"Classic Not Plastic®"
Snorkel® Hot Tubs are 100% manufactured in the USA using premium-quality all heart, clear Western Red Cedar from the forests of Canada. With more and more companies sending manufacturing overseas these days, we're prouder than ever to be "American Owned & Made."
We began our hot tub business in 1979, working out of a garage. Though we've grown tremendously since, we've maintained our original "intimate workshop" atmosphere rather than adopt a "big manufacturing" attitude. We've purposely kept our operation on a "human scale" because it allows us to pay particular attention to quality in every piece of our hot tubs, and in every dealing with our customers.
Carefully crafted from finest grade, knot-free HEARTWOOD
"Snorkel Grade" exceeds the industry's toughest standards
Our hot tubs start with rough cut "401 Clear" grade Western Red Cedar — the highest industry grade in the world, so prized that most of it is exported. Even so, our Inspectors reject four of every 10 boards if they're not 100% heartwood, have milling imperfections or other defects that don't meet Snorkel Grade for our hot tubs. To create stock for staves and bottom boards, we run the rough-cut lumber through a high speed molding machine capable of holding extremely tight tolerances to +/- .003" (three one-thousandth of an inch).
Many processes, many inspections
Each bottom board and hot tub stave is inspected as it enters and leaves each step of the process. Staves are precision-cut to length and the croze cut (channel that mates to the hot tub bottom) is made. Bottom boards are hand-matched and hand-jointed as necessary for a perfect fit, and doweled together for maximum strength. Our standard in-stock sizes are 5', 6' and 7' diameters with 3' and 4' heights. We also make 4' and 8' diameter tubs, and a variety of heights to 6' high. Need something special? Call us.
"Tight as a Drum" since 1979.
We hand-craft our hot tubs for quality, not quantity. There are faster and easier ways to make hot tubs but none measure up to the quality we demand. For example … Both sides of each wood stave are milled at a precise angle to mate perfectly to their neighbors. The angle varies depending on the diameter of the hot tub we're building. Manufacturing and inventorying staves with different angles is more complicated and costly than using staves cut at the same angle or using "one size fits all" ball and socket staves for all hot tub diameters, but it's the best way to ensure our hot tubs are "tight as a drum." Similarly, dowelling the bottom boards of each hot tub together is more labor intensive but makes the strongest bottom. We even powder-coat our marine grade aluminum stoves to give extra protection against corrosion from calcium and other water-borne minerals.
Tub Specifications and Heat Rate Chart |
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Tub Size | Gallons | Weight | 11 kW Elec. Header | 100 BTU Gas Heater | Snorkel Stove | Scuba Stove |
Approximate Temperature Rise (°F/hr) | ||||||
4 x 3 | 209 | 1910 | 22 | 51 | 36 | |
4 x 4 | 290 | 2596 | 16 | 37 | 26 | |
5 x 3 | 336 | 3032 | 14 | 32 | 45 | 22 |
5 x 4 | 467 | 4129 | 10 | 23 | 32 | 16 |
6 x 3 | 495 | 4422 | 9 | 21 | 30 | 15 |
6 x 4 | 686 | 6028 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 11 |
7 x 3 | 683 | 5984 | 7 | 16 | 22 | 11 |
7 x 4 | 947 | 8174 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 8 |
8 x 3 | 902 | 7870 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 8 |
8 x 4 | 1251 | 10727 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 6 |