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Inflatable hot tub running costs

Updated: October 2026

The tub you are comparing costs about £395 to £746 on these amazon.co.uk listings, and the electricity can overtake that figure if the cover stays off. Inflatable hot tub running costs are not one monthly number. They move with water volume, target temperature, how long the jets run, the tariff on your meter, and whether a cover is actually on the water. This page keeps Lay-Z-Spa’s published bands in their own conditions, and it refuses a bill for any listing that does not print heater watts. The models and prices are on the [hot tub comparison](/hub/steam-baths/hot-tub). A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

The tub you are comparing costs about £395 to £746 on these amazon.co.uk listings, and the electricity can overtake that figure if the cover stays off. Inflatable hot tub running costs are not one monthly number.

Our top picks

Lay-Z-Spa Lay-Z-Spa Aruba AirJet (2–3)

Best overall

Lay-Z-Spa Lay-Z-Spa Aruba AirJet (2–3)
9.2/10about £394.74
View offer
EASE.ZONE EASE.ZONE heated spa (4–6 claim)

Alternative

EASE.ZONE EASE.ZONE heated spa (4–6 claim)
9.2/10about £667.92
View offer
MSpa MSpa Tekapo (6-seat claim)

Best value

MSpa MSpa Tekapo (6-seat claim)
6.4/10about £399
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.The bill is not one number
  2. 2.What Lay-Z-Spa publishes
  3. 3.Watts in this set
  4. 4.A cover you can put on

The bill is not one number

A heater that holds 40 °C in January is a different load from the same tub in a mild week, uncovered at lunchtime and covered at night. Volume matters because you are heating a mass of water. The only litre figure stated in this set is the EASE.ZONE’s 910 litres. The Tekapo’s 245 gallons are not labelled imperial or US, so you cannot turn them into one mass and then into one cost. Jets are a short extra load. The heater is what runs again to replace heat lost through the top. Hot Tub Geek’s 2026 guide says there is no honest universal monthly figure. WhatSpa puts a covered inflatable near £1.85 a day and an uncovered one near £2.97. Do not paste £1.85 onto a listing with no wattage. The best inflatable hot tub page separates the rows that state a heater from the rows that do not.

What Lay-Z-Spa publishes

Lay-Z-Spa’s own running-cost page gives £0.60 to £1.70 a day, £4 to £12 a week, and £18 to £50 a month. The weekly table behind that range uses a 669 litre Miami, a unit rate of 24.67 pence per kWh, water at 38–40 °C, and jets for 1.5 hours. Those conditions travel with the numbers. Drop the unit rate, the volume or the set point and the band is no longer their result. The Aruba listing does not print litres or heater watts. The same FAQ gives about 2 kW for a heater, 800 W for massage and 50 W for filtration. Those figures are not printed on the Aruba raw file, so they are not this tub’s specification. If your tariff is far from 24.67 pence, use your own unit price.
Lay-Z-Spa Lay-Z-Spa Aruba AirJet (2–3)

Testsieger

Lay-Z-Spa Lay-Z-Spa Aruba AirJet (2–3)
9.2/10about £394.74
View offer

Watts in this set

Only the EASE.ZONE states a heater wattage: 1200 W, with a rise of 0.5 / 1 °C per hour up to 40 °C. One hour at 1200 W is 1.2 kWh. A thermostat should not run the element all day, and this research did not measure the duty cycle, so 1.2 kWh times 24 is a ceiling, not your direct debit. You cannot pick the faster of the two rates and call it a monthly cost. The Aruba, the Tekapo and the Generic model A-1 do not state heater watts. The Tekapo’s 40% motor claim has no watt figure beside it. You cannot cost those three from the listing. The SENODON and the drop-stitch Generic state a 600 W bubble generator, and bubbles are not the heater.

A cover you can put on

The saving claims in this set are conditional. The SENODON says up to 50% when used with the insulating cover. The drop-stitch Generic says up to 80% when used with an insulated cover. Neither title clearly puts that cover in the box. A percentage of an unknown heater load is not a bill. WhatSpa’s gap between about £1.85 covered and about £2.97 uncovered is the plain version of the same idea: the top of the tub is where the heat escapes, if you accept their figures as theirs. Covers you can point at are the Aruba’s listed pool cover, the EASE.ZONE’s listed cover, and the Generic model A-1, whose title names one. The Tekapo does not list a cover, so buying one comes before any Lay-Z-Spa-style band. Put the cover on between soaks. The Aruba includes a Type VI cartridge, not a year’s sanitiser.

Common questions

What does an inflatable cost to run?
Lay-Z-Spa publishes £0.60 to £1.70 a day, £4 to £12 a week and £18 to £50 a month, for a 669 litre Miami at 24.67 pence per kWh, held at 38–40 °C, with jets for 1.5 hours. WhatSpa’s article says about £1.85 a day with a cover. Neither figure is a meter reading for the six listings here. Use the band with its conditions, or do not use it.
Is the Aruba the 2 kW Lay-Z-Spa figure?
No. The FAQ’s roughly 2 kW heater, 800 W massage and 50 W filter are brand function figures. The Aruba listing does not print them, and it does not print litres. A UK reviewer found the cost reasonable when the tub stayed insulated. That sentence is not a substitute for the missing wattage.
Why is the EASE.ZONE’s 1200 W not a monthly cost?
Because 1200 W is the element, not the hours it stays on. One hour is 1.2 kWh. A full day of continuous heat would be 28.8 kWh, and a thermostat should not do that every day. The listing also prints 0.5 / 1 °C per hour, so even the warm-up rate is not a single number. Multiply by your own unit price only after you know the hours.
Are the 40% and 80% claims usable?
Not as a cost. The Tekapo’s 40% motor claim has no wattage beside it. The drop-stitch up to 80% depends on an insulated cover the title does not include. The SENODON’s up to 50% depends on a cover that is not in the title either. A percentage needs a base load and a cover you can put on.
Does a hard shell cost less to run?
WhatSpa’s article puts efficient hard shells near £1.00 to £1.30 a day, under its covered-inflatable figure of about £1.85. That is one publisher’s contrast, not a test of these inflatables against a named hard shell. A hard shell’s purchase price is also outside this set.

Related pages

Inflatable hot tub buying guide

How to set up an inflatable hot tub

Hot tub

Best inflatable hot tub: Aruba, Tekapo or EASE.ZONE

Hot tub electrics UK: 30 mA protection and distance

Sources

Public UK sources used for this comparison. Listing prices, stars and review counts are the amazon.co.uk figures saved for this set on 19 October 2026.

  1. IET Wiring Matters, Hot tubs (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  2. NAPIT, hot tub installations (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  3. BISHTA buyers’ guide for hot tubs and swim spas (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  4. BISHTA daily, weekly, monthly and annual hot tub checks (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  5. BISHTA hot tub owners’ handbook (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  6. Planning Portal, hot tub in a garden (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  7. Water Regs UK, backflow risk categories (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  8. Hot Tub Geek, inflatable hot tubs and filled weight (retrieved 19 October 2026)