Wallace Lane Farm
We run a busy site in Northern Cumbria with Holiday cottages, campsite bed and breakfast and our developing Glamping business. We have several tubs, one in both our cabins and cottages as well as tubs from other manufactures. All of our tubs are very heavily used. We have occupancy levels of around 85%-90% around 48 weeks per year with the tubs being used daily and in many cases several times a day.
The 3KW tub with auto fill fast drain
One of our latest holiday cottages is called Farmhouse Cottage and has a 2000mm round tub fitted. This tub has a 3kw heater and auto fill as well as being fitted with a fast drain 50mm drain. As well as auto dosing filter.
- This tub has been fantastic is has been 100% reliable and very popular with the guests it looks good and is easy to use.
- From an owners point of view the fast emptying valve enables our cleaners to empty the tub in about 8 minutes without any equipment or pumps
- The filters are easy to get at and easy to clean with a hosepipe in less than 2 minutes
- We also have the tablet dosing system that fits in the middle of the filter and takes chlorine tablets. This enables the tubs to be safe and fully dosed for several days although we check them daily as well.
- The tub has auto fill and fills from our hot water system via a mixing valve and a 250lt hot water tank. This fills the tub in about 45 minutes to about 30 to 34 degrees centigrade and when the heater is switched on the tub is generally up to 37 degrees within one to two hours making changeover days very easy and quick. The only thing that would be better would be if the tub switched on automatically when it was full but that is a minor point.
- In terms of usability the tub is easy to clean and looks very tidy and the water always looks good the filters work extremely well and these tubs are a lot better than the Jacuzzi tubs in our other cottages.
- The tubs run well in all weathers down to -8 last winter and 41 in the summer and still no problems.
- The hot tub lids are lightweight and easy to remove even without lifters.
- The tubs only require around 800lts of water but can still fit 4 or 5 people in comfort. So makes running cost low in electric and water.
- Also despite very heavy use of the tubs we have not had to change the water during a one week stay and only once during a two week stay.
Heat pump tubs 1.1kw and 1.6kw
We also have tubs powered by heat pumps and have had both 1.1kw and 1.6kw heating units, these units produce anywhere between 4 and 4.5kw of heating for the 1.1kw unit and 5.5 to 6Kw from the 1.6kw units
- These tubs are the same basic tub as above so the auto fill system and filters etc are the same and have been very good and are in all other ways the same or better.
- The main difference is the heating unit, using the heat pump system these have been fitted for a year and have been very good and have worked without fail with 90% occupancy.
- We chose these units for two main reasons firstly they have reduced running costs, we estimate we will save between £200 and £250 per year, so taking into account the additional cost of the units and the expected life expectancy of 8 to 10 years plus, we should save around 30% on power bills going forwards and if electricity prices rise as I expect, we could see savings of 40% to 50% over time.
- The heat pump units are relatively small and attractive, they are also very quiet. Being on a campsite no one has complained about noise on any occasion.
- However the best advantage for us and particularly the 1.1kw unit was the fact that they require very little power to operate. We tested the 1.1kw unit and it only drew about 4.2 amps during the heating cycle and 5 amps when the jets were on full. This has enabled us to run a glamping cabin for 4 people and a hot tub off a 16amp standard caravan style hook up. And as we are looking to add a lot more hot tubs to our units we will run out of available power if we were to fit many more. These units will allow us to fit tubs on any of our pitches.
- I feel that our power requirements will rise over time due to more guests wishing to have hot tubs and also as the need to charge an electric car grows over the next 5 to 10 years, these units give us a way of coping with increased power requirements and also give us some eco credentials as far as energy savings goes.
- In terms of practical use of the tubs they don’t change the operation at all they are literally plug and play and also we have been through some very cold winters in the last year, -7 and the units still worked very well heating our tubs to 40 degrees without a problem.
- Another advantage of the heat pump units is that they are self-contained, so to change the unit is 4 screws and undo 2 pipes and plug in the controls, anyone could change a unit in 10 minutes with just a screwdriver.
One other main advantage of RotoSpa tubs was the ease of installation and ease of moving. Each tub came in a padded zip on cover that allowed it to be rolled along by one person. Our other tubs were so heavy we needed a crane to move them and several people. We know that one day one of our tubs will break and if so it will be easy to replace at short notice.
I have tried hard to think of problems or disadvantages with these tubs but I have been struggling to find any. I know as a commercial operator who has to change the tubs on average 80 times per year per tub and to check them all 365 times a year they have done all we needed and at a very competitive price. I would highly recommend the tubs to other commercial users and would be happy to talk to anyone thinking of buying one of your units.
One thing I do know is that my staff and cleaners always want to clean the cabins or cottages with the RotoSpa tubs because they are so much easier to clean and change.
