Every spa is unique in its size, shape, design, model, and make, and all of these factors influence how much water content it will hold. But how much water does a 6-person hot tub hold, and how can you find out how many gallons is in your spa or hot tub? Below, we’ll provide everything you need to know and why it’s important to be aware of the amount of water in your spa.
A 6-Person Hot Tub
A typical 6-person hot tub will hold about 320 to 475 gallons of water. The reason why this number is so varied has to do with all of the factors mentioned above. What is the shape and height of the hot tub? How large are the seats? So many things can influence the water volume in your hot tub as they will either add to or take away from the space in your spa.
You might assume that heating and running a spa with this amount of water will have an electricity bill to match. However, while many people might be concerned about how much it might increase their monthly cost, a hot tub’s water usage is only about 1% of your household’s water or less than 3 gallons per day. But knowing the exact amount of water you’re working with within a hot tub is important for more reasons than the cost of electricity alone. It’s also essential for factors like chemicals, cleaning†, or maintaining the right pH levels between 7.4 and 7.8. This is also vital information to determine the overall weight of your spa for safety reasons, short-term and long-term. Many different things are affected by the amount of water in a spa, and here’s how you can figure out how much is in yours.
Determining How Many Gallons are in Your Hot Tub
In some cases, you can find this information in your owner’s manual or by reaching out to the manufacturer or salesperson you bought the hot tub from. If you are still unsure about the overall water content in your hot tub, you can also take a gallon jug, a hose, and a stopwatch to figure out exactly how much water your spa can hold. This is how you would do that.
Start by turning your garden hose on and filling your hot tub while timing it. An important thing to remember is that this could take some time, so be sure to check in on it from time to time if you are leaving your spa unattended. Another suggestion is only to fill your hot tub to the indicated safety line. This allows for a safe amount of water to fill your hot tub without the possibility of overflowing when people enter. It also ensures it’s high enough so that every part of your spa, including the jets, pump, filtration system, etc., can function as they need to.
Once you’ve filled your spa considering the safety fill line, you can then fill your empty 1-gallon jug with water and time that too. Then, convert everything into seconds and divide the total time it took to fill your hot tub by the time it took to fill the jug. This will provide you with the number of gallons your hot tub holds.
There are many upsides to being aware of how many gallons are in your hot tub, from safety and costs to the longevity of your spa. Because knowing the amount of water and keeping it clean† with the right balance of chemicals, will ultimately influence the state of your hot tub, jets, pump, filtration system, and more moving forward.
To find out how to choose the best spa for you and your home, download our free hot tub buyer’s guide below or come in and visit our hot tub store.