weight of hot tub with water
Thinking about installing a new hot tub in your home? If so, one of the most important things to consider is the weight of your hot tub. When you fill your hot tub with water, it will become very heavy. If you don’t know the weight before installing it, you risk damaging the foundation or decking that it is installed on.
To avoid any potential damage, come dive in with us as we explore the weight of an average hot tub.
How Much Does A Hot Tub Weigh?
You might be considering how much your hot tub weighs in order to find out if the structure you’ll be placing it on can support it.
Many potential hot tub owners wonder, “can you put a hot tub on a deck or wooden terrace”? The last thing you want is for your hot tub to crash through the wood after filling it up with water, or the moment you yourself hop inside. Even if you decide to install your hot tub on the ground, you might not be sure if the ground will subside over time.
When it comes to installing a regular hot tub, you need to know the weight of an average hot tub when it’s full.
The other reason you might be thinking of the weight of your hot tub is that you are moving it. If you’re moving a regular hot tub to a particular location to install it, then you will need to know how much it weighs when it is empty. More often than not, you can get your hot tub delivered to the curb so that you can move it into your yard however you please.
Depending on the weight of your hot tub when empty, you might be able to move it with a few people. In other cases, you might need a heavy-duty piece of machinery, such as a crane.
How Much Does A Hot Tub Weigh When Empty?
The weight of hot tubs when empty depends entirely on the shape and size of your hot tub. However, on average, most small hot tubs weigh the same.
For 2 person and 3 person hot tubs, you would expect the average weight to be around 300-500 lbs when it is not filled with water. On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a large hot tub that can fit anywhere from 5-6 people, it will likely average out around 1,000 lbs when empty.
Anything in-between will be around 750 lbs in weight.
The best way to know about a specific hot tub’s weight is to get in touch with the manufacturer or the distributor to ask them. You can also lookup the weight of particular hot tub models online, which is probably the easiest method.
How Much Does A Hot Tub Weigh When Full?
To understand how much a full hot tub weighs, there are a few things that you need to know first. For starters, you need to know the weight of your hot tub when empty. Next, you need to know the particular water capacity of the spa model in question or the gallons of water it holds.
Lastly, you need to know how much a gallon weighs, which is 8.34lbs.
As an example, let’s try and find the weight of a small hot tub when it is full.
Let’s say that this hot tub weighs around 320lbs when it is empty. This same hot tub also has a water capacity that is around 200 gallons.
To determine the weight of a spa when it is full, you need to take the weight of a spa when empty and the weight of the water capacity.
We know that a gallon weighs 8.34lbs, meaning if we multiple that by 200, we get 1,688. Overall, a tub holds 1,688lbs of water. With 320lbs of empty weight, the overall weight of the tub when full of water is 1,988lbs.
Of course, you need to keep in mind that water isn’t the only thing you’ll find in your hot tub. You need to account for the people that will be in it. Let’s say that you are dealing with a two-person hot tub and each adult that is inside it weighs around 175lbs on average (350lbs in total).
Add that to the overall weight of 1,988lbs and you have 2,338 pounds of weight overall.
Let’s now swap out the weight of this smaller hot tub for a larger one with a total weight of 1,000lbs and a 400lb water capacity. Overall, you’re looking at 5,386lbs, which can put a lot of strain on a foundation.
For more information, visit our “How Many Gallons In A Hot Tub” article.
Can I Put My Hot Tub Inside?
People will often install hot tubs inside their homes if they are in the downstairs portion of the home. However, installing regular hot tubs upstairs can be quite dangerous due to how heavy they are. If you truly want to place your spa upstairs, then we recommend going with an inflatable model.
Not only do you risk messing with the structural integrity of a building when placing a spa upstairs in your home, but you can also risk breaking the local laws. Once filled with water and people, it can become a serious hazard.
When it comes down to it, we recommend keeping spas in the backyard for safety.
Final Thoughts
Hot tubs come in many different shapes and sizes and it is important to know the weight when moving hot tubs or installing one in your home. To get a better idea of how much a particular model weighs, you can get an exact number from the manufacturer or distributor, then use the information above to calculate the weight of the water.
If moving it is too much of a hassle, we highly recommend getting in touch with a professional moving and installation company so they can help move it into your yard.
When installing it, one of the best routes to go is on top of a concrete slab. A concrete slab is much better when it comes to supporting a tub’s weight. We highly recommend that the concrete base is four inches thick in the least and that the base below the concrete is at least six inches.
You can also place down paver bricks to support a tub’s weight. Again, make sure that you have at least six inches of material underneath the paver bricks to make sure they are supported. Some of the most highly recommended materials you can use for the base include pea gravel, sand, and crushed rock. You might even be able to install it on top of the gravel without any paver bricks at all.
A lawyer never retires. So I would just say that I am not as active as I used to be. Now I simply dedicate myself to fishing, my hobby, and my grandchildren. For Business Finance News I write about legal aspects of mortgage policies, mostly regarding the rights of policyholders. I also have articles about personal injuries.
