Can Inflatable Hot Tubs Be Used In Winter?

With one easy step, inflatable hot tubs can maintain their temperature all winter. Inflatable hot tubs are designed to be used when the temperatures are above forty degrees, yet many users, including our family, have found ways to use them all winter long.

Can Inflatable Hot Tubs Be Used All Winter Long?

Inflatable hot tubs can be used in the winter with the addition of a thin layer of closed-cell foam insulation inside the cover called a hot tub thermal cover. In the winter, the heat escapes too quickly from the top of the hot tub without this extra layer of insulation, but with it, the hot tub stays hot all winter long.

For the past three winters, we have enjoyed our inflatable hot tub during countless snowfalls and on freezing nights. It runs all year long. We live in New England with four-seasons and snowy winters.

The first winter we had a hard time keeping the temperature up on the coldest nights and experimented with all kinds of things to keep it hot. By the third winter, we had become pros with one easy discovery the hot tub stays hot all the time.

The Secret To Using Inflatable Hot Tubs All Winter

There are two easy options we have found to keep the hot tub temperature up and neither require any special skill, thank goodness. Both options keep the heat from escaping through the hot tub cover on cold nights when the hot tub mainly loses heat through the top and sides of the hot tub cover. We learned early on that even a tarp over the hot tub helped prevent wind, rain, and snow from lowering the hot tub temperature a little bit, but unless we added more insulation under the tarp, it still wasn’t quite enough.

The Easy Solution to Keeping Your Hot Tub Hot All Winter Long:

Your first option, and the solution we personally used, is to order a special piece of closed-cell foam insulation that keeps heat from escaping through the hot tub cover. Cut it to size so that it will fit snugly inside your hot tub. (Note that it comes in two sizes and the 6 x 6 is the right size for both a 4-person hot tub like the Coleman SuluSpa, and for a 6-person hot tub, such as the Intex Pure Spa.)

When you get the foam, you cut it to the exact size of your hot tub and it then sits on top of the water between the water and cover, not allowing heat to escape. This adds an amazing amount of heat retention to the cover and this trick is also used by owners of non-inflatable hot tubs having trouble with heat escaping through their old, poorly-insulated hot tub covers. The cover of an inflatable hot tub is its weak spot. This is where heat escapes on cold, windy, and snowy nights.

When we got our thermal cover in the mail it was really cold outside that day and we actually just lazily placed ours over the top of the hot tub cover without cutting it, and put a heavy-duty tarp on top (held down on a few edges with cinderblocks). It worked like a charm and because we have been too lazy to cut it to size, we are still using it the way I described.

However, the directions and all other reviewers do cut it to size and have had raving success in improving the insulation of their hot tubs for wintertime use.

What I learned from this great success is that during the coldest nights, inflatable hot tubs lose heat from the top of the hot tub through the cover, which is only insulated with air. As soon as we added a layer of insulation to the top, we have never had the water temperature drop.

Option Number Two …Even Easier

The other method is similar and it involves an upgraded cover that has a layer of foam built into it and long sides that extend all the way to the ground, which keeps heat from escaping. Intex sells this upgraded cover only for the 4-person hot tubs only, so because we have a 6-person hot tub I ordered the closed-cell foam thermal cover instead. Otherwise, I probably would have gone with this option.

Both methods treat the same problem by adding a layer of foam insulation to the top of the hot tub. The upgraded cover has the foam built into the cover, and the closed-cell foam is excellent because it doesn’t flake or crumble like other foams we have tried in the past.

So there you have it! Our top-secret solution to keeping our inflatable hot tubs running hot all winter long.

I really hope you take the plunge and get an inflatable hot tub. They are worth every dime for the experience they enable you to have. I grew up living near natural mineral hot springs in Idaho and when I moved to New England I really missed the magical feeling of soaking outside in hot water in the middle of a snowstorm. Being able to have that experience with my kids has been amazing.

It’s been a lot of fun for our family to be outside together in our swimming suits all winter long.

The upgraded hot tub cover with built-in foam or the closed-cell thermal cover are both great solutions if you live somewhere with cold winters, otherwise, the inflatable hot tubs run great the other three seasons without any insulation help needed.

RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCE

For a Four-Person Inflatable Hot Tub winter use set-up :

The Coleman SaluSpa 4-Person Hot Tub or the Intex Pure Spa 4-Person Hot tub with the upgraded Delux Cover from Intex for wintertime heat retention. (Yes, I can verify that even though it is an Intex cover, it DOES INDEED fit and work perfectly with the Coleman 4-person hot tub. As of this year, it’s the only upgraded cover with built-in foam like this available that I have found. Hopefully, in the future, the inflatable hot tub companies will upgrade all of their covers with this heat-retention feature, but for now, this upgraded cover or a thermal cover closed-cell foam is the answer.

For a Six-person Inflatable Hot Tub winter use set-up:

The Intex Pure Spa 6-person with a Hot Tub Thermal Cover and that’s all you need if you cut the foam to size and float it on the water.

If you don’t want to cut the foam to size and would rather lay it over the top of the cover like we did, you will also need a heavy-duty tarp to cover the foam with. We like this set-up because the foam doesn’t get wet, though based on a plethora of reviews, both ways work great.

Peace of Mind

The online reviews for both the thermal cover and the deluxe hot tub cover are filled with tales from other inflatable hot tub users who went through the same process we did and are happy to report they found something easy that worked to keep their hot tubs hot all winter long, so check out the reviews here and here before buying for the added peace of mind.

If you are wondering how long inflatable hot tubs last and if they are worth the price, read what I wrote about that here.

Happy Soaking!

-MJ