You know cars. Mercedes makes a good car. Audi, Jaguar, Tesla, Mini, Vauxhall, the list goes on. But when it comes to buying a swim spa, are you as confident you know which brand makes something that works well, will impress your friends and neighbours and is going to last?

We know swim spas aren’t a regular purchase, so it’s hard to know which brands are the best and which ones are peddling swim spa models that won’t give you decent value for your money. 

We also know this because people ask us, “who else makes these?” when they come to our showrooms. “What do you think of Endless Pools/Vortex/Jacuzzi?” is also the kind of question we get on a regular basis.

We understand. There’s no easy way to find out who the best swim spa makers are. You could rely on advertising, but it’s biased. Facebook groups are infiltrated by marketers and there are no independent online guides. There’s no easy way to find out who is best or even who is good at making high-quality swim spas.

We know it might seem unusual for a company to write about other companies in a positive way, but that’s what we’re going to do here. We want people to know who the best companies are in this business. We want the swim spa business to be good business. We have been in business for more than 40 years – we know we will always have competition. 

So in this article we’re going to walk you through:

• Who makes the best swim spa in the UK?
• Which swim spa is right for me?

We hope by the end you’ll have a sense of who out there is building quality swim spas. 

Who are the best swim spa brands in the UK?

Jacuzzi: The California company that invented the hot tub is also in the swim spa game. Jacuzzi is known for making a quality product with high-end touches. It’s more toward the Mercedes end of the spectrum of the swim spa class with its range of swim spas.

Jacuzzi has built a swim spa that offers a range of workouts, as well as swimming, in sizes from 13-feet to 19. Other features include: 

• Shell designs are built to effectively handle the reflective waves created by the swim jets as they crash into the walls of the swim spa
• Powerful jets create an adjustable current so you can swim at the level you like
• PowerTone fitness videos show you everything you can do
• Soft mats allow you to workout and run in the swim spa, in the water
• On the outside, look for elegant lighting and stylish acrylic shells, as Jacuzzi puts an emphasis on luxury and looks. 

Endless Pools: Comes in 12-foot to 20-foot models, with plenty of stops in-between. Endless has three collections, the E, X and R, including swim spa and hot tub combination units. This is a premium product in the world of swim spas. Endless is based in the U.S., and the first to develop the swim spa in the early 1980s (Hydropool did it shortly after and independently in Canada a few years later).

Endless units use a propeller, which sits at the front of the spa. It churns the water with great power, but creating a wide current at the same time, due to the propeller’s size. That created current is what you swim against. It’s a relatively rare technique, but there’s no doubt it works to create one of the strongest currents available. 

Endless offers a lot for the serious athlete, including features such as mirrored floors, so you can watch yourself swim and change your technique. It has a range of unique fitness options, including underwater treadmills and bicycles that can be placed in the swim spa tank.

Master Spas: Another serious swim spa maker, most notable for its endorsement by Michael Phelps, the U.S. Olympian swimmer. The company is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Master Spas offers two main collections of swim spas, but sub-collections exist within one of them. Let’s explain:

• The Michael Phelps collection is the premier athletic model, which comes with a propeller-generated swim and is sold in Force, Signature and Momentum models and a range of 17-19 feet.
• The H2X is a jetted spa and comes in Challenger, Trainer and Therapool collections. Sizes range from 11-19 feet across the model lineup.

Tidalfit – Made by the hot tub company Artesian, Tidalfit swim spas are another major brand across Europe. Artesian is based in Las Vegas, Nevada in the U.S.

Sizes just outside the mainstream are worth noting with Tidalfit, which makes jetted spas, as opposed to using propellers like some others on this list. Some noteworthy elements include a 21-foot swim spa, which Artesian makes by putting a separate 13-foot swim spa and an 8-foot hot tub into one exterior cabinet.

It’s quite difficult to stretch acrylic to 21 feet, so this is a clever way around it (Hydropool’s dual units are 19-feet long for that reason, they are built as one, continuous unit instead). It’s a clever and simple idea that allows the units to be built into an L-shape, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Tidalfit also makes a 12-foot option, which is smaller than most (Hydropool’s smallest swim spa is a 13-footer, our AquaPlay FFP). If you’re really stuck on space in your garden, this could be a place to start.

Wellis – A European-made hot tub company, Wellis hasn’t been around as long as some that are on this list having been founded in 2003. But that fact allowed the company to build a production method from scratch and using the latest technology. Known for advanced building techniques such as using robots, Wellis is based in Hungary with a 172,000 square-foot production facility (Hydropool has automated processes, but ultimately builds its hot tubs and swim spas by hand).

Wellis has three swim spas. Each has a current powered by jets. They are the Danube, the Amazon and the Rio Grande, going from smallest to biggest. The Rio Grande is a dual-temp, with both a hot tub and a swim spa built in, while the other two are more traditional-style swim spas with a few seats and a longer tank for swimming in. If you’re set on buying from Europe, this is a place to start (Hydropool is based in Canada and manufactures its swim spas there).

Superior Wellness – Superior Wellness owns multiple swim spa and hot tub brands and sells them across the UK. Superior owns brands such as:

• Platinum Spas – offers a traditional three swim spas lineup, from a small swim spa to a hot tub and swim spa combined unit
• Thermals – Swim spas include models with a propeller and jets as well as a swim spa with a built-in treadmill for running

The company even has a brand called Spaberry, which specializes in two-seater hot tubs. So if you’re looking for anything from mainstream to niche, Superior Wellness likely has it. Platinum swim spas are made in China and so are Thermals, but not all of Superior’s production is done there: You will want to ask for each brand to make sure you learn where it is coming from.  

Vortex – Vortex has four-meter spas, and six-meter spas, both of which have a current powered by jets. It also sells an extremely logical line of swim spas:

• The 4 m-long Aqualounge has a lounge seat, seating for four and a swimming area
• The 4m Aquagym has a larger swimming area with massage seating for three and overall seating for four
• The 6m Aqualap has an even larger swimming area with a lounger, and overall seats for four with its hot tub seating
• Vortex also sells a dual temp/combined swim spa and hot tub called the Hydrozone, which can seat up to 7

Rare among swim spas, Vortex sells the darkest acrylic we have seen to date with its Pearl Shadow option (we find darker colours are harder to stretch and look attractive, so we stick with a choice of white, cream and silver-toned neutrals for our acrylic shells at Hydropool). Vortex swim spas are made in China, while the company is based in New Zealand.

Which swim spa is right for me?

That’s our big list of good swim spa brands to consider from the dozens and dozens available in major U.K. markets. There are others out therel: U.S. Spa, Fonteyne, Vita come to mind as other brands that are popular with customers.

You’ll note we didn’t go into pricing in this list. In part that’s because many companies don’t put their pricing online and we would be guessing in too many instances what they charge as a result, which wouldn’t be fair to you (or the swim spa companies). Hydropool does put its pricing online, with every model showing the manufacturer’s suggested price but we know it’s rare.

We know it must have been odd to go through a list of brands that one company thinks are of good quality. But at Hydropool we have always understood we will have competition. We have been around for 40 years, and we have seen many other swim spa companies come and go.

While we always hope that everyone finds a Hydropool model that’s right for them, we also know that you may have reasons to buy a swim spa from someone other than Hydropool, due to where you are, specific options, you name it.

We didn’t talk about our own swim spas here! That would be self-serving. But if you are interested in Hydropool swim spas, you could read this article, which breaks down the Hydropool swim spas on offer. Or you could take our swim spa quiz to see which model might be best for you.