Former spa owner, just bought new one, general info for those looking

[Scotty]

A little history, we owned a Hot Springs Classic back in the 1990's and loved it. Sold it when we sold that house. We really missed hot tub living, and are finally in a home where a hot tub is a good option again.

If they still sold the Classic, we'd get another one; but they don't. We were very happy with Hot Springs and firmly believe you get what you pay for.

About the other posts on here pointing out the merits of the dry and particularly the wet test - I can't stress enough just how important this is!

We went to our local Hot Springs store last Saturday thinking we'd want either the Prodigy or the Vanguard. We looked and dry-sat in those as well as the Grandee. The water wasn't hot enough to wet test the two models they had filled, so we returned today.

When we bought our Classic, we had tried models with the lounge seat and didn't like it and felt it took up too much space so we didn't even consider them. Well, we ended up buying the Sovereign, which has a lounge seat! The wet test showed that in this model, the lounge seat worked for us now when it didn't in previous models. And, model to model they are different. In the Vista - the lounge is made for a taller person. My feet could feel the jets on the Sovereign lounge, but not the Vista.

Do keep in mind seating location in respect to where your spa will be placed in your yard. If one or two sides will be very close to the house or other barriers (IE fence); take that into consideration. You want to have the seats you will sit in the most have the best view for where you place your tub.

Also, about the cool down seat. That was one feature on our Classic that we loved and wanted in any new tub we purchased. As others have said, you really can't comfortably put as many people in the hot tub as they advertise. Sometimes, the cool down seat is one of those seats. But, for some people - and you may not realize it until you own a tub and spend more than 10-15 minutes in it - you DO need times  1/2 in and 1/2 out to help cool off; then you fully immerse again for awhile. Sitting on the edge can also accomplish this, but the cool down seat has you in a fully seated position - more steady if you have someone with balance problems. If you have kids or choose to have younger kids in your spa, while there are no jets - the cool down spot provides a place for them to actually sit as opposed to having to stand the entire time. In addition, if you have some adults in the spa and only 1 child and want to teach them it's a relaxing "spa" and not a "swimming pool" - having a place for them to sit helps to re-inforce that. Also, when getting out of the tub, the cool down seat can be very beneficial to your body to start cooling down before you completely get out. As we all age, this does become more important. And when picking a hot tub, it's a purchase you hope to have for many, many years! When we were in our 30's, we noticed our parents didn't spend as much time fully immersed and spent more time in the cool down seat. Now that we're in our early 50's - we understand why a lot better. The Classic had room for 2 people in the cool down seat; one of the features we were looking for - and while we did look at other brands some, very few models had any sort of seat like this. The Sovereign will fit two in the cool down area as long as no one is sitting in the seat directly next to that area.

[JulieMor]

We've owned a Grandee since '93 but I've never even heard of a cool down seat.    We just sit on the edge.  I'm imagining the seat to be an attachment?

The more I read about wet testing, the more sense it makes.  We bought ours without even dry testing it.  We just looked at in the store and never thought about getting and being "fitted".  The sales person didn't mention it either.  Maybe things were different then.

[Scotty]

I don't know the difference between the '93 Grandee and the current one; but the 2011 models have a nice large cool down seat. Because that is one of the largest models, and you didn't really test beforehand; you may not realize what is it. The location where you generally enter the spa - is there a set of "steps" going in. On the current Grandee, I believe it is 2 "steps" before you hit the actual bottom. If so - that 1st step is the cool down seat.

When we had our other spa, we did sometimes sit on the edge of the spa, in addition to using the cool down seat. My wife now has balance problems so the cool down seat is very important to us now.

[JulieMor]

Yes, we have that but I wouldn't call it a cool down seat because you're still immersed from the waist down.  We keep it hotter in the winter and there have been times I've had to get completely out of the water I was so hot.  But that's the fun part of winter tubbing! 

[HT2020]

Although it's been a while since this thread was posted I think it's an important topic.  Yes, the cool down seat is really critical;  especially since the fully-immersed time in a hot tub is usually no great than 15 mins to half an hour.  With an adequate cool-down seat you can extend this a great deal.  Personally, I found the cool-down seat on the HS Vanguard to be perfect because you can actually recline on it (not just sit) with your back against the spa corner.  Like this you can even read the newspaper or a book and stay barely submerged for a long period of time.  When you're properly cooled off you can get back into one of the regular seats.  It's the only way that I can safely hang out in the spa for two hours.

[Chas]

Just for clarity: the "cool down seat" is also called a step by some makers. I'm not a fan of having people march up and down the steps inside and outside of a tub. It is much safer to simply sit on the edge and swing in a leg at a time. But most tubs have some sort of step on the inside: it is handy if you build the tub into a deck and have no real choice but to walk down the 'stairs' into the tub.

That step area is usually where they tuck the pumps, but it can vary in size from maker to maker. I agree with the OP - having some place to sit which is elevated far above all the other seats is a must for me, and I think for most soakers.