Happy Birthday Sundance Majesta

[wmccall]

My Majesta reminded me it was its birthday last night.  Yup, its been a year since I started shopping for and buying my 2nd hot tub, the Sundance Majesta from a dealer here in Columbus, Ohio.

I thought I'd take a look back:

The purchase.  10 years ago when I bough my Dynasty, I was tired of visiting dealers and I settled for the first offer that was below the price on the sign, and what I thought was a good tub. In fairness, I got 10 years out of a decent tub. The dealer did go out of business a year after I bought my tub with the local authorities on their heels. 

This time, thanks to this forum, I was better educated and I made the shopping experience more enjoyable.   Since my first tub, the economy has been less than ideal. Most people here need no further explanation.  I definitely felt like it was a buyers market.  There were quite a few less dealers here in town than there were in 2003.    Because of that, a few brands you may know and love were never considered.  I did visit one dealer who has been around many years, but has carried many brands in that time. They had a tub carrying the Lazyboy  brand. After 30 seconds I said no way on that one.  There was one dealer that has been around a while now that was about 30 miles away and carries MAAX spas.  Its just in a part of town I rarely go, so I didn't consider it.  (I see them at the fair every year) 

That pretty much had me down to two dealers. One primarily carries Hot Springs and over the years they had carried several other 2nd and 3rd brands.  Today that includes Dynasty.  This dealer is also big into above ground pools, patio furniture and a few other outdoor type things.

The other one has primarily carried Sundance and Jacuzzi for as many years as I can remember. They have carried a couple other brands to round out their inventory.  They are also now carrying Master's swim spa line.

Both dealers have been around more than 10 years in the same location and have good reputations locally and with the BBB.   I started off leaning toward a Hot Spring Vanguard because my sister bought one in 2009.  Its a nice tub and I have a lot of good to say about it. There are at least two other HS i considered. 

Both dealers have a large selection of hot tubs on their floor and at least 3 in a wet test room.  Over the past 10 years the HS dealer's showroom has taken on more of a warehouse feel, while the Sundance/Jacuzzi dealer has really worked on their showroom and I think its the nicest one I have ever been in.    When my Dynasty dealer went under this store picked up the service agreement to work on them and they impressed me when I used them.  I was also able to get filters locally for it.  (that started me on a good relationship with this dealer)

I had never been in a Sundance or Jacuzzi though and I knew I would be wet testing this time after preaching about it here for years.  I had planned on buying a smaller tub this time since it is just my wife and I 99.9% of the time.  My Dynasty was a 92*92 7 person spa.   I would buy big again if a great tub/deal arose, but I knew we could go smaller, but I didn't consider any of the 2-3 person spas.

I ended up trying one HS spa and 5 different Jacuzzi/Sundance spas initially.  I didn't feel the need to test HS as much having been in a couple of them.  I will also add that I have a PC repair business and I have at least 2 customers with 20 year old HS spas.  I didn't need a lot of selling for them.   

Initially I really liked a couple of Jacuzzi spas. We also tried one of their lower end tubs that we could have gotten for around $5000 and to be honest. It was comfortable and I could have lived with it.  But we are empty nesters with a paid off mortgage so I was willing to spend a little  more.  I never considered a spa with a stereo or TV.  Had a dealer made a great offer on one to get it out the door I may have bit on it.   My wife Gina floated a bit too much in the higher end Jacuzzi's  We tried several of the Sundance tubs including ones with loungers. I was indifferent about loungers with no strong love or hate.  I had one in my Dynasty for 10 years and it was the least used seat.  But when I was out alone in the tub I would use it.  I relate it to having 3 great cars, one car will eventually become the least use, but you still use it once in awhile.

As we finished our wet test at the Sun/Jac dealer I mentioned the Majesta because I had seen it on the website. The dealer showed it to me. When I asked about a wet test, he quickly replied,
"Give me a few days"  I think this was the single biggest thing to sway me to this dealer. I did let both dealers know I was a serious buyer and would be purchasing, but wasn't going to be rushed.  I was treated well at both stores, but felt a little more respected at the Sun/Jac dealer.

As  you know we ended up with the Majesta.  It was a good compromise tub between my wife and I.  Had I been single or not taking in her opinion, I would have been in a Jacuzzi or HS today, depending on who made the better offer. I did get what most people would say was a good offer on the Vanguard.

Decision made - It was the Majesta.   I ordered it was told about 4 weeks, which turned out to be pretty close.   

[wmccall]

Delivery I had related on a couple occasions to this dealer that delivery 10 years ago on my Dynasty was a total disaster.  The fact that I knew two people who had deliveries from this dealer and I had used them for service on my Dynasty were also important factors in my decision when I made it.     To rehash, back in 2003 I was told my tub would be delivered sometime between 8 and 5pm.  That dealer outsourced their deliveries. After taking a day off work, my tub arrived at 10pm! The installer drilled a hole in my cover and was in many ways obnoxious.

Delivery this time was everything I could hope for including dragging my old tub away.  They, after calling to check first, came 45 minutes before our appointment.  3 men did it all swiftly and professionally.  This was a great start.

My 425 gallon Dynasty heated at around 4 degrees and hour.  The 325 gallon Majesta (I think that is right) heats at closer to 10 degrees per hour.  There were two minor disappointing things that day.  First, when I opened the easy access doors to hook up power, I saw a lot of sawdust inside the cabinet from where the final assembly steps drilled holes in the frame.  Someone couldn't have vacuumed that up before shipping? Slightly annoying, but didn't bother me a great deal  The 2nd thing was slightly more annoying.  The Sundance Engineering impressed me when I look over the tubs in the showroom.   As I removed the panel to hook up the AC, the control box is cluttered with stiff wiring that is hard to move and it covers up where you hook in the tub's power.   I use to wire boxes for high tech equipment in the 80s and I would have been ashamed by this wiring job.  But I will probably only have to deal with it once.  I got through it and its been all a great experience after that.

More at lunch time as I complete my 1 year review.

[wmccall]

Day 2 through 365 With this tub arriving on time and its fast heat up, we were able to soak  that first evening.  It was the perfect size for us and is very comfortable.  The appearance is excellent and a year later it looks as good as new after I clean the cover off which gets a lot of dust and grime sitting there in the elements, but it has held up well  In this year we probably have used it 300-325 times. That is a realistic number.

I've only had one issue that required me to call the dealer.  One of the quick release buttons on the access panel got stuck.  Since the tub was new, I didn't want to force it and risk breaking  it. It was an easy adjustment and if it sticks again, I know how to get it open.  Speaking of the access panel.  I love the quick drain connection and the plastic fitting/hose they give you to drain the tub. It works great.  My Dynasty took 24 hours to drain through its small connection.  The only negative thing is Sundance puts this drain connection too close to the frame on the bottom. It can be a knuckle scraper getting that hose off and on.  The could move it up an inch or notch out the frame somehow.  This tub drains in more like an hour.

We have enjoyed the soaks as you can tell by the amount we have used it.  I am happy with the seats, jets and controls. The jet action on my Dynasty was excellent, but the jets themselves didn't last. They were removable insert ones from Waterworks. I replaced quite a few of them 10 years and them popping out was the driving force in me replacing it. There is one seat in the Majesta that has great massage and I love the foot jets. The other seats/jets are acceptable. Note: 99% of our time  is soaking with jets off.  I will add, I think the neck jets in the two main seats should be angled down a bit so they don't shoot accross the tub if nobody is in that seat.  The LED light system is far superior to what I had on my old Dynasty.  Also the Aroma Therapy system is far superior to the Dynasty.  The one on my Dynasty system was worthless. If you took the top off you could barely hear any air moving.  On the Sundance, if you pull the cover off the aroma holder it would blow hurricane force air out.  In short it works well. We don't use it much, but its nice when we do.

This was our first tub that with a white shell and a smooth texture.   It hasn't been too bad to keep clean and it hasn't gotten slippery getting in an out.  The display on this model is much more high tech, and perhaps too high tech.  For day to day use, its great.  Only one small complaint here. On my dynasty there was a button that you hit for ECONOMY mode.  When in Economy mode the display flashed ECON continuously. On the Sundance you can accidentally put it in economy mode with a single accidental touch.  Its really easy to miss that it is in economy mode. One time I went out to soak and the tub was 4 degrees cooler than I would accept to soak, so it was come back in 30 minutes.

There are 2 more things I don't like about the control panel.   It flashes a reminder to change/clean your filters every 3 months.  I don't need this reminder and I don't think there is a way to turn that off.  I find it annoying.  In the same light, after one year my display is now flashing BLB for bulb letting me know the Clear Ray UV bulb is now a year old.  It doesn't tell me its not working, but that it is a year old.  Would it be that hard to  put a UV detector in and have it set off a BLB error when the bulb is really dead?   I do not remind replacing tires on a car after a set milage as I can see the wear, but I have a hard time spending money to replace the UV bulb if it is still good. I don't mind spending money, but I hate wasting it. I may not replace it and see if I notice any difference.   Sometime in the next few days I need to find the manual and turn off these status messages. They just annoy me as I like to see a clean no problems display.

Speaking of the filter, its easy in and out and easy to clean.

Summary, its been a great year, I look forward to many more and would definitely buy this or a similar model again and definitely from this dealer.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 Wow how time fly's!     

[mjb]

Bill, we're glad that you and the Mrs. are enjoying your new spa.
Both the change filter reminder and the ClearRay bulb reminder
are able to be disabled via the topside control.
These steps are on pages 57 and 58 of the owner's manual.
Or, you can give us a call and we can walk you through the steps.

[wmccall]

Bill, we're glad that you and the Mrs. are enjoying your new spa.
Both the change filter reminder and the ClearRay bulb reminder
are able to be disabled via the topside control.
These steps are on pages 57 and 58 of the owner's manual.
Or, you can give us a call and we can walk you through the steps.

Good, i have the PDF on my laptop and keep forgetting to check it out until we get outside each night.  Oh, the last time we talked I was mentioning my alkalinity was getting high. I use the Aquacheck test meter and have been very happy with it.  I double checked with a regular test strip that came with my spa  Roberts or something like that.   It showed the alkalinity was normal and it agreed with the meter on Chlorine and PH levels. I cleaned the lens of the meter and it reads better now.