Hot Tubs, A Common Denominator

By Author: Leo Reynolds
Total Articles: 15
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The hot tub has come a long way in its progress from a primitive pit to a fabulous household accoutrement. Hot tubs as we know them today are usually made of a hard fiberglass or plastic resin material and often have jets built into the walls to give the water a soothing massaging effect.

Many of the very first hot tubs were natural hot mineral springs. Other early hot tubs used fire heated stones to warm the water. There is evidence of intentional human use of both natural hot water sources and water warmed with fire heated stones in many different cultures and countries all around the world, including Greece, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Britain and the Americas. A few hundred years BC, people started building hot tubs out of wood or stone near sources of this wonderful mineral water, constructing tunnels that would carry the water to the tubs themselves.

Spas and bathhouses began to spring up in areas of the world where these natural hot mineral springs proliferated and became popular spots for relaxing, healing and socializing. The use of these public hydrotherapy resorts continued until people began to realize that ...
... these warm damp meeting places were also perfect breeding grounds for disease and infection. After that, the use of hot tubs gradually became more solitary, with social use mostly confined to groups of people who knew each other well enough to not have to worry about disease. More concrete scientific knowledge about bacteria and how to avoid and eliminate them began to emerge as well.

Hot tubs began to move away from the hot mineral water sources and into the privacy of homes, luxury spa resorts and medical facilities. The water for these hot tubs was heated by wood fires, and later by gas, electric and solar sources.

The hydrotherapeutic massaging jets that we are familiar with did not appear until the 1950s. An Italian family that had moved to the United States had developed a successful pump technology for drawing water up out of the ground. When a family member became stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, they developed a pump that could aerate the hot tub water and provide pulsing jets that would make hydrotherapy treatments even more effective.

Initially marketed and used as a medical health device, the Jacuzzi water jet pump was a separate unit that could be used with any type of bath or hot tub. In the late 1960s, the Jacuzzi company decided to manufacture and sell hot tubs with the massaging water jets built into the walls of the tubs. The Jacuzzi hot tub was born and quickly became a household name. Hot tubs became social gathering places once again as effective filtration and disinfectant technologies were developed and applied to hot tub fabrication and design.

For a while, Jacuzzi hot tubs were mostly found in luxury spa resorts and more affluent households. The popularity and success of this therapeutic technology attracted competition from other hot tub manufacturers, which in turn caused hot tubs to become more affordable. Hot tubs and their curative benefits are now much more accessible and available to everyone.

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