An Affordable, Durable Hard Sided Portable Hot Tub? We Found it

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By Ed

A few years ago we bought a weekend getaway property in the country.  It is on a little river that is pretty to look at, catch fish in and enjoy a beverage on the dock, but it isn’t great for swimming.

We’ve been trying to come up with ways to add that ‘swimming’ element that every great vacation property should have. What we needed was a spa – a hard sided portable hot tub to be specific.

Hot tubs are a great addition to most properties. Vacation properties command higher rental rates and position your property near the top of the market. We don’t plan on renting our property out right now, but we want to add value.

Is there anything more relaxing than soaking in a hot tub under the stars?

Oh yeah and HOT TUBS ARE SUPER FUN!  How did I almost miss that one?!

We had some very specific criteria for our hot tub search:

1.  Affordable.

We obviously wanted to not pay too much money, so all the $10,000+ super-spas were instantly out of the running.

2. Good reputation. 

There seem to be more hot tub manufacturers out there now than ever and lots of discount models. We wanted a company/tub that had been around and had positive feedback and warranty support.

3. Portable. 

When our vacation property is closed for the winter, we wanted a hot tub at home to enjoy.  One that is too cumbersome and heavy to move wouldn’t do that for us. And it would be cool if we didn’t have to hire a team of big dudes to move it for us.

4. Durable.

We have a dog – and while he won’t be using the Hot Tub, he may put his paws on it at some point. The idea of an inflatable hot tub (like many affordable/portable models out there) frightened us a bit a lot. We knew we needed a hard sided portable hot tub.

5.  Simple and Self Contained.

We’re clever enough (or at least, we tell ourselves that), but the more straightforward installation and maintenance could be, the better.

6.  Energy Efficient.

It needs to be both affordable upfront, but also on an ongoing basis.  

Electricity is the way most Hot Tubs run. Electricity rates probably aren’t getting cheaper anytime soon, and it would be foolish to buy a cheap hot tub that ends up costing us in the long run on utility bills.

After hours of research, we narrowed it down to one.  It looked like a hard sided portable hot tub from Canadian Spa Company -the Okanagan Portable Spa(US) – could fit our needs perfectly.  But would it? (Canadian source here)

Here’s how the Okanagan Spa fits with our criteria:

• Great reviews

The Okanagan gets love everywhere, with many reviews saying things like, “great value for the price”

• It comes ready to ‘plug and play’ and we were able to pick it up in a trailer. Check out the photo!

•  The Okanagan has solid, acrylic construction, making it tougher than air.

While more expensive than inflatables, the Okanagan is built like any other high-end spa and it is not going to pop – a blessing for dog owners. While we still won’t let our dog in, we won’t have to freak out if he jumps up on its side.  We’ve been testing the hot tub for nearly a month now and it is tough as nails.

• Simple and fast to install/use.

The Okanagan comes ready to plug and play. We rolled it onto our little deck, unwrapped it, installed the filter and started filling it with water. The water was hot and ready to soak in by the next afternoon. And the LCD screen tells you when to check the chemical and pH levels as well as clean the filter! Perfect for those new to spa maintenance.

• Affordable. 

The Okanagan costs thousands less than permanently installed, hard-sided spas.

It comes with an insulated, lockable hard-top cover that helps trap the heat in & minimize running time, as well as keep it safe from unsupervised use  This should cut our operating costs substantially and make the whole thing more ‘world proof.

So those are the specs before we even tested it, but how did this hard sided portable hot tub perform in the real world?

The answer is: Very, very well.

Oh, you want specifics? Well, here goes.

Pros:

• The size is excellent.

It is the perfect size for a couple to share; Robin and I are both tall and don’t feel cramped in it.

We have actually had both of us and one of our (also tall) teenagers in it. My daughter had 4 of her medium-sized teenager friends in it too. A family of 4 with 2 young kids could easily be accommodated

• Works great.

There are 10 serious jets that work very well to create a massage feeling and circulate the water.  They are spread out around the entire spa, which means no fighting over the best spot to sit.

Also – when it says “plug and play” – it really is that simple: you can use the Okanagan Portable Spa with any regular 120V/15A outlet – probably the most common one in your home.

• Tough and well made.

It really is built just like a regular, hard-sided hot tub, but just scaled to be easy to move and energy-efficient enough to run on a standard household outlet.

The filter is incredible and has actually improved the quality of the water in the Okanagan. It has both built-in lighting and an ozone generator.

Basically, all the other features you would expect from a top-end hot tub at half the price.

• Well insulated – so easy on the electricity bill.

We have time-based electricity usage costs, and we have this at our country property so we don’t want it to run all the time. In addition to the foam top and insulated hard sides, the Okanagan has a “Rest Mode” you can use to reduce how much the heater and filter run when you are not using it.

We’ve also found that since it has a smaller volume of water, it heats up really quick too, so we also dial it down a few degrees whenever we are going away.

• Replaceable/Repairable if needed.  

I like to know long-term costs to fix stuff if bad things happen. The Okanagan (like all Canadian Spa Company hot tubs) comes with a great warranty to help ease your mind.

And unlike many of the new brands popping up online, Canadian Spa Company has been around for many years and offers both delivery and service options that come to you if you need them.

Cons:

• None really.

The only issue you’re likely to have is actually buying a hot tub with the current high demand in the market. But a huge manufacturer like Canadian Spa Company is almost always your best bet to get inventory to you fast. We picked the Okanagan up ourselves, but they could’ve organized delivery within a week if we needed it.

Update: Check out this post where we show how portable the Okanagan Spa actually is – plus how we made a deck for it for less than $250 and in less than 2 hours!

Any questions?

DISCLAIMER: After deciding that the Okanagan Spa would meet all our needs, we approached the company to see if they’d like to sponsor a review of the product.  They agreed!  (A nice bonus to being a blogger.)  As always, all the opinions written are ours and we are totally honest and upfront.  We respect you, our awesome readers, too much to do anything else.

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