What are the Best Swim Spa Brands in the United States?

Swim spas are relatively new products to buy. The companies that make them aren’t household brands, like General Electric or Adidas or Ford Motor Company. 

If you have decided you want a swim spa, that leaves you wondering how to best move forward. How do I know who to buy from? How do I know which brand is a good brand? 

We get this line of questioning quite a bit at Hydropool: “What are the best swim spa brands?” and “What companies make a good swim spa?” and “Who makes good swim spas?” 

We understand why: We have been building swim spas since the industry began. We have been in business for more than 40 years and were one of the first companies in the world to sell swim spas (we began selling swim spas in Canada in 1990 and shipping them to the U.S. five years after that). 

But we also have had competition from the beginning and do still today. We know there are many brands for you to consider. We understand that, and in this article, we’d like to talk about some of our competition across the United States, in as unbiased way as possible. 

We will provide:

•  A list of quality swim spas brands in the United States

•  An explanation of what makes a good swim spa 

•  a shorter list of brands we think are making the best swim spas for the money

 

We wish we could make a swim spa for everyone, and we are proud of our lineup of swim spas, which we think are some of the best in the industry. But we also understand that many people want to look at comparable products to understand the options they have as buyers before making a decision. If that’s you, then please read on! 

A Complete List of Top Swim Spa Brands in the United States

 

Here’s a list of top brands being sold in the United States today:

American Whirlpool – Owned by MAAX, American Whirlpool makes swim spas from 12 to 18 feet in Chandler, Arizona, with the 18-foot model including a separate hot tub. 

Bullfrog – Known for its innovation in the hot tub sector, the Utah-based company has just entered the market with a 12-foot unit, which is typically the smallest size in most swim spa lineups.

Dynasty Spas – Based in Athens, Tennessee, Dynasty is known as an innovator in the world of hot tubs, with a range of spas from 13’ to 19.’

Endless Pools – is made by WatkinsWellness and the swim spas are built in Aston, Pennsylvania. We get into a bit more detail on Endless Pools below. 

Jacuzzi – Industry leader in luxury, Jacuzzi sells its swim spas out of California as “all season pools” and has a model range from 13’ to 19.’

Marquis – Calls its swim spas, “Aquatic Training Vessels” or ATVs. They come in two sizes, out of Independence, Oregon, with a 14-foot and a 17-foot on offer. 

MasterSpas – Also mentioned below in a bit more detail, the company is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

PDC Spas - A good regional swim spa maker with 19 swim spa models, with its main plant in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 

TidalFit – Owned by hot tub maker Artesian Spas, TidalFit produces swim spas from 12’ to 21,’ which is one of the largest combined hot tub/swim spas on the market. The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

 

What Makes a Good Swim Spa? 

 

That list of brands is a good place to start, as all those brands are making good swim spas that may well suit your needs. But since it’s a new product for many customers, we often find it’s helpful to explain what to look for once you select a brand to consider. 

You can certainly buy any type of swim spa. Some on the market offer strong swim experiences, while others are more family-focused fun units (for a full read on some of the best swim spas you can buy, click here). 

But to get best value for your money, the best swim spas sold today should be able to provide multiple experiences, from fitness to fun to hot tub elements such as massage. The following four factors are what you’d want to ask about when looking at any swim spa: 

•  The swim system: The spa should produce an above average and versatile swim current – you can’t just have one speed for the variety of people who may want to use the spa. You should be able to set the spa to cater to a beginner, intermediate and athletic swimmer, so that anyone can use it.   

 

•  A range of in-water fitness features: Additional tools, such as a fitness kit that would enable a user to do in pool fitness exercises are now expected from a good swim spa. Guidance should come with the tools so that people can understand how to make the most of them.  

 

•  Small pool: Although originally designed for swimming, today people have capitalized on the size of the pool. Any spa needs to function as a small pool as well as a place to actually swim. Swim spas that don’t do well here have too many benches and seats and try to enclose the swim area too much, essentially treating it like a large hot tub, which limits what the spa can do. There is a substantial portion of the world that likes to use swim spas as a small pool: Your spa should let them do that too.  

 

•  A workable hot tub: There’s a tricky balance here. In some way you need to have the swim spa serve as a giant hot tub. That can mean two to four seats in any model so people can sit and enjoy the pool, with sufficient jets that supply at least average or better massage in those seats. 

Which Brand Makes the Best Swim Spas?

 

There are many competitors vying for your swim spa dollar, but these two are in the most markets across the United States, while providing a large selection of some of the best swim spas available. These companies produce elite swim experiences achievable without using a tether, where the swimmer must be tied in place. Each company makes swim spas that measure up to our criteria of what makes a good swim spa that led off this section. 

Endless Pools Review – The original developers of the swim spa, which was built at Columbia University. The company began by selling a kit, where you were delivered a stainless-steel frame with a vinyl liner which you then assembled yourself. The company also sold conversion kits for your pool that allowed you to create a current in your already-built in-ground swimming pool. Today, the company’s swim spas are known to be some of the most attractive on the marketplace. Endless Pools sells a range of portable swim spas, with an equally broad range of accessories that includes floor mirrors, underwater bicycles and treadmills. It uses a propeller system to deliver its swim spa current. 

Master Spas Review – A Fort Wayne, Indiana company, Master Spas is best known for its affiliation with Olympian Michael Phelps, who endorses a series of the company’s swim spas. Master Spas is a prolific swim spa builder with a propeller-driven system that creates a good overall swim with a strong and steady current. It also offers a “deep” level of swim spa, which is a 60” deep model and models with no seats, just for swimming. Like Endless Pools, Master Spas uses a propeller built into its swim spa to generate its current.

Does Hydropool Make Good Swim Spas?  

 

Hydropool Review - We know this article isn’t about us, but we are mentioning Hydropool here because we are one of the original developers of the portable swim spa market in North America. It would be disingenuous to say we’re not an industry leader, when we were one of the originators of the market and we still are a top-seller across the country 30 years later. Before Hydropool began building hot tubs and swim spas, it was a commercial pool company that understood both filtration and swimming, and we transferred that deep knowledge of pools to the portable swim spas now commonly sold today. We developed and patented a self-cleaning system and instead of a propeller, Hydropool uses a unique jet system that creates a strong, stable swim current, where swimmers don’t need to tether themselves, whether they are a novice swimmer or a high-level triathlete. 

What is the Best Swim Spa Brand in 2023? 

 

There are many swim spas brands available for customers to sort through. But we know that since most swim spa brand aren’t household names, that level of choice isn’t always helpful. It can actually make things more confusing for you, if you’re trying to figure out which brands are considered high-quality. 

We know it can be confusing because we get asked about this a lot at Hydropool – variations on “Which are the best swim spa brands?” We generally don’t like to spend a lot of time talking about our competition, but because we believe in answering the questions our customers have, we created this list of brands we believe are building quality swim spas. We want you and every customer to consider Hydropool swim spas, but we also understand people will want to check out the competition as well. We understand that, and we wrote this article with that in mind. 

•  If you do want to read more about Hydropool, and why you might consider us for a swim spa purchase, then please click here. 

•  If you’d like to talk to a Hydropool retailer, then please click here.