A Complete, Unbiased Explanation of Hot Tub Sales

If you’ve even heard of a hot tub, you’re aware they regularly go on sale. Signs that blare “Hot tubs, hot tubs, hot tubs!” are common. Exclusive flyers that tell you about great deals and bargains that show up in the mail. Tent sales blowing through towns, promising deals. Home shows, with hot tubs just sitting there for the taking at low, low prices.   

But are they deals? Should you buy in these situations? Is that where you get the best deal and the most choice? When is the best time to buy?  

There’s no clear answer here, but it is something we are asked about frequently at Hydropool. “Is this the best deal?” or “Should I wait for a sale?” are common questions we receive.   

In this article, we want to go through the regular practices that companies use to sell hot tubs and explain to you, in the most unbiased way possible, where we think the best deals are. The good news is that while hot tub prices have increased in recent years, there are almost always deals to be had, due to the nature of the business, which we will explain in this article.  

For most hot tub manufacturers, sales are legitimate. They are the fastest way to balance inventory with cashflow, and you can often find your best prices at them.

But our advice is also that you don’t just want a good deal or to pay the lowest price. Our best advice is to make it your goal to find a good hot tub at a good price from a good retailer (and if it's on sale, great)! 

An inferior hot tub with a cheap price or one that doesn’t suit your needs even at a good price, is not going to work out for you down the road.  

We hope this article answers most of your questions on whether you should buy your hot tub at a sale or not. Hopefully by the end, you’ll have a good sense of whether shopping the sales makes the most sense for you.  

 

 

When Do Hot Tubs Go on Sale?

Sales are a legitimate and consistent part of the hot tub business. The biggest reason this happens is because hot tub production and purchasing don’t often line up perfectly, meaning either customers have to wait for hot tubs, or the prices have to be discounted. 

Customers waiting often means lost sales, so no revenue. So hot tub dealers generally opt to overproduce and then put products on sale. It's simple:  

• If production is outpacing purchasing, then more sales happen.   
• If purchasing is outpacing production, then fewer sales happen.

Doesn’t that make sense? Businesses that don’t have sales are able to manufacture on demand, according to what customers need.   

It would be great if hot tub companies could do that too. But you can’t always wait until the order to come in to make the hot tub. The wait times for everyone for hot tubs would take too long, as just one consequence.

Why Does Production Drive Sales for Hot Tub Companies?

Hot tubs can’t work like restaurants delivering fast food because they take much longer to assemble and test, and with customer specific options, often need to be built to order when someone comes to purchase a hot tub. At least that applies to companies like Hydropool, which builds all of its hot tubs by hand, to allow for specific elements.   

Customizing slows production. Some manufacturers don’t have customer specific options, so they are able to churn out hot tubs faster. The problem with that is that there’s no point making hordes of hot tubs if there aren’t enough people to buy those models. Sometimes that dynamic - when production outpaces interest - happens to those companies too. 

It’s very hard to know exactly when to turn production on and off and time it to when people’s shopping happens. Churn out dozens and dozens of generic hot tubs that aren’t tailor-made for customer needs, and you find out that no one wants them, unless you crank the price down. So sales happen that way too. We’re not sure customers end up with a good hot tub that way though.   

Shut down production at a company like Hydropool and you risk losing your valued and talented labor force, which is assembling the hot tubs. So companies like us don’t like to do that either.   

To put it as simply as possible: Production must then be continuous, even if sales patterns are not. Which means you need sales to try and keep the two sides in synch as much as possible.    

Has Oversupply Happened Recently in the Hot Tub Marketplace?

Yes. With Covid, demand for hot tubs skyrocketed, because so many of us were at home. So many people bought hot tubs because they couldn’t go on vacation or they wanted to relax or they just wanted something to do during the long days of Covid.  

Manufacturers knew that demand for hot tubs typically would decline once the pandemic was over, but no one knew when. As a result, many manufacturers ended up with a unique surplus of inventory in late 2023: a great time for sales as a result.

How Do Hot Tub Sales Work at Hydropool?

At Hydropool, we run a production line all year, because we know that we can’t keep up with the demand in the summer and we don’t want people waiting any longer than we have to.  

But that means early in the summer, we often have a lot of inventory we want to clear out. 

How do we do that? We have a sale. Or sales, depending on how much stock we have and the time of year. So spring is a great time to buy generally, as stock is high.  

We also know that shopping slows down after the fall. So if we have inventory left over from the summer season, then we also are inclined to have more sales than to move that product out. So fall is often the second-best time for sales.  

Does This Mean I Should Never Buy a Hot Tub in December?  

What to look for in December (or the winter season in general) in particular are the last of any discontinued models on clearance sales. If new models with new elements are coming out in the spring, the manufacturer will not want older ones taking up space on store floors. So you might get less choice than you would in the summer. 

But very good deals are possible. Also, this very much depends on where you are. In some parts of the world with warmer winters, hot tub sales are an annual event (Hydropool sells in more than 60 countries. So much of our winter stock goes to warm weather locations). So then whether there’s a sale will depend on how much inventory a particular manufacturer happens to have. 

Is Summer a Good Time to Buy a Hot Tub?

In the summer is when you get the most choice. You can always order a hot tub, but in the summer, with production at full swing, you're most likely to have one like the one you want already built and ready for you close at hand. 

Whether summer sales will be as good as spring or fall actually depends on how busy the company was in the spring. There's no easy way for a customer to tell that, unfortunately, other than to check and check back.  

Why Are Hot Tubs Sold in Tent Sales?

When you buy from a tent sale, the main thing to know is if the company holding it is actually local. Some companies blow through town, selling you a tub, but leaving you without a real warranty as a result.

Tent sales are a staple of selling hot tubs at Hydropool and at other companies. And they are legitimate sales! If you're shopping from a retailer holding a tent sale, this is often because the manufacturer has too much supply and has cut prices for the retailer, allowing the store to have a sale. It's a great time to buy.  

There are tricks some companies will pull at tent sales: 

• Pretending multiple manufacturers are represented when it’s actually just the same brand with multiple product lines.   
• Tent sales can also feature companies “blowing through town” dumping heavily discounted product, leaving you with no one to service your hot tub going forward. 

So you may get a deal, but when it comes to servicing your hot tub down the road or getting any warranty honored, you may end up with a real problem too.  

What to Look for in a Good Hot Tub Sale?

• Look for a hot tub made by a quality manufacturer. If you’re unsure who is building quality hot tubs today, this article is a good place to start.   
• Look for a hot tub that has the options you want, whether it’s low maintenance, energy efficiency, lights, waterfalls, massaging jets, etc. You don’t want to pay thousands for something that isn’t quite what you want or that has more than what you want.   
• Know how it’s going to be serviced when you buy it, and feel confident that it will be. Warranties are useless without proper support. This is why buying at things like home shows or traveling manufacturer sales can be tricky. You want to ensure there’s someone local there to help you with your purchase, after you buy.   

Should I Buy My Hot Tub on Sale?

We say yes, provided you are getting the hot tub you want and it’s from a reputable dealer.  

There are deals to be had when buying a hot tub and sales are a legitimate opportunity for discounts.

We also say the same guidelines apply when buying any hot tub (you can read our complete guide to buying a hot tub here).

Don’t buy a hot tub in a deal that doesn’t work for your needs, because ultimately that saved money won’t make up for a tub that doesn’t do what you want it to do. A good hot tub from a good company at a good price is what you want, and if you can do even better than that, you’ve done very well.

We hope we’ve answered all your questions on hot tub sales in this article, but there’s always a chance you have one or two more. If so, please don’t hesitate to reach out to a dealer near you.