I don't have an answer, but I have a similar question. I'm remodeling my master bath, which has a 65" alcove soaking tub, no whirlpool or air jets. I'm planning to replace it with a 72" under-mount or drop-in soaking tub. Most of the tubs I've looked at are displayed in the showrooms with either whirlpool or air jet option, but can get them without the extras.

The remodel will be a total gut, so I think that I can add electric for a bubbly tub and / or a heated floor. My dilemma is that if I need a dedicated line, I will need a new electric panel. The knucklehead who did the work for my kitchen remodel replaced my electric panel with a new one (1.5 years ago), but chose a panel that has no extra slots.

Do whirlpool and air jet tubs need a dedicated electric line? Does under-floor heating need a dedicated electric line?

As long as it's a big soak sized tub I doubt a drop, especially since most jetted tubs look, well, "used" after awhile.

However, be wary of electric heater floors. Not sure where you live but we had installed here in Ohio as our tile floor feels cold in the winter. Ran it for one month and our bill was literally over $150 higher. Rarely ever turn it in as it's a HUGE cost to heat a bathroom floor electrically.

I actually did a poll on another forum (that allows polls) about jetted tubs and resale. The result was that very few people consider a jetted tub to be a selling feature in 2nd hand homes. They have a reputation for being dirty, and the thought of a stranger's dirt circulating through your bath water skeeves some people out.

It could be unique to that forum, but it's a whole lot of middle class women in the 25-40 yr old age range.

But if you live in a cool climate, heated floors are still considered high demand luxury.

In my house I have both and I would take the heated floors over the whirlpool if I had to choose. We keep our floor heater on year round but we do change the settings during the summer months. We have a programmable thermostat so it is not on full blast while we are at work.
It so nice not to feel cold tiles under foot. Our MB is a medium size space and the heated floors actually make the whole room feel warmer. Our 4-5 year old thermostat did go out recently and we were pleasantly surprised that the manufacturer, NuHeat, sent a new one at no charge. We missed the heated floors for the short period of time we waited to get the new thermostat.
We live in a cold weather climate but have not seen any dramatic increase in our electric bills like the previous poster pprioroh did. The electric bill for our entire above average size home is usually less than his increase. Something must be wrong with his electric meter or his floor set up, or his bathroom floor area must be extremely large

Our 4-5 year old thermostat did go out recently and we were pleasantly surprised that the manufacturer, Nuheat, sent a new one at no charge.

badgergal--same thing happened to the Nuheat thermostat (3-4 years old?) in our hall bathroom, and they sent us a replacement as well. Nice company to deal with!

DH was in charge of choosing our floor heating system (our tile guy strongly recommended Nuheat--their fabric-like mats are easy to install). He was very impressed with their tech and customer support prior to making a decision, and they have been very helpful post-install as well.

I would choose floor heat over a whirlpool tub. I know I'd value it more.

If I could only do one, I'd do the heated floor.

Heated floor - no contest! I might use a soaking tub or whilrpool tub once every couple of years. Waste of space. We had a heated floor in our old house, and I swear I have missed it every day for 8 years since we moved!

Do check on wattage, programmable thermostats, etc. on the heated floor - ours definitely did not cost anything like $150 a month to run. I don't recall even noticing a change in our bill.

That second hand jacuzzi tub is sort of an ick factor. Before getting in it, I filled ours in the current house and ran it a couple of times just to make myself feel better about it! I don't know if that actually does exchange all the water in the piping or not, but it helped my mental state.

Heated floor, no contest here either. We've had one ever since we built our house almost 15 years ago. Recently remodeled our master bath and put one in again. It costs pennies per day here so I really can't understand $150/month unless electricity is really sky high in some areas and you really crank it up to 85+. You can keep the thermostat around 80 or so and it is really toasty and it will almost heat the adjacent room too. Do check to make sure you get a programmable thermostat if you are concerned. You can program it to come on to a higher temp at say, 4 am and go to a lower temp at 8 pm when you are not using the floor as much. I would just put in a soaker tub for the ick factor. We changed out our whirlpool tub for a soaker tub and don't regret it at all.

our electric rate is about 0.07/kwh I think, it's fairly low compared with what many people pay. We installed electric under our joists and insulated below so maybe if directly under tile would work more efficiently. We set thermostat to mid 70s - just enough for floor to feel warm. It was $150-200 a month to run it. We only run it now to make fresh crescent rolls :)

pprioroh, can I ask what brand of heated floor you have? We will be remodeling our bath soon, and I really want a heated floor again. However, I don't want the elelctric bill to go sky-high!

What about you, outsideplaying? Or others with systems that have not been expensive to run? I want to say ours in the old house was Nuheat, but it's been several years, and I couldn't swear to it...

Wouldn't hurt to compare operating costs of different brands.

Sorry, I can't recall the brand off-hand, but it came from the tile store. I'll look it up when I get home tonight. Warm Tiles was the brand of the first one we had. The thermostat on that one was not programmable, however. Things have come a long way since '99 when we built our house.

we put in an air tub so there won't be an "ick" factor for any future owners. It doesn't circulate water through anything. Although I plan to be dead by the time the house has to be re-sold, so I won't care if the new owner likes it or not. I plan to live a lot longer though, so the pump will likely fail before I go.