when I agreed To try a SaluSpa Ibiza hot tub for work (it’s a tough life, I know), I thought it would be a relatively simple process. I thought I’d put it on my deck and fill it up. You can put them anywhere, right? Mistaken. With 222 gallons of water, this thing would weigh more than 1 ton if you put two average-sized adults in it, let alone the four to six that the gigantic box says it can hold.
So no, you can’t just put it on a deck, unless your deck is specifically built to support a literal ton of weight and water. In my backyard, directly on the grass, it would be. My raccoon-filled backyard, which runs to a native prairie, is surrounded by shady oaks and has a penchant for branches and nuts raining down as soon as the wind blows above 3 mph.
I thought I could plug it in anywhere. Bad again. Technically, it’s supposed to be on an isolated circuit. The manual recommends that a professional electrician install a dedicated outlet for your hot tub and only your hot tub. Even if the outlet has GCFI built in, similar to a hair dryer, you don’t want to waste time mixing water and electricity. I just plugged it into a heavy duty outdoor extension cord (another no-no, please don’t do this) and crossed my fingers, rushing to unplug it from my back porch wall every time it rained because I was afraid to start. a fire, but not terrified enough to listen to the instructions in the first place. I digress.
Photography: Louryn Strampe
Speaking of rain, I thought the cover would protect my hot tub from the elements. The third time is the charm: I was wrong again. The SaluSpa Ibiza has a clever floating square that gives some structure to the tarp-like cover, but water, acorns, ants, and mosquito eggs still collected on top whenever it rained. In August in northern Illinois, this happens frequently. Don’t get me started on earwigs. to quote world of warcraftI wasn’t prepared. There were no string lights, no romantic citronella candles, no relaxing under the stars and watching the snow fall peacefully. I was a sweaty girl in the middle of a heat wave with a job to do.
And another problem: When the hot tub arrived in late December, I didn’t anticipate that two weeks later I would slip on the ice and break my ankle. The pesky Midwest weather strikes again. After months of rehab, I finally installed the tub in late summer; at exactly the opposite time when it would have been ideal to do so. None of these factors are detrimental to the hot tub itself. But my review requires several grains of salt.
Towards the Lede
The SaluSpa Ibiza is easy to set up, but the instructions are poor. I followed much of the setup along this youtube video and I made my way through the rest. Basically, you set up the pump, use it to inflate the body of the 6-by-6-foot tub and the floating cover, and then fill the tub with water. The canvas top cover fits around the tub with car seat-style latches that aren’t the easiest to release with wet hands, but that’s finicky. They work well. My tub filled faster than I thought, in about 90 minutes, but it took almost two days to heat up, even in the summer heat. I imagine this would take much longer in the brutal Illinois winters.
Photography: Louryn Strampe