost temp before we got in in the evening.
Still struggling a little with the chemistry. What exactly does everyone add everyday, as you mentioned @Shiba ?
Plans are to basically solarise the system to reduce costs right down, ongoing project!
No, we don’t have any blow up thing in the cover. It is just a simple polyurethane outer with a reflective inner coating, and tensioning straps with snap fitting clips.
Ahhh OK, ours has a blow up thing, I think to help keep it warm but also helps with the run off, although there is still a little around the edges. We came up with the under spa insulation idea after seeing a YouTube video of a guy replacing the blow up with the rigid insulation, he apparently really reduced his heating costs.
That’s what we use, I think w need to be better at doing it daily though, I think that’s maybe why it is always low. Been doing 60ml but not daily, more because we are a bit dippy and foget if not using it!
Mine had a separate low flow/pressure circulation pump that ran constantly through the filters. The high pressure pumps were manually selected with a Balboa system controller and on a 15 minute cycle
Thats pretty much the norm, but some push all the water when the higher pressure pumps kick in through the filter as they are often on the bottom of the surface skimmer.
10 mins of spa activity doesnt cost much. The small filtration pump should be very low cost it just down to the heating. If you have a boiler you could use that via a blending valve set to 37c or what ever you prefer. Most heaters are 3kw so 75 cents per hour with a minimum run of 4 hours probably. No need to heat if you are not using it. Solar is ideal.
I need to have a look anyway, we hadn’t user it in a couple of weeks with the rain so had a heating day plus a top up yesterday, I’ll let you know. The pump we run everyday minimum 8 hours.
What sort of system would you do for solar on an inflatable?
Mine would heat at about 2C an hour, so incoming mains water was 13C, target temp at 38 C so about 13 hours at 0.60 cents/hour, so about 8 euros. I reckoned on average about 3 hours a day to maintain the temperature , so with pump use 3 or 4 euros/ day (€100/month). However it cost us very little when we were allowed to use our hydro-electric turbine.
Now thats interesting, its a small volume of water. Once its gone through the filter 4x you have filtered 98% of the water so its not going to get much better thsn that at which point it could be switched off. Alternativley putting a speed controller on the pump would slow down the flow which would filter a little better but more importantly save at least 50% of the electricity.
For your spa I think I would go with a pod, or two.
Or depending on what you want to do as I am going to use evacuated solar tubes to heat the pool, heat the hot water and under floor heating when the pool is closed. Well thats the theory
A 10 tube array would heat your hot water tank and then keep the spa nice and warm.
I gave my son 20 of the blue thin interlocking plastic/silicone floor tiles from Decathlon that I bought when the granddaughter was able to sit up on the floor so if she rolled over she did not hurt her head, people put them together to make exercise mats! They have been sitting in a pile so I suggested he put them under the replacement spa and hey presto, its warmer than its ever been as they have helped to warm it up from underneath on the concrete patio. They cost approx €1,20 each when I bought them last year, so a cheap insulation method.
