Calspa? Is it good?

[TheSpaNewbie]

Hi its me again i wanted to ask about cal spa. i went looking in town and found cal spa spas. the salesman said that they were good and did a good job this year.Just wanted to know if Calspa is a good brand. please write back. thank you.

[wmccall]

There are several happy owners here.  They do make several good looking tubs. Here where I live a dealer sells them and Hot springs together.

[Spatech_tuo]

Hi its me again i wanted to ask about cal spa. i went looking in town and found cal spa spas. the salesman said that they were good and did a good job this year.Just wanted to know if Calspa is a good brand. please write back. thank you.

IMO there are better options out there. I would go with Caldera, D1, Hot Spring, Jacuzzi, Marquis and Sundance before I'd consider Cal personally.

[ejf The Spa Guy]

I would agree with Spatech, I would look at D1, Hot Springs, Jacuzzi, Sundance, MArquis I would look at first.

[TheSpaNewbie]

There are several happy owners here.  They do make several good looking tubs. Here where I live a dealer sells them and Hot springs together.

yeah the salesman was selling D1 with the cal spa

[D1Dennis2009]

There are better options and you will see alot of historical backup to the opinion in this an the other forum.

But it is justy my opinion.

[smokeandsoak]

I have had my Calspa for over three years now.  It was a floor model Avalon 844L and I felt I got a good deal out the door at about $7000 delivered with steps cover lifter starter chems etc.  It has been very reliable so far.  I have had two problems with mine to date that are very minor in my opinion.

1.  A small plastic fitting on one of the pumps was cracked and ended up leaking and failing after a while due to the hose clamp being overtightened when the spa was built.  The dealer gave me a replacement part for free and it was an easy fix.  Since it wasnt leaking initially, I can see how QC could have missed this.
2.   A few of the water line LED lights have failed.  I wouldnt have most likely purchased this option if I hadnt bought the floor model and I never use them...rarely use lights at all so I dont know why they failed.  Happened out of warranty and not worth fixing to me.

I love my spa.  The lounger is the best Ive tried and its my favorite seat.  The jets are still the most powerful I have felt in any spa I have tried...which I like for deep tissue massage.  I have recieved many complements on the spa from people who have enjoyed it more than any other spa they have tried.  The configuration was perfect for my backyard and I am still very happy with my choice in every aspect.  I hope to get many more years of reliable use out of the spa.

I am sure that models have changed with all the dealers since I bought my spa.  I urge you to wet test the spas you like to see which brand and probably more importantly which individual spa is right for you.  My advice is dont pass up the Calspa if that is the one you like best.   

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 After selling Cals for 7 or so months now I don't think they are all that bad.  They have made some nice changes to the lines and the number of failures are not happening like I expected before taking them on.   Most of the bad talk about them is fairly old stuff regurgitated over and over again in my opinion.   A spa can always be fixed and it's up to the dealer to do it, and it's how they take care of the customer that makes it or breaks it.  FWIW for those that don't know we have sold Jacuzzi for 10 years now and still do.    I think they have become a nice price point spa to sell, considering Jacuzzi has done nothing to help us out in that regard!   We have made many a sale that we normally would not have gotten.

[hottubdan]

After selling Cals for 7 or so months now I don't think they are all that bad.  They have made some nice changes to the lines and the number of failures are not happening like I expected before taking them on.   Most of the bad talk about them is fairly old stuff regurgitated over and over again in my opinion.   A spa can always be fixed and it's up to the dealer to do it, and it's how they take care of the customer that makes it or breaks it.  FWIW for those that don't know we have sold Jacuzzi for 10 years now and still do.    I think they have become a nice price point spa to sell, considering Jacuzzi has done nothing to help us out in that regard!   We have made many a sale that we normally would not have gotten.

It is up to the dealer to fix spas.  Especially within the warranty period.  Jim, how has Cal Spa been in supporting you, as the dealer?  How would you compare that support to Jacuzzi's support?

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 I would say pretty good, you can do everything online wish Jacuzzi would do that!   The big thing I notice is once a warranty is entered in you only have so much time to get the part back to them, and they credit you, so far everything has gone really smooth.   I also like the fact you can check all your orders and status of the order online.   One other thing that takes getting use to are all the options.  With Jacuzzi it's only one way with most of their spa's Cal has endless options, almost to many in my opinion, If you didn't have a paper trail of what your customer has in his tub it could be confusing if he needs service down the road.

 Sold one just today.   

[Spatech_tuo]

 With Jacuzzi it's only one way with most of their spa's Cal has endless options, almost to many in my opinion, If you didn't have a paper trail of what your customer has in his tub it could be confusing if he needs service down the road.

 

But thats not a good thing IMO. In manufacturing one of the keys is to make things repeatable which helps make the quality controllable. When you give countless options with the idea the sales guy can sell it as "have it your way" it makes for 50 different ways for any single model to be made and that had been part of Cals past quality isuues IMO. If I've got a spa needing service I'd like to be able to call the manufacturer about the spa for service and feel good that they know all the parts used on that spa and how it was made. That has never been a strong point for Cal, especially in the days where they had 100+ model choices but its not the way to build in Quality IMO.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 With Jacuzzi it's only one way with most of their spa's Cal has endless options, almost to many in my opinion, If you didn't have a paper trail of what your customer has in his tub it could be confusing if he needs service down the road.

 

But thats not a good thing IMO. In manufacturing one of the keys is to make things repeatable which helps make the quality controllable. When you give countless options with the idea the sales guy can sell it as "have it your way" it makes for 50 different ways for any single model to be made and that had been part of Cals past quality isuues IMO. If I've got a spa needing service I'd like to be able to call the manufacturer about the spa for service and feel good that they know all the parts used on that spa and how it was made. That has never been a strong point for Cal, especially in the days where they had 100+ model choices but its not the way to build in Quality IMO.

  I would agree with most of this.    In the sales pitch we keep it pretty simple,while all the options are there we don't push all of them and stick to the basics,they have made some nice changes for this year and for a guy such as myself beating the crap out of local Cal-spa dealer for years, I can say they really are not that bad of a spa and can compare with Marquis,Beachcomber,Clearwater and Bullfrog spa's.   

[ejf The Spa Guy]

Jim, how are the waranty credits paid,,,,,,,how long does it take to get paid in money not just a credit??

[Jacuzzi Jim]

About a week plus, As far as how we use the credit that's not my division   We have a lady in accounts payable, she is a vendors worst nightmare when it comes to stuff like that.  I am sure she is on top of them!!    My guess is she shorts a payment to them and they apply it to that??  

[castletonia]

Granted I never dealt with accounts payable, but when I sold Cal I don't believe you had the option of how you were paid, it was credit only.