Having your favorite soothing bath in your hot tub is surely one of the most pleasant experiences you can have in the winter season.
It’s a luxurious experience which not everyone gets to enjoy.
Though buying a premium quality hot tub might cost you a few thousand dollars, you can still get a few hot tubs at affordable cost too.
But along with soothing bath experience and body relaxation, hot tubs bring a number of issues with them as well.
For example, these hot tubs do have slow heating rate, air inflation issues, control panel issues, and many others.
For this, a swimming pool comes to your mind as the best replacement.
It doesn’t require electricity connectivity, no leakage issues, and no control panel.
Building your own swimming pool can be one of the wisest decisions you have ever made.
Its all worth it because it is usually free from many of the above mentioned issues that hot tub possesses.
To enjoy your soothing bath experience in your pool, you just need to heat it up, that’s it.
But how do you heat up your entire swimming pool?
Suppose you used to have a high-quality hot tub for your regular bathing but you don’t have it any more now.
And the hot tub heater is still there.
So, the question is can you heat up your pool with the hot tub heater.
If you are looking for a quick answer, then I would say “Yes”.
Yes, it is possible to heat up your pool using a hot tub heater.
A good quality hot tub heater has the capacity of heating up 500 gallons of water at a time.
The heating rate, though, is a bit low which is 3-5 degrees per hour at a power of 4-5 kilowatts.
However, good quality pool heaters are way more powerful than hot tub heaters.
Still the fact is that you can use both types of heaters to heat up your swimming pool water.
But is it a good idea to heat up your pool with a hot tub heater?
How to heat up your pool with a hot tub heater?
There are many other questions that must be going on in your mind right now.
But worry not, as I have got you covered properly.
In this article, I will be solving all your doubts about heating your swimming pool using a hot tub heater.
Just read this article thoroughly to get all your answers.
Table of Contents
- Is It a Good Idea to Heat Your Swimming Pool with a Hot Tub Heater?
- How Does a Hot Tub Heater Work?
- 7 Cheapest Ways to Heat up Your Swimming Pool
- How Long Does it Take to Heat up a Pool with a Hot Tub Heater?
- How Much Water Can a Hot Tub Heater Heat up per Minute?
- Pool Heater vs Hot Tub Heater – What is The Most Cost-Effective Option?
Is It a Good Idea to Heat Your Swimming Pool with a Hot Tub Heater?
Before finding out whether or not heating your swimming pool with a hot tub heater is a good idea, you need to know some facts in advance.
1. The hot tub heaters are less powerful as compared to the typical swimming pool water heaters.
2. A pool water heater heats up water 4 times faster than a hot tub water heater.
3. Hot tub water heaters operate at less energy than most of the pool water heaters and hence consume less electricity.
So basically, they are more economical and budget-friendly option for you.
Looking at the aforementioned facts, it all depends on your actual preferences and requirements.
If you are looking to heat up your pool water without spending too much money from your pocket, then using a hot tub heater is obviously a good idea.
On the other hand, if you want your pool water to get heated up in a short time and at less electrical billing cost, then using a pool water heater is the best option.
One reason that puts me back from using a hot tub heater for heating my pool is the safety of the heater.
In many cases, I have seen that heating pool water using a spa heater or a hot tub heater tends to deteriorate its life span or durability of that machine much faster.
Your spa heater might get wear and tear all over if you use it at high power for a long duration.
In my opinion, you can try out heating up your pool water with a hot tub heater for a shorter duration.
For long term heating, you must use a good quality swimming pool heater.
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How Does a Hot Tub Heater Work?
So now you know that it is possible to heat up your swimming pool using your hot tub heater.
But how? What are the elements and factors that make your spa heater heat up the water in your swimming pool as well?
How does your spa water heater get enough power?
To know all this, you need to know how a hot tub heater really works.
And the good news is, we have covered it thoroughly below, just for you.
A spa water heater is not like the other regular water heaters present in your home.
It is more likely those tankless water heaters that have just ripped apart the market in the past decade.
The best part about these heaters is that they heat upon demand.
Unlike a regular water heater, they don’t come with a tank.
Water is pulled up from the housing assembly by the pressure pumps.
As water passes through the heater assembly, it gets heated up by an element coil.
Then, the water is sent to the distribution box for dispersion of the water heated up.
It gets connected with different jets here and is pushed forcefully pushed through small nozzles.
The cycle continues to give you a continuous flow of hot water either in your hot tub or in your pool.
The heat-generating power of the heater mainly depends on the scale buildup inside the machine.
If the machine has excessive scale buildup, it will reduce the power of the tool and may lead to malfunctioning as well.
7 Cheapest Ways to Heat up Your Swimming Pool
No one wants to spend millions of dollars just for heating up their swimming pool.
So, why not find a cheap way to make your swimming pool water warm without spending too much of hard earned money.
And yes, the water needs to get warmed properly as well.
For money savers like us, I have got some great cheap ideas you can implement to warm up your swimming pool water.
Now enjoy the same soothing hot bath in your swimming pool without spending every penny out of your pocket.
Here are the cheapest ways for heating your swimming pool without spending too much cash.
1. By using a solar pool cover for a swimming pool
2. Getting solar sun rings that will keep your pool water warm
3. By getting a whole new liquid solar pool cover that will never let you feel cold
4. Don’t you want to buy additional attachments?
Why not get a windproof pool enclosure built?
5. Have you heard of the black hose trick to heat up your pool water? Give it a try!
6. A reliable pool heat pump can get everything done and that too within your budget
7. What’s better than the combination of a solar pool cover and a pool heat pump!
I know these ways might sound a bit different.
But what’s wrong with giving them a try?
I am sure you will save a good amount of money by trying out these alternatives to heat up your swimming pool.
How Long Does it Take to Heat up a Pool with a Hot Tub Heater?
The actual answer varies anywhere from 2-3 days depending upon the area of your swimming pool, water quantity and actual capacity of hot tub heater.
If you don’t know, it takes around 6 hours for a hot tub heater to heat water from tap temperature to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a hot tub/spa.
But that’s not the case with the pool owners.
Not all pool owners want their pool water to be warm up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In fact, most want it to be near 78-83 degrees.
So, can the spa heater heat up your pool water much faster?
No, the gallons of water come into play here.
Suppose you own a 15,000-gallon swimming pool and you want to heat it up from a temperature of 70 degrees to a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, as we know that a spa heater can heat up 500 gallons of water at a rate of 5 degrees per hour.
At this speed, it will take around more than 2 days to get your pool water heated up properly.
Also, the time taken may increase when you think of the heat loss from the pool water.
In the case of a hot tub, owners used to have hot tub covers to prevent heat losses.
But the fact is, pool owners usually don’t use pool covers.
And because of this, the pool water loses heat which increases the time taken to heat it up.
The other and the most crucial issue you might face while warming pool water using a spa heater is that it can get wear and tear all around.
Since spa heaters are specially built for heating hot tubs which are much smaller as compared to pools.
Also, the machine is designed to heat a smaller volume of water.
In all this, when you heat up a big pool using that small heater, it needs to run all day long which can damage its heating elements severely.
How Much Water Can a Hot Tub Heater Heat up per Minute?
Well, I have mentioned clearly in the above sections that a hot tub heater can heat up 500 gallons of water at a rate of 5 degrees per hour.
From this, you can do some simple math and find out how much water it can heat per minute.
But relax, I have done everything for you in advance.
At its average power, a hot tub heater will heat 2-5 gallons (7-14 liters) of water in a minute.
Pool Heater vs Hot Tub Heater – What is The Most Cost-Effective Option?
If your main focus is only on saving money along with getting your pool heated up, then you must go for hot tub heaters.
Spa heaters come way cheaper than those typical swimming pool heaters and they may save you some hundreds and thousands of dollars in the short run and long term.
But if everything goes so proper with the hot tub heaters, then why there is a greater need for the typical swimming pool heaters.
The most valid answer to this question is because of the speed, efficiency, and power offered by a pool heater.
As we know, hot tub heaters are less powerful than pool heaters.
They also heat up your pool water for a much longer period.
For these main two reasons, a pool heater was introduced in the market.
There is another reason why pool heaters are recommended for heating pool water.
When you heat your pool with a spa heating machine, it has to run all day long because of the slow heating speed.
Due to the overloading, the machine usually gets damaged and the heating element gets broken.
Though replacing it is cheaper than buying a pool heating machine, what if the heating elements keep getting torn time and time.
It will ultimately cost you more money than you would have spent on buying a new pool heater.
So, it all comes down to your own preferences and actual requirements.
If you want things within the budget, go for a hot tub heater.
And if you are looking for long-run equipment for heating your pool, a typical pool heater is what you need.
References:
https://www.infinitepools.com/2018/09/11/separate-heater-pool-spa/
https://www.hydropoolhottubs.com/en/About_Us/Blog/2018/May/how-hot-tub-heaters-work
https://theinfinitekitchen.com/recipe/will-a-hot-tub-heater-work-on-a-pool/
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/tankless-or-demand-type-water-heaters