Drop-in Hot Tubs Attached to Pools

Drop-in Hot Tubs

• A drop-in hot tub is also called a portable spa. It is different from a concrete spa, which you cannot move after installation. A drop-in hot tub offers you the freedom of installing it anywhere you like in your backyard, including on a deck or in the ground beside a pool. A spa attached to a pool offers you the pleasure of soaking in hot water, then shifting over to the cooler water in the pool without leaving the confines of your pool area.

Installation

• It is easiest to install an attached drop-in tub at the same time you install your pool. Both the spa and the pool need to have plumbing and electrical lines run to them, so excavation might take place across the whole of your yard. It is more cost-efficient to dig out two large holes at the same time. You can attach a drop-in hot tub to your pool years after its installation, too; but you will need to dig up your yard all over again to run the plumbing, and you run the risk of damaging the pool or its plumbing while digging next to it.

Requirements

• If you are installing a drop-in hot tub at the same time as the pool, you can purchase a circulation system that meets the requirements of both a pool and a spa. If you are installing the tub after the fact, you might be able to connect it to the pool’s filtration system. A hot tub has more stringent requirements than a pool does when it comes to sanitation, heat and water circulation, so you will need to install new systems for the tub.

Considerations

• For a truly "attached" hot tub and pool, you need to install both a cement pool and a cement spa with a cement patio tying them together, or an aboveground pool and hot tub with decking tying them together. By placing a drop-in hot tub beside a pool and using the same decking and landscaping schemes, you can unify the two elements even if you're doing so years apart. Installing a drop-in hot tub as an above-ground unit is easier, but it will not appear as connected to the pool unless the pool is aboveground and the pool decking is replaced and expanded as necessary.