Should we purchase this Grandee? Need your thoughts!

[MFull]

We are seriously thinking about purchasing a gorgeous 2008 Hotspring Grandee.  It's a pre-owned tub located at a reputable Hotsprings dealer in our city. The price is $6000 and it originally sold for 13K. It has the beautiful spa stone casing and has been well taken care of.  It includes steps, new Hotsprings cover, delivery and chemicals/new filters.  It was a trade in for a smaller tub by a couple that are now empty nesters.  It did well on the 48 pt. checklist done by the certified technician at the dealer.  We are four large people and need the space.  We will wet test on the weekend and ask to see the detailed maintenance history.  We just worry about the fact that it's already six years old.  This is our first hot tub.  We have also looked at new tubs in our price range.  This one has so much more room, and jet variety, which is important to us.  I don't particularly want to play footsie with some of the folks who will use it.  Any and all thoughts are welcome.  Is this a good deal? 

[Isaac-1]

Age does not mean much for a qualtiy built tub.  I bought a 1998 Hot Spring Jetsetter last January that was in great shape (probably spent its entire life indoors / storage) and other than a few little details, like it needed a new $180 circulation pump, new $100 ozanator due to age and a $25 diverter valve kit due to a small leak when the knob was turned when I first bought it, things have been great, or least they have until just recently when a lightning strike fried the part of the controller that controls the light (stuck on now), so I choose to disconnect the light instead of replacing the $700 control board as all the other controls still work (I never used the light after initally playing with it anyway).  Of course a lightning stike can do that to new tubs also.

[Topline Mike]

Price is high.  You should be able to do better than that.  What you don't know is how the tub's water was maintained.  The heater and pumps may have suffered if the water wasn't balanced. 

Here's a story for you.  I just learned my neighbor has a hot tub (country neighbor).  He bought a used tub around 10 years ago.  It is a hot spring model of some sort.  Right now, the tub is empty.  The heater core went out on it last winter, and then they had lines freeze and burst.  I was talking to the wife about water care, and she told me they gave up on keeping the pH in check.  They would just fill it, and add sanitizer to the tub.  The water in our area has a very high TA (total alkalinity), which will give you a very high pH.  The wife told me they were just sick of sticking money into this tub, although they really enjoyed it.  3 heater cores, many pumps, and other things had been replaced.  I can't be sure, but I would bet that they wouldn't be replacing all these parts if they balanced their water. 

Here is one for sale that is similar to the one you are looking at, for comparison.
http://batonrouge.craigslist.org/for/4660069906.html

[Topline Mike]

One more for comparison.

http://providence.craigslist.org/hsh/4641105061.html

[wmccall]

I won't comment on the price, but I do like the fact that you said reputable dealer and new cover. Cover cost is high and I'm glad they included a new cover.  Do the best on price and enjoy what probably is a great tub.

Welcome to the forum.   My next question is, are you sure you need that big of a tub? A lot of people, myself included buy big the first time thinking their house will be party central, then buy smaller the next time. You could get a newer smaller tub around $8k.   That said the Grandee is a great tub. Good luck.

[MFull]

Thanks for the great thoughts!  "Pre-Owned" price at a dealer is always more than "Pre-Owned" price on Craigslist, just like a car.  This price also includes delivery and set up and we're 20 miles out.  Delivery around here runs $400.  Also includes 5 new filters, set of chemicals and new steps along with the new cover.  This one has the SpaStone surround, which looks new still.  Think that's why this used one is a little more than the craigslist ads with the wood cabinets.  Good question Topline Mike about water quality.  Not sure they'll have the history on that though.  Technician has inspected and replaced anything that was worn or not working properly.  We will see the paperwork on that Saturday.  Thank you wmccall for the welcome! We've got 2 people that are 6'5" and well over 300lbs, so I think we need the bigger tub.  Good news, Isaac.  Thanks for the input all.  Good thoughts!!  We will decide after the wet test.

[Isaac-1]

In my limited experience it seems there is a big difference between the way people often expect to use a hot tub and the way they actually do.  Often this seems to mean that features that were felt to be very important during the shopping process become much less important later on.  For me this would be the moto massage and to a lesser degree having a lounger, sure I still would prefer having those two features, but lack of them might not be a deal breaker.

[Sam]

$6k sounds a little high, even with all that they are throwing in. 

[Tman122]

Yea I'd offer less. Are they giving a warranty? It's a good tub but they depreciate so fast and unless the dealer knows the maintenance history of the water? 4000 as a first offer.