Relaxation, Quality Time and More
Discover What Hot Tubs Can Bring to Your Home
Soothing, relaxing and luxurious may come to mind when you consider having a hot tub in your home. Conversely, the upkeep and maintenance may seem stressful. But those myths can be debunked, and opens the door to warming up both mentally and physically this winter.
There’s something for everyone when it comes to the benefits gleaned from an at-home hot tub or spa (more on that later!), and they also offer a wide variety in terms of experience.
“Not all hot tubs are created equal,” Ryan Castonia, Owner of Fox Valley Pool And Spa in Appleton explains. “While it is true that every hot tub has hot water and jets, everything else can and does vary. The jetting from one brand to another can vary greatly and the comfort can too. A hot tub is not one size fits all and can truly be a personalized decision, so take your time while searching for the perfect hot tub.”
“There is everything from DIY, cedar hot tubs—where all it does is heat—all the way to the full, intense massage therapy,” Sanchez agrees. “For lack of a better way to describe it, it’s kind of like the car industry: there’s good, better, best.”
In-Home Hot Tubs + Water Care
While hot tubs have the capacity to help users in a variety of ways, does your space have the capacity to hold a hot tub? Determining it comes with a few questions, beginning with what type of model you’re interested in.
“For example, the idea of a lounger sounds really nice, but if you really want to use it more socially, then maybe it’s not the right fit,” Sanchez says. “There’s that balance of trying to figure out what’s the purpose, what do you want to accomplish with that hot tub?”
To ensure you can install a hot tub at your home, our experts suggest making sure your home has the electrical capacity—utilizing an electrician is wise—to power the hot tub. Then comes placement and installation.
Hot tubs can go on a variety of surfaces, as long as it’s solid, flat ground—a concrete pad, crushed gravel, etc. Setting up an in-person consultation or sending your hot tub supplier photos of placement and doorways help in determining future steps regarding installation.
Once in, TLC in terms of water care determines the experience.
“The one thing I’m asked over and over is what the maintenance is like. People are afraid of the maintenance, and it’s really not that bad,” Keith Hueffner, Owner, Master Spas of Northern Wisconsin in Appleton explains. “It’s very easy to take care of.”
“With advancements in water filtration and semi-automated water care routines, it is not necessary to interact with the hot tub daily,” Castonia agrees. “After the initial fill up and chemical balancing, most hot tubs will only require weekly maintenance which typically takes 5-10 minutes at most.”
“It can get confusing and it can get overwhelming in the context of what needs to happen to make it easy,” Sanchez adds. “Our goal is to maximize your water so it’s as easy as possible to care for your hot tub.
“We’re all trained in water care to understand the basis of water chemistry in general. We take a lot of pride in that and helping customers understand why certain things matter: alkalinity, for example… if it’s not happy, other things aren’t happy.”
“For our customers, we provide what we call a ‘New Hot Tubber Orientation’ with all hot tubs we sell, and we go over all of the water care and maintenance that could be required,” Castonia adds. “Really the only misconception I can think of right now, which would also relate to swimming pools, is that there is no such thing as a chemical-free hot tub.
“To keep your hot tub clean and healthy, you need a chemical sanitizer, which is usually chlorine. And while on the subject of chlorine, it needs to be known that salt water is still chlorine, it is just an automated way of creating chlorine.”
“There is a mineral filtration system that works with the ozone and that sanitizes the water,” Hueffner adds. “It makes your maintenance a lot less. You test to make sure you’re at the right level, but the filter helps.”
Oxygen is a natural sanitizer, allowing you to use less chlorine in the hot tub.
“Unique to Caldera and Hot Spring, they are the only salt water hot tubs,” Sanchez says. “We have a patented saltwater system. Hands down, it’s amazing. It’s super soft on your skin, super soft on your hair. It almost feels like a moisture-based lotion coming out of the hot tub.”
Traditional chlorine hot tubs should be drained and refilled every 3 to 4 months, while saltwater hot tubs can go up to about a year (depending on who is using it and how often).
Water Therapy and More At Home
Hydrotherapy, or water therapy, isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s been around for centuries, and brings with it an array of benefits—both mental and physical.
“There are significant health benefits when it comes to hot water and then the massage therapy that comes from a spa,” Naletta Sanchez, Owner and Hot Tubber at The Spa Team in Appleton, says. “Even just allowing your muscles to relax and giving your body a break from the everyday stress. Just 15 minutes a day in a hot tub makes a major difference in functionality.
“This is their time that they’re going to center themselves and find that place where they need to be. Whether it’s for physical or mental health.”
Heat itself promotes circulation and speeds up removal of lactic acid, while the buoyancy of the water lifts the effects of gravity and takes the pressure off joints for pain relief. Hydrotherapy and hydromassage can be used to relieve the symptoms of a multitude of maladies including stress, arthritis, sleeplessness, fibromyalgia, lower-back pain, post-exercise soreness, and leg cramps/restless legs syndrome.
“The hot tub industry is starting to mature—weird to say when hot tubs have existed for over 50 years,” Castonia says. “I think the newest technology or soon to be future technology will have mostly to do with built-in water care that will minimize the need for the consumer to regularly check their hot tub and advancements in hydrotherapy.
“Sundance Spas, the brand that we represent, just this last year introduced a percussive therapy jet that has dual pulsating streams of water to mimic the feel of a massage gun.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, the long-term activation of the stress-response system can disrupt almost all of your body’s natural processes and put you at increased risk for numerous health problems. It has been shown that just ten minutes in a hot tub each day can dissolve stress and relieve headaches by increasing blood flow and soothing muscles.
Spending time in a hot tub helps with insomnia, combatting stress and anxiety, elevating quality of life.
And while the health benefits are positive enough, there’s more to owning a hot tub than might initially meet the eye.
“It’s excellent for family time,” Hueffner says. “You get away from the iPads, the phones, the hydrotherapy is tremendous. It’s always there for you too. It’s always ready to use.”
“Kids start talking! Sanchez agrees. “It’s amazing the amount of information you get from your kids when you go into that hot tub!” Sanchez agrees. “The quality family discussion that you get is amazing. You learn all of these things about your kids! There’s this level of communication and openness that occurs in a hot tub between parents and kids.
“It has this relaxing quality, you don’t bring electronics into the hot tub. At the same time, you’re together, there’s this sense of relief. There’s this ‘Ahh’ that comes when you sit in the hot tub. You feel the stress of the day drift away.”
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