Last year my wife and I had the pleasure of traveling around to different parts of the country and renting houses for about a month's duration. The distinguishing feature of one spot-up in the hills of Western North Carolina-was its deck-side hot tub, which, though it certainly provided hours of relaxing ablutional entertainment, also dried our skin beyond repair. How nice it would be, I conjectured, to have a natural, chemical-free hot tub powered not by some distant coal-burning concern but rather by scavenged wood. The concept went on my mental catalog of "future projects," but it seems that Sweden's Hikki has beat me to the punch. Their "Vedeldat Badkar" is an aluminum tub specifically geared for outdoor use.

Vedeldat Badkar. Designed by Hikki.

A Sustainably-Powered Tub for the Great Outdoors

Not that the idea of an outdoor tub is unprecedented. We've profiled dazzling designs in wood (The Dutch Tub) and Heavy Lacquer (Urushi), but Hikki's new number represents the first truly portable and heat-able incarnation of the concept. The tub is outfitted with an integrated heating element-not that you'd know this to look at it from a few paces off, but closer inspection reveals a neatly compartmentalized burner. A few lengths of wood-procured, no doubt, from nearby deadfall-inserted into a container about the size of an office trash can is enough to heat the tub's entire contents of H20. Heat transfer works by simple contact with the tub's aluminum frame, so it's a rather efficient process.

The prospect of the hot temps created by firing wood reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer decides butter is an excellent emollient. That, in concert with his proclivity for long soaks in the hot tub, results in the precarious proposition of accidental self-cookery. Thankfully, water is an excellent vehicle to dissipate heat, so this isn't a particular risk with the Hikki outdoor tub. What is a risk, however, is an unwillingness or outright inability to extricate oneself from this Nordic-inspired, efficient, and attractive accoutrement of outdoor enjoyment.