A hot tub is awesome, and even more awesome when you can pack it up and take it with you.

What started off as a horse trough, a turkey fryer and crab pot quickly developed into a hot tub that you can pack up and take wherever you go.

Brandon Flores, the creator behind the hot tub wanted something for his family if they were unable to escape to the lakes and rivers in Oregon.

“I purchased a horse trough for the family to soak in, which is great during the heat of the day, but we wanted to soak in the evening and needed a heat source for that.

“The easiest and least expensive option that I could think of was a propane powered turkey fryer/burner and crab pot that I plumbed to the horse trough,” he says.

That worked, but it got him researching heat exchangers and gas burners. He found that there was not anything available on the market – so he created his own simple burner system.

Flores went through many prototypes and failures but finally was successful with his final prototype.

“I have learned that very little information is learned from success,” he says.

The Nomad system works using a water heater coil, fuelled with propane or firewood. It is constructed from stainless steel and uses thermosyphoning to circulate the water, so no water pump is needed.

To heat the water to 40.5 degrees C it takes 2-2.5 hours, starting with an air temperature of 15.5-21 degrees, he says.

Flores’ day job is as the owner of an industrial design and manufacturing company. But started The Original Nomad to bring to market the products he is passionate about, wanting to create a better experience for people who camp.

Weighing only 9 kg and filling up in as little as 10 minutes, he says the tub allows outdoors types to soak in hot water after long walks, or on winter beach days. (Our you can just use it in the back garden.)

Flores says he’s already sent two tubs to customers in New Zealand, though indications from the Original Nomad website suggest shipping costs might be fairly hefty.

Next stop, Flores says, is the Nomad trail hot tub, the car camper and the adventure pod.

(Oh, and we know this is kind of irrelevant, but for people interested in a travelling hot tub, Idealog recommends the following so-bad-it’s-good movie from 2010… Or at least watch the clip below…)