Last night we went to wet test a Jacuzzi J365, SW Palmero and SD Altamar. We surprised ourselves by absolutely loving the J365! We took our sons along, ages 15,15 and 12. We all fit very well in the 365 altho once seated quite a bit of water spilled out, they must have not expected a 5person wet test! We each tried every seat. Loved the footwell jets! There were so many ways to adjust each seat and/or jets that we didnt find a bad seat in the tub at all. This tub was plenty deep for us, we are all tall. I'm the shortest at 5'7", twins are 6'5". The foot well was so roomy that we never tangled feet even with the monster feet on my boys. Youngest boy needs a water pillow, he was drinking a bit of spa water unless he forced himself higher in the deep seats.
Then we drove down the road to the SD/SW and tried Palmero. I do not like loungers. Neither myself nor my sons could stay in it without bracing our feet against the filter and tensing up. The calf jets are not individually adjustable, you can turn the entire lounger down but then the back jets werent enough. The other seats were fine. The short companion lounger is a seat none of my sons would sit in since it requires you to touch the person in the big lounger. The jets seemed fine though, not as many options to adjust as the J365. And we sorta missed the rainbow waterfall even tho we know its a bells/whistle thing. It was pretty to watch. Family didnt fit comfortably, but 3 or 4 would be sort of comfy as long as person in loungers wants to be there. This tub was a bit shallow on my tall sons.
THe Altamar was nice, but the family did not fit comfortably together. So, that would be a tub we take turns in. Again, no one stayed comfy in lounger. My sons could brace their feet against the filter and that worked for them, not me or my youngest. Jets were nice, but we didnt notice them any nicer than the J365. Did not like the airblower, it was too noisy and put foam in water. We liked the Cameo/Optima alot but they were dry and just too far out of our price range at $8000/ea.
The SD dealers dont seem to want to compete with Jacuzzi whereas the Jacuzzi guy told us straight out what can I do to keep you here? And he met our price of $6400 out the door, incl. everything (tax, step, ozone, cover, chem, delivery/setup)
We have to commit today. So, my husband will make a last trip to SD this morning and ask if they can go down to $7200, if not we will buy Jacuzzi. W/out wet testing we think we would like the Cameo/Optima very much. My hub loves the technical aspects of the 850 series and I like the cd ozone and micron filtration better than Jacuzzi. But at this point, we just cant justify the extra $1600.
That J365 was a very nice tub to sit in!
