Live in CS and about to get a pool. Trying to decide whether it's worth the extra 10k for a spa, or 4K for a heated pool.

Any advice? Don't need either for therapeutic reasons. Imagining it might just be cool to be able to relax in it on chilly evenings.

If you don't get a spa then I would not put a heater in. To heat an entire pool & keep it warm it takes a lot of gas or electricity during the winter.

With that said I would have a heater & spa. It makes it usable year round instead of late spring to early fall.

My preference is for a self contained spa. Better comfort and more jets. Pools are very costly to heat, so no heater on the pool. You can buy quite a spa for $14k.

My $.02

You're not going to get your money back on the pool, it's going to be far worse for the spa and to keep it heated.

Do what you want though, it's a metric I wouldn't worry about if you plan on being there long term.

A pool typically in the area is warm enough to swim in (depending on how you like your water temp) about 6 months a year. With a spa, you can quickly heat that up and use it year round.

whether it's attached or not is a matter of preference and space available. I personally wouldn't like the look of a pool then a separate spa but that's just my opinion man.

our heater went out on the spa. the spa isn't comfortable. all that area does now is collect leaves. we go to our friends and they have a stand alone hot tub that is great.

I like the idea nai06 posted about removing the wall between pool and spa.

When yall say stand alone spa, are you talking about something like this:



Or this:

Second one is much more comfortable, better jets, less expensive.

With proper planning it can look good with your pool and not look like an afterthought.

second one. the one with concrete isn't comfortable. trust me.

I think we're leaning toward going with a connected and elevated spa. Is there reason to have a heated pool also? Sunshine Fun Pools is running a deal this month where you get either a free heated pool, outdoor kitchen or a free gazebo with a pool purchase. Trying to decide between the heater or gazebo. I imagine it would be pretty expensive to heat up the whole pool, and not sure how often we'd want or afford to do it.

Any thoughts on whether a heated pool is preferred if you've also got a spa?

C-2ag99 said:

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I think we're leaning toward going with a connected and elevated spa. Is there reason to have a heated pool also? Sunshine Fun Pools is running a deal this month where you get either a free heated pool, outdoor kitchen or a free gazebo with a pool purchase. Trying to decide between the heater or gazebo. I imagine it would be pretty expensive to heat up the whole pool, and not sure how often we'd want or afford to do it.

Any thoughts on whether a heated pool is preferred if you've also got a spa?

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I would go with gazebo. We have an outdoor kitchen and Cabana w/ half bath. It's really nice to have that extra shade

C-2ag99, we worked with Sunshine on our pool/spa, fell free to email me...
Fleen97 at gmail

We have a heated pool and spa and use our heater in the pool in the late spring/early fall to extend our swimming window a few weeks on each end. Our heater runs on gas and I don't really ever remember it having a huge impact on our monthly gas bill - maybe $25 in a given month.

As for the original question, my wife and I originally wanted a stand-alone spa that we could use year-round. Our builder told us we should get a pool as well, since it only would cost an extra $10K or so. Reason being, all of the same lines/piping/wiring would be necessary for just the spa, so "you might as well get the pool to go with it."

Throwout said:

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Forget the heater, get a chiller for the pool. Pools in Texas are too warm in the summer to be refreshing. Get a chiller for the summer.

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Just add some fountains or sprinklers in the pool and that will cool it considerably just from running the pump.

We have a pool and hot tub combo. Both are heated. We use the spa in winter/colder times, but have never used the pool heater. Our hot tub is oversized so the kids can play in it in winter if we heat it up. I can't even imagine how long it would take to heat the pool.

If running a promo I would choose gazebo or outdoor kitchen (unless this excluded a hot tub option - I like this because we can use it year around).