If you happened upon the internet last spring for an inflatable Intex pool to turn up empty-handed, you had company. Pool & Hot Tub Alliance president and chief executive officer Sabeena Hickman said pool sales skyrocketed as Americans faced a quarantine season at home.
Based on the number of permits, 94,000 new residential pools sunk into the ground will be built by the end of 2020, an increase of almost 21 percent compared to 2019. (The demand for whirlpools is more noticeable: the number has increased by 400 percent this year compared to the previous year. According to Ms. Hickman’s tubs are largely overloaded for six months.)
A shortage of conventional pools has brought to the fore a new type of soaking machine supported by social media: the storage tank pool. Made from a galvanized metal tank traditionally used as a feeding trough for farm animals, a storage tank pool can be put together in one day with some DIY items available at most hardware stores. As the cooler weather approaches and states head towards potential closures, some water lovers are opting for the next best thing: the do-it-yourself hot tub.
According to Ben Uyeda, the designer and co-founder of HomeMade Modern, an online design source that publishes home furnishings and project instructions, the moment of the DIY hot tub has definitely come. Mr Uyeda’s videos detailing how to make your own hot tub have been viewed a million times. His first video showed a wood heater, and his second, more user-friendly, iteration included heating from a propane tank.
“Every time we’ve done a hot tub-related project like this, the thumbnails have just generated a huge amount of clicks,” he said.
The popularity of the hot tub videos reflects both the zeitgeist and this particular moment of the pandemic, Uyeda said. “You start with the basics and then add things for efficiency.” He said people are now more likely to take up DIY projects that involve lifestyle improvements, as opposed to when the pandemic started when they looked for remedies for immediate problems.
For Andrew Rowland, 30, and Caitlin Wallace-Rowland, 29, who live in New Orleans, the recent addition of a storage tank hot tub was a luxury that followed a long list of renovations. “We renovated all of our front and back yards and then ran out of activities,” said Ms. Wallace-Rowland. After taking numerous weekend trips to the Mississippi coast so their 2-year-old daughter Laurel could swim, they decided a pool was the next project to tackle.
In September they built their current whirlpool from a galvanized storage tank with a heater configured from a propane tank. Ms. Wallace-Rowland, an artist and textile designer, planned where the pool would go and devised a landscaping scheme for it. Mr. Rowland, a system operations manager at a charter school, took on the task of building the actual tub, which he described as a “very peaceful installation”. The result is a bathtub that fits into your small garden and offers enjoyment all year round.
34-year-old Sara Haddox installed a hot tub for storage tanks in her home in Llano, Texas, which she also rents mostly through Airbnb in September. “My husband went on a big hunting trip and I got bored while he was away, so I decided to bring the idea of the hot tub to life,” Ms. Haddox said.
Ms. Haddox, who manages her family’s rental property, relied on her degree in civil engineering and created an insulated reservoir hot tub with an electric heater (instead of a propane heater) to help it reach a higher temperature and stay hot for longer.
Her initial inspiration, she said, came from Pinterest and Instagram, where people posted photos of tank pans in stunning settings. “I just loved these shots of those isolated tubs where you can just be in nature and see it forever and just enjoy being outside in a new way,” she said. “These pictures really have sunk.”
She had considered building a tub for several years, she said, but the events of 2020 forced her hand. The result is a tub that drew attention to her family’s Airbnb, which appears on Instagram as @houseonthellano. While winter visitors may not be able to enjoy the nearby freezing Llano River or the city’s restaurants and museums, they can enjoy the property’s fire pit and now the winter-friendly hot tub.
“We had to offer a more complete vacation package,” said Ms. Haddox. Their homemade hot tub helped.
A whirlpool started out as a hot weather pool project for E. Spencer Schubert. A Kansas City, Missouri sculptor, Mr. Schubert, 43, decided to set up a storage tank pool on his property at the beginning of the pandemic to make up for his family’s lost summer. He and his wife Ryann, 42, rented an excavator and installed an 8-foot storage tank pool with surrounding terraces. Converting the pool into a whirlpool was “just the next iteration,” said Schubert.
The storage tank is now heated with propane heating, and Mr. Schubert has converted the yard into a multi-year oasis with a fireplace and “circus lights”. “During the reasonable temperature of the year, the place of the house that we use most is the back yard,” he said.
Though the tub’s temperature reaches around 90 degrees, Schubert said Missouri’s cold winters are likely to cut its use in February. Even so, the DIY whirlpool will extend the life of the Schubert family’s pool season.
E. Spencer Schubert’s storage tank pool.
The storage tank pool grew in popularity at the start of the pandemic, said Jovana Johnson and Janice Luna, the owners of H20 Tank Avenue in Santa Clarita, California, which supplies storage tanks to customers in that state, Arizona and Nevada. When they started their company in May, Ms. Johnson and Ms. Luna immediately sold all 27 tanks they ordered.
“We said, ‘OK, you know what? I think we’ll be ordering another set of tanks, but this time we’ll get dealer status, ”Ms. Johnson said. She and Ms. Luna have placed their second order for 150 storage tanks, many of which were pre-ordered through Instagram.
Now that the season has changed, they see potential in the market for tubs with heating options and have added a “tankuzzi” service to extend the storage pool season. They sell a tankless propane heater that increases the water temperature to 105 degrees.
“We are fortunate to have very mild winters here in Southern California,” said Ms. Luna, who allows customers to use her pools and tubs year round.
Ms. Johnson pointed out that a storage tank hot tub is flexible. (“If you do decide to move, you can take it with you,” she said.) A traditional hot tub can weigh over a ton and is often left behind when moving. The standard tank hot tub aesthetic has also developed a unique following.
“It’s just a fancy look,” Ms. Johnson said.
Mr. Uyeda insists that part of the point is rolling up the sleeve of the reservoir. “It’s a homemade all-moment,” he said.
