I've had this hot tub about 5 months now. It works well, and I use it frequently for back pain. Initial set up was easy and it fills and drains quickly. For the price, it's a great way to test the waters before purchasing a larger, more permanent hot tub structure. I love mine!TEMP CONTROL:You can control the temp on this unit. As others mention, it will lose heat when you run the bubbles and it will not be able to increase heat with the cover off. I bought an Alavantor bubble tent (ASIN B07YZ2KTTJ; recommend at least 12ft; 10 works but it's a tight fit) to put around it in the winter time and that helped it maintain heat significantly as well as allowed me to use it in the cold (lows in the teens where I live). Just make sure you consider ventilation so you don't gas yourself out if you choose to go that route. I also put up a shade sail and turned the heat function off for a way to stay cool this summer. A little shade and an initial addition of a few bags of ice, and I was easily able to keep the temp around 90/91 when ambient temp was 100+. Running the bubbles even when the heat is off feels amazing.CHEMICALS:Ok so here's the deal. You need to do some serious research about maintenance and chemicals before buying this if you've never owned one before. There's a choice of bromine vs. chlorine. Then you've got ph up, ph down, shock, balancers, foam control, testing strips, etc. It feels a little like becoming a full-time chemist. I did a ton of research ahead of time because I had a bad time with a quick set pool last year and had everything on hand before this even arrived. Now you can manually maintain all the chemicals mentioned above yourself and that's totally fine. Let me tell you though that I got the Spa Frog @Ease system (ASIN B08NK9DSQS) and it has made it so easy for me to keep everything balanced and perfect all the time. It costs a little more, but totally worth it in my opinion. The little scumbug that comes with the quarterly kit is good at reducing the "oil slick" that will eventually come from body oils, sweat, etc. I was even able to leave for a week vacation and came back with everything perfectly in balance still.CLEANING:I was totally unprepared for this aspect in some respects. It's probably not bad if you're putting your hot tub under a covered patio or indoors. Mine is at the back of my yard exposed to the elements. Considering that, it's done really well but I wind up draining it completely, fully cleaning, and refilling about once a month. I think the manual says quarterly will suffice, but I personally can't stand to sit in a small vat of water with tiny little critters (too small for pool nets) floating around me. I'm also probably excessively concerned with not letting anything even try to grow (look up hot tub diseases and what is capable of growing in there). It takes me about 2 hours to clean it inside and out using Clorox/ Lysol wipes (about 1 large can), a washcloth, and several clean buckets of water. So far that seems to do a good job. I strongly recommend taking apart the floating cover and cleaning that thoroughly as well. There are a ton of seams on the inside and it can get gross quickly if you're not on top of it regularly.TOTAL COST TO OWN:This will vary depending on what you choose for chemicals, maintenance, and what your local utilities cost. I can only speak for myself living in the midwest US. I keep it running at all times (heat @ 104 all winter and spring; filter running 24/7). I only noticed about a $25/ month increase in my electric bill (probably helped that I had a dome over it when it was less than 60 degrees) and about $10 increase in my water bill (considering I drain every month). Filters run me about $5 a week and the chemicals I chose average about $35/ month. So about $100 per month in recurring costs for me.The above are my personal opinions and unpaid recommendations.