Advanced options
Hire includes what ownership doesn't: delivery, setup, chemicals sorted, and CRUCIALLY someone else pays the heat-up (an inflatable takes ~20-40 kWh to reach 38C from cold: GBP 5-11 of electricity before anyone's in). Owned tubs kept hot run GBP 60-120/month in electricity: see the hot tub running cost calculator. Hire for occasions, buy only if it'd be a weekly habit: the flat February tub in the garden is the classic ending.
What The Hot Tub Hire Calculator Works Out
- Hiring per year: the weekend hire price multiplied by how often you would book. UK weekend hire runs GBP 180-280 delivered, installed and chemically balanced, with the heat-up electricity on the hire firm's meter.
- Buying breaks even at: the purchase price divided by the hire price, rounded up, so a GBP 400 inflatable against GBP 220 hires looks paid for after two bookings. The sub-line converts that into years at your hiring rate.
- What buying really costs: the reminder that ownership adds GBP 80-120 a year of chemicals and filters, the heat-up electricity every time, and a flat February tub as the classic ending.
- Chemicals and filters (advanced): the annual consumables line for an owned tub, GBP 80-120 for most inflatables, editable for the owner who buys in bulk or the one who overdoses the chlorine.
- Uses per year if owned (advanced): ownership usually gets used more than hire would, which is the whole case for buying; set it honestly because every use also costs a heat-up.
- Heat-up electricity and unit rate (advanced): an inflatable needs roughly 20-40 kWh to reach 38C from cold. Multiplied by the unit rate (defaults to the current Ofgem price cap) that is GBP 5-11 before anyone gets in. Tubs kept permanently hot cost GBP 60-120 a month instead.
- Tub lifespan (advanced): inflatables typically last 2-4 seasons before punctures, pump failure or the garage claims them, so the purchase price is spread over that life rather than counted once.
- Delivery or deposit per hire (advanced): any extra charge the hire firm adds, added to the hire-per-use card.
- Owning per year and per use (advanced): amortised tub plus chemicals plus heat-ups, and that figure divided by the uses you entered, for a like-for-like comparison with the hire price.
- Real break-even and lifetime totals (advanced): the uses per year at which owning beats hiring once running costs are included, and the total spend under each route over the tub's life. Hire wins for the occasional household; owning wins only when the hire habit has already proved weekly use.