Hot tub audio systems

Your phone streams music over Bluetooth to an amplifier in the cabinet, and the amplifier drives waterproof speakers set into the cabinet walls or the shell, often with a subwoofer underneath. Bullfrog takes another route on some tubs: transducers fixed to the back of the shell make the shell itself vibrate as the speaker. Either way it is consumer electronics living in a warm, damp box next to a heater.

For most buyers, no. The warranty tells you how the makers rate it: Bullfrog warrants its audio for one year, and one spa seller's published warranty covers Bluetooth audio for 12 months against 2 years for the pumps and heater. Out of warranty, repairs are real money: a Bullfrog dealer's parts store lists the Gecko in.stream 2 head unit at $766 and subwoofers at $532 to $584. A portable waterproof speaker does most of the same job, and Master Spas sells a 40-watt Bluetooth speaker as an accessory for any of its tubs. Among the brands we track, Jacuzzi, Sundance Spas and Wellis put built-in audio on at least one series as standard; everyone else sells it as an option.

A few makers sell one as an accessory rather than building it in. Hot Spring offers a weatherproof 22-inch HD monitor on a pedestal that slides under the spa, for its music-ready Highlife, Limelight and Hot Spot models. Built-in systems themselves range from two speakers, as on Cal Spas' 2.0 Freedom Sound, to eight on Caldera's Niagara. More speakers mean more parts in the cabinet, not necessarily better sound over the jets.

Ask the dealer for the price of the same tub without the sound system, so you know what you are paying for it. Ask how long the audio is warrantied next to the pumps, and what the head unit costs to replace. Sit in the tub with the music playing and the jets on high, and listen. If the tub also offers an app, check whether the audio and the app share one control panel or need separate remotes.