Anyone have a wood fired hot tub like this?

[UnderwaterDogg]

We are considering purchasing one of these sweet sounding/looking hot tubs! We would love to hear from anyone who has one! Specifically, what is your regime for keeping the water clean? (They are fiberglass lined so a bit easier to maintain.) Would we need to use chlorine to keep algae from blooming? Hoping to only have to change water once a month or less especially in winter. Plan on admitting clean bathers only. We would love to use a less chemically intensive way to keep water safe…the Ahh Natural mineral sanitizer sounds pretty appealing, in concert with hydrogen peroxide. These spas are available at Backcountry Recreation, and many other online retailers.
TIA!

 

[Charlie Bezzina]

A Scalding steel chimney right next to the edge of the hottub.

I call that Form before function.

 

[RDspaguy]

A Scalding steel chimney right next to the edge of the hottub.

I call that Form before function.

But you can roast marshmallows from in the spa!

 

[4xWTub]

A Scalding steel chimney right next to the edge of the hottub.

What I see in the photo is a perforated steel heat shield around the actual chimney pipe. I expect that the temperature of the protective shield is 'touchable' by bare skin without getting burned.

Consider that a typical residential indoor woodstove chimney is single-wall steel (just like the hottub photo), and a typical residential single-wall chimney pipe does not have any kind of heat shield above the stove until close to the ceiling. See the attached photo, where the insulated / triple wall pipe is shown starting just below the ceiling beam. Below the triple wall chimney pipe is [unshielded] single-wall pipe, similar to the wood heated hot tub, but the hot tub chimney pipe actually has a heat shield.


Photo credit: What Are The Benefits Of A Woodstove? | WellSwept Chimneys