8 minutes
To Use, or Not to Use your hot tub in Winter? Why we think you should!
It’s dark, it’s cold, perhaps it’s even snowing, but the sky is clear, the stars are out on full display and the air is clean and fresh. Get where we are going with this? For those of us, who are lucky enough to live in Wales and the west of England, where the views and panorama can be out of this world, what better way is there to enjoy time outdoors in the wintertime? Absolutely, we believe that using your hot tub or swim spa in winter can be a wonderful experience!
When the time of year changes, and it starts getting darker earlier, many of us start to spend more time indoors, but this is also exactly the time that having a hot tub or swim spa has its best benefits. They are perfect for giving us a pick me up, some much needed warmth and hydrotherapy. Keeping our muscles warm, as well as the jets being great for our circulation system, aiding restful sleep, hot tubs and swim spas are perfect cures for the winter blues! Read more about Reasons to Buy a Hot Tub for more advice if you are looking into investing in one.
Buying a well-insulated, quality hot tub or swim spa also means that you can run them constantly all year and still be pleasantly surprised by the cost of running them. Some benefits to running them during winter time :
Wellness & Wellbeing
A lot of us tend to suffer from colds and bugs during the colder months, even flu. We think there is no better way to keep your respiratory system healthy – who hasn’t tried the steam in a bowl method to help cure a head cold or worse?! Immersing yourself in a warm steam environment in your hot tub is the perfect solution. Even better, adding some aromatherapy crystals are a great idea – try Eucalyptus for keeping your sinus’ clear or some muscle therapy – and just relax! You can buy a great range of treats from the Oyster Pools & Hot Tubs retail shop. Great for stress relief too!
Soothing the body
Who doesn’t tend to feel stiff in the winter months? Getting out of bed seems to be such a hard task?! That can just be the majority of us, but for those who suffer from arthritis, joint or muscle pain, and experience inflammation, winter can be a really tough time. Relaxing in warm water with the various jets targeting a range of muscle and joint groups, hot tubs can be the best healing power around, even in the harshest of weather. Equally so for sports men and women when it comes to warming the body prior to, and relaxing post, exercise.
Keeping warm
As you have been reading, hot tubs are made for wintertime as well as at any other time of year, so sitting in warm water when it is cold around you can make you feel very cosy and toasty! The temperature of your tub is obviously down to your personal preference but given the normal temperature during mild months is often 38 degrees centigrade, you may or may not wish to turn it up, or in some cases, down, just a little. Making sure that you retain as much heat as possible when the hot tub is not in use is very important to help with running costs. Read our article on Energy Saving Tips for your hot tub for more information on that.
Enjoy your garden all year round
Instead of finishing up your gardening and saying goodbye to al your plants until spring time, why not make a winter wonder of your garden and enjoy it from your hot tub instead?! Hot tubs have some great, and cost effective, LED lighting in all sorts of wonderful colours that can add a great ambience to your hot tub experience. If you have a gazebo you can hang some extra lights for extra relaxing vibes! Why not treat yourself to a floating spa bar for some drinks and snacks too?
We hope this has given you food for thought in continuing to use your hot tub for what it does best for us during the wintertime.
Some tips on how to deal with preparing yourself and your hot tub for use in winter, and some good advice on making sure you stay safe:
Keep your extremities warm!
Don’t forget, that even though your body is immersed in soothing hot water, your head is not! Some of us wear some headwear, whether it be a bobble hat or cap of some kind, just to retain the heat on our heads. On your way to and from the hot tub, keep your slippers and a robe handy. Some hot tub users keep a hanging rail not far to grab them easily and quickly.
You could also think about having an external patio heater, which can radiate heat nicely, if you wanted to stay warm when getting out of your tub. You may already have a firepit or feature fire right next to your hot tub!
Why not think about putting an extra mat out as well, so that you have a dry place to stand whilst getting in and out, before you make a dash to the house!
Be mindful of the time you spend in your hot tub in winter – we can often get carried away! At Oyster Pools & Hot Tubs we suggest that 20-30 minutes is about the right amount of time for a great soak in your hot tub in the winter months. To keep yourself hydrated, having some water with you is also a good idea and trying not to drink too much alcohol is another!
Be kind to your hot tub
If you don’t have one already, (which you will as standard when buying a hot tub or swim spa with Oyster) then investing in a hot tub cover, or enclosure, is one of the best ways to keep your hot tub in good condition throughout the winter, stops debris from gathering and retains heat wonderfully. It also means that your water chemistry remains healthy and therefore aids less chemical use. If you have had snow, don’t forget to clear any that has settled on your cover, before taking the cover off.
Keep an eye on your water level every few days to ensure that it doesn’t get too low. Allowing the level to drop could potentially cause issues with freezing, including pipework, pumps and heating system. Keeping things going with the water cycling will help everything flow nicely.
Don’t neglect your hot tub in wintertime. Keeping things clean, the water maintained, cleaning and/or replacing the filter are necessary as part of regular maintenance and will ensure things operate at their optimum level over winter.
The team at Oyster hope you enjoy your hot tub in wintertime and for those who perhaps are thinking about ‘winterising’ and closing down their hot tubs in the cold months, we hope you may now have a rethink!
If you do however wish to close down your hot tub for the winter months, we offer this service, so just contact us and one of our engineers can visit to do this for you.
Happy winter hot-tubbing everyone!
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Feel free to contact us at any time – we are always happy to help!
