Serra 3

Premium in a small footprint

Small tubs usually get the basic equipment. The Serra 3 does not. It has the same two 3 HP pumps as the five-seat Serra models, a 4.5 kW heater, Premium insulation and a colour touchscreen with wifi. The shell is 210×160×85 cm and holds 850 litres: a lounger and two upright seats for three people, two of them in comfort.

The price is €11,490 installed, including IVA, delivery and a standard ground-level install. That is €3,000 more than the Cala 3 for roughly the same footprint. What you buy with it is control from your phone, more massage, and cheaper winters.

Massage and control

Two pumps on three seats is generous. The lounger gets a full run of jets from shoulders to calves on its own pump; the two upright seats share the second. In total 38 hydro jets and 10 air jets. Pressure is adjustable per seat from the panel, and you can run everything at full output at once, which the single-pump Cala 3 cannot.

The touchscreen sits on the rim and controls temperature, pumps, lighting and filtration. The app does the same from anywhere with a signal. In practice that means setting the water to 38 °C from Düsseldorf on Thursday and stepping into a hot tub on Friday night.

Second homes and the app

Most Serra 3 buyers are not full-time residents. The tub spends weeks unattended between visits. Three things make that work. Premium insulation holds heat so the tub idles at a lower cost. The app lets you drop the set point to 30 °C when you leave and bring it back up before you return. And a holiday check from €45 a visit covers the water chemistry in between, important on Mallorca's hard, calcium-heavy water.

Running cost for a Premium tub on the island tariff of about €0.22/kWh, at 38 °C with three uses a week, is around €30–40 a month in summer and €50–70 in winter. The Serra 3, with 850 litres, sits at the bottom of both.

Getting it onto the terrace

The Serra 3 is 85 cm high and travels on its side, so the route needs 95 cm of clear width and no steps. For an apartment in the old town that normally means a crane over the balcony, €450–650 for a lift up to 15 m. Please check with your comunidad de propietarios before ordering; a hot tub on a shared roof terrace may need their approval.

Dry weight is 320 kg, about 1.4 tonnes full and occupied. Power is a dedicated 20 A line with an RCD, not the 16 A of the Cala 3, because of the second pump and the larger heater. A new line up to 15 m is €550–750. If the budget is tight and the terrace is on the ground floor with somebody at home, the Cala 3 is the sensible alternative.