Choosing
Swim spa or hot tub — and the dual option that is both
The honest comparison between a hot tub, a swim spa and a dual-temperature unit, based on footprint, seating and what each one is actually for.
These are different products that happen to share a plumbing tradition. A hot tub is for sitting in warm water with other people. A swim spa is for exercise, with somewhere to sit afterwards. Choosing between them is mostly a question of which of those you will actually do, and how much yard you are willing to give up for it.
Footprint
Our hot tubs run from seven to roughly seven and a half feet across. Our swim spas run from fourteen feet to thirty. That is the single largest practical difference, and it decides more purchases than any feature does: a hot tub fits on a deck corner, and a twenty-foot swim spa reshapes the garden it goes into.
- Hot Tubs — seating for six to eight, roughly seven feet across.
- Swim Spas — fourteen to thirty feet, with a swim current and seating at one end.
- Cold Plunge — a single lounger, for cold water rather than warm.
What each is actually for
If the honest answer is that you want somewhere to sit with a drink and talk to people, buy a hot tub — the Monaco seats eight, and the Key West seats seven with foot-massager jets. A swim spa bought for exercise that nobody uses for exercise is an expensive hot tub with a long commute across it.
If you will genuinely swim, the swim spa earns its footprint. The 20ft Rothko is twenty feet with two loungers, which is the compromise most people are actually looking for.
The option that is both
There is a third answer. A dual unit like the 20ft Dual Santorini runs two independent temperature systems — a swim end and a hot tub end, at different temperatures, in one shell. If you are weighing a hot tub against a swim spa because you want both and only have room for one, this is the model to look at first.
Standing next to a twenty-foot swim spa and a seven-foot hot tub in the same room settles this question faster than any article can.
