Hot tub lighting

Hot tub lights are low-voltage LEDs powered from the control box. The simplest setup is one multi-color light in the footwell: Dimension One's @home tubs come with exactly that. Bigger packages add small “points of light” around the waterline, lit jets, lit drink holders and strips under the cabinet edge. PDC's Spectrum package on its Luxury models reaches 91 points of light. Points-of-light counts are not comparable between brands, because each maker decides what counts as a point.

Each brand names its own. Hot Spring's Highlife tubs light the interior in four color zones; Caldera's Paradise tubs have up to 12 interior points of light, and its Utopia tubs add an exterior light bar. Master Spas' Orion system on its Legend and Twilight tubs lights the topside, the water features and the cabinet. Cal Spas sells a colored halo around the base of the cabinet as an option. None of it changes how the tub soaks or what it costs to run.

An LED bulb is a cluster of tiny diodes on one circuit. Leslie's notes that spa LED bulbs usually last less than ten years and often fail when one or two diodes short out and take the whole bulb with them. Some specialty LED units cost hundreds of dollars to replace. A tub with dozens of points of light has dozens of small parts that sit in warm, wet plastic for years.

Thinly, if at all. Marquis's Crown warranty covers LED lights, valves and jet inserts for one year, parts only. Artesian's warranty gives lighting no coverage beyond working at delivery. Across the tubs we track, the median warranty is 10 years on the shell structure and 3 on equipment, so lights sit near the bottom of the list.

One good underwater light covers night soaks: you can see the steps and the seats. Pay for a light show only if you will use it, and ask what one replacement light costs before you do. If two tubs are otherwise equal, the one with the plainer lighting has fewer parts to fail.