Case Study – Francisco’s “Fire Pit” Hot Tub Build

Fire Pit Hot Tub

Background

Francisco, located in Chile, got in touch with Andi as he was looking to do something a little different with his DIY Hot Tub build. Not content with a “regular build” he wanted to add a custom made, fire pit heating element to the design.

The idea is that he can heat the Hot Tub on either electric (as a backup) but primarily with a Fire Pit and heating coil that will be placed next to the hot tub.

Certainly, this is going to be an interesting project.

Scope of Work

Francisco contracted Andi to do a custom design of the project. Andi also supplied all the parts and exported them to Chile as Francisco was struggling somewhat to find the parts locally. One thing to note, the supply of imperial sized pipe has been a challenge in Chile to say the least.

As such, Francisco has had to import a lot of metric to imperial convertors to help with the plumbing setup. I am sure he will be explaining more on this as he gets into the plumbing on his build.

The last thing you want to do is export pipe! It is big and heavy and costs the earth so wherever possible, locally sourced pipe is the best option.

The Design

Like many projects as they evolve, where we started with the design for Francisco is not where he has ended up in terms of the final design. He has totally changed the shape and size of the Hot Tub. This is totally fine and this is exactly how things should be if the customer, like Francisco, decides to do it.

The point here is that the documentation and knowledge that Andi provided to Francisco enabled him to go and make the changes to the design himself once he had a total understanding of how everything works and fits together.

We started with a more conventional square hot tub, but that design has transpired into a more contemporary looking triangular design that you can see on the video below.

Building Commences November 2021

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Can I Help You?

If I can help you in any way I would love to hear from you. You can get in touch using the form below.

Thanks - Andi

 

Hi, Andi here. I own Buildahottub.com and also write all of the articles and info pages on the site. Some years back now, I built my own hot tub but struggled to find the information I needed. So, once my tub was complete, I started this website to help others in their own pursuit of hot tub and plunge pools DIY building information.

Fast forward to 2025, I've helped over 1400+ DIY customers just like you all over the world build hot tubs and pools. Have a good look around the site, there are lots of resources here. Please do get in touch if I can help you. - Cheers, Andi

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