Year-Round Soaking in Tennessee

A hot tub is built to run in every month of the year. You can use it on a cold evening as easily as a mild one, which makes it a year-round purchase. That also means the build of the spa matters. This article explains what keeps a spa hot and ready all year, and what a warm-water soak does for you.

Built to run all year

Cold weather raises heating cost. It also makes a tight cover and good insulation more important. A well-built spa is designed for that. Hot Spring's Limelight and Hot Spot collections and Caldera's Utopia, Paradise and Vacanza series fill the cabinet with FiberCor® insulation. Hot Spring's Highlife Collection uses several layers of high-density foam over an insulated base pan.

An efficient heater, such as Hot Spring's No-Fault® heater, keeps the water at your set temperature. A circulation pump moves water through the heater and filter at low wattage between soaks. On Highlife, Limelight and Hot Spot spas, a pump shroud also captures heat from the equipment and returns it to the water. A cover with a dense foam core and a tight seal holds that heat in. What a spa costs to run depends on the model, the temperature you set, how often you use it, the outdoor temperature and your electric rate. (More on running cost in our cost-to-run guide.)

What a warm-water soak does for you

Warm-water hydrotherapy works through three forces at once. People have soaked in warm water for centuries, and many hospitals and physical therapists use the same ideas today:

• Heat raises your body temperature and increases blood circulation. That helps muscles relax and eases everyday stiffness.
• Buoyancy takes stress off your joints and muscles, so you can move with less strain.
• Massage from the jets relaxes muscles, ligaments and tendons. It also prompts the release of endorphins, the body's own feel-good chemicals.

Owners put those benefits to work in a few common ways:

• A daily reset. About twenty minutes a day in the spa can turn stress into relaxation and clear your head. Many people use it as screen-free time once the day is done.
• A better wind-down before sleep. An evening soak raises your core temperature. After you get out, it drops slowly, and that cool-down signals your body that it is time to sleep. Many owners say they sleep better.
• Recovery after a workout, or a workday. Heat, buoyancy and jet massage help tired muscles loosen up. On Hot Spring's Highlife® Collection, Moto-Massage® DX sends two streams of water up and down your back. Caldera's Hot Tub Circuit Therapy® moves you from seat to seat, and each seat works a different muscle group.

A note on wellness: a hot tub is a wellness product, not a medical treatment, and everyone's different. We talk about how a soak feels and how it supports your routine, not about curing anything. If you have a health condition or you're pregnant, check with your doctor about warm-water soaking first.

The bigger picture: your own wellness routine

A soak works well by itself. It works even better as one part of a routine. Hot Tubs of Tennessee carries the whole backyard wellness family under one roof. That means Hot Spring and Caldera hot tubs, and Tylö saunas with rock-and-steam or infrared heat. It also means Endless Pools swim spas for low-impact exercise, and Vigor and Emerge cold plunges to pair with a soak. Move, recover, reset. You can build a routine around all of them.

This is general wellness information, not medical advice.