Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Tripod and Geekcorps, wrote a hilarious account of making a hot tub from scratch in the dead of winter. He says it was a horrible idea, but the photos and humor in the entry tell me that he and his friend had a great time making it.
After four hours of a roaring wood fire, the temperature in our tub had warmed up to a balmy 11C. This isn't quite the failure that it sounds like – after all, the water began at 5C, the air temperature was -5C and it was snowing. Somewhere in the heating process, Nate raided my shop for excess extruded foam insulation, hoping to hold more of the heat in the water. It didn't work, but the pink insulation adds some nice color to the photos, I think.
Reader comment: Jamie McCarthy says: "A friend of mine was burned very badly on much of her upper body
when the burn barrel in her friends' homebrew hot tub tipped onto
her."
"Ethan Zuckerman's site is down now, so I don't know what kind of
disclaimers he includes (except "horrible idea," which sounds about
right). But in any case, please let your readers know: unless
their idea of a good time includes lengthy hospital stays, months of
physical therapy, and maybe death and stuff, they might want to skip
the DIY hot tub."
