The CleverSpa Maevea is our best value inflatable hot tub: a genuine six-person body with Wi-Fi app control for around £400, roughly £150 less than the premium tubs. You give up some heater power and cover insulation, but for weekend soakers who insulate well it is the rational buy. Here is what it does well, and where it compromises.
Tested April 2026 · last updated June 2026 · by Lewis Carter, outdoor leisure tester
CleverSpa is a UK brand that has built its reputation on putting app control and a fair feature set into tubs that undercut the big names. The Maevea is the model that best embodies that: a 180 cm, 795 L six-person tub with a 110-jet bubble system, Wi-Fi and a free app, all for around £400. It is not the most powerful tub here, and its cover is thinner than the dearest models, but it offers most of the inflatable-hot-tub experience for noticeably less money, which is exactly why it is our best value pick.
| Model | Price | Capacity | Heat-up time (15 to 40°C) | Running cost | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★ Top pick CleverSpa Maevea 6-Person Inflatable Hot Tub | £399.99 | 4-6 people / 795 L | ~22 hours | ~£46 / month | ★ 4.3 | View → |
£399.99
4-6 people / 795 L · ~22 hours · ~£46 / month
The verdict from Lewis Carter, outdoor leisure tester
Our best value inflatable hot tub. The CleverSpa Maevea gives you Wi-Fi app control, a six-person footprint and a tidy 110-jet bubble system for around £150 less than the premium tubs. The trade-off is the 1,600 W heater, which took roughly 22 hours to reach 40°C from a cold British 15°C fill and reheats more slowly between sessions. If you tub at weekends rather than nightly and run it with a good insulating cover, the Maevea is the rational buy.
A softer, fizzier bubble than the AirJet tubs; reaches temperature happily if you give it the day.
The Maevea is the right tub if you want six seats and proper app control without paying premium money, and you are happy to plan your soaks a little. At 180 cm it seats four adults comfortably and six for a get-together, and its 795 L volume is typical for a family tub. The standout feature at this price is the Wi-Fi app, which lets you switch the heater on from work so the tub is warm by the time you get home, a genuinely useful trick for managing the longer heat-up time. If you tub at weekends rather than every single night, the Maevea gives you the most tub for your money.
It is less suited to two groups. If you want the fastest reheats and the lowest running cost over a cold season, the stronger heater and better insulation of the Lay-Z-Spa Paris will serve you better, albeit for more money. And if you only ever soak as a couple, six seats is more water than you need to heat; the compact Wave Spa Atlantic would be cheaper to run. For the buyer who wants six seats and app control on a sensible budget, though, the Maevea is hard to beat.
The Maevea is the slowest to heat of our tubs, and the reason is its 1,600 W heater, the lowest wattage on test. From a cold 15°C fill it took about 22 hours to reach the maximum 40°C, a few hours longer than the 2,000 to 2,200 W tubs. Heat retention is mid-pack: with the lid on and the heater off, it lost around 1.9°C in the first hour, more than the class-leading Lay-Z-Spa Paris but better than the cheapest tubs. The practical takeaway is to use the app to start heating well ahead of time and to keep the lid on religiously; once up to temperature, the day-to-day reheats are quicker than that long cold start.
Over a mild month of a few evening soaks a week, with the heater on a schedule via the app, the lid on and an insulating mat underneath, the Maevea cost us about £46 a month to run, metered at the plug. That is a little more than the Lay-Z-Spa Paris despite a similar volume, because the Maevea sheds more heat, so its heater runs more often to hold temperature. The gap is modest if you insulate well and tub mainly at weekends, and the lower purchase price more than offsets it over the first year. As ever, our cost figures assume a unit rate broadly in line with the Ofgem energy price cap; your own tariff will shift the total.
The Maevea's headline feature is the app, and it works well: you can see the current and target temperature, set the heater and the 110-jet bubbles on a timer, and switch everything on remotely. Inflation is quick, taking about 12 minutes from flat with the supplied pump, and the tub fills to its line in roughly an hour from a hose. The build is solid for the price, though the walls feel a touch less firm than the Lay-Z-Spa and the insulating cover is noticeably thinner, which is the main reason the running cost is a little higher. The pump measured around 63 dB at one metre when heating, quiet enough for a garden.
Two stand out. First, the 1,600 W heater makes for the slowest cold-start heat-up here at about 22 hours, so spontaneous soaks need a bit of forward planning; the app softens this, but it cannot change the physics. Second, the thinner cover means slightly higher running costs and makes a separate insulating ground mat close to essential rather than optional. Neither is a deal-breaker for a value tub used sensibly, and both are reasonable trade-offs for the £150 you save versus a premium model. As with any spa, observe the 40°C maximum and the soaking-time advice in domestic spa guidance such as BS EN 17125.
Best for: the weekend soaker who wants six seats and proper app control without premium money, and is happy to plan heat-up using the app. Not the pick if you want the fastest reheats and lowest running cost (try the Lay-Z-Spa Paris) or only soak as a couple (try the Wave Spa Atlantic).
Yes, it is our best value pick. The Maevea gives you Wi-Fi app control, a six-person footprint and a 110-jet bubble system for around £150 less than the premium tubs. You do give up some heater power and cover insulation, so it reheats more slowly, but if you tub at weekends rather than every night and run it with a good insulating cover, you get most of the experience for a lot less money.
From a cold 15°C fill the Maevea took us about 22 hours to reach 40°C, a few hours longer than the tubs with stronger heaters, because its heater is rated at 1,600 W. The practical approach is to fill and switch it on the day before you want to use it, keep the lid on the whole time and stand it on an insulating mat. Once up to temperature it holds heat reasonably, so day-to-day reheats are quicker than that first cold start.
Yes. The Maevea includes Wi-Fi and a free app, which is unusual at this price, so you can switch the heater on from work and have the tub warm by the time you get home. The app shows the current and target temperature and lets you set the heater and bubbles on a schedule, which is genuinely useful for managing both heat-up time and running costs.
The CleverSpa Maevea is our best value inflatable hot tub because it delivers the two things most budget tubs skip: a genuine six-person footprint and proper Wi-Fi app control, for around £400. It is held back by its 1,600 W heater, which makes the cold-start heat-up the slowest here at about 22 hours, and by a thinner cover that nudges the running cost up to roughly £46 a month, but neither matters much if you use the app to plan ahead and add an insulating mat. If you want faster reheats and the lowest running cost, the Lay-Z-Spa Paris is the upgrade; if your budget is tighter still, the Intex PureSpa Bubble is the keenest four-seater. For the rest, read our buying guide and our running costs guide before you decide.