Starting the process of learning about hot tubs and thoroughly confused

[DaveMc]

If the only thing between you handing the dealer money is the hook up---I would tell him that and watch him offer to do the hook up!  Our dealer has one man that is his start up guy--he is not an electrician or a plumber but he has spend a few years at least hooking up tubs---un hooking them and starting them up--he checked my electrical, rearranged the jumpers in the tub control panel to operate on 60 amp and did the start up and the chemical install and orientation.
I personally would not buy from a "dump and run" dealer---if that is all he does them buy it on line and have it shipped---the dealer is providing no value in that scenario.
good luck though!

[watson524]

I actually don't mind the hookup part really, it's just the appearance of lack of customer service by not wanting to set it up and get it going and making sure all is ok. Went to a place tonite (same company as a place we visited over the weekend tho only 30 minutes away vs an hour). Decent price on a tub but wanted over $500 to deliver it, no setup, just to deliver. Seems bizarre to me. I mean sure I have a trailer and probably could fit it on there but.......... Guess I'm just learning this is a different industry than those I've dealt with in the past.

[Quickbeam]

I think the bottom line here is that you need to be comfortable with the dealer you buy from. I know that I would not have purchased from a dealer I did not have confidence in.

[Nessuno]

I'll chime in my 2cents. From personal experience, I would prefer an insulated cabinet instead of a foam shell, or better yet, a combination of the two. I have a foam shell (2000 Sundance) and I have had a few times where the circuit breaker tripped and shut the tub off. The water in the shell stayed nice and cozy, but the service area was vunerable to the cold and the tee housing with the flow switch swelled and cracked. Caused me a mess in the dead of winter.

For pumps, I prefer having a dedicated circ pump (even if they can be a PITA), and then depending on how many will use the tub you may want 1 jet pump or 2 jet pumps. I like 2 jet pumps because I can have 2-4 people in the tub at any time and I like that extra water movement on all available seats and floor.

[Hot Spring Ace]

I'll chime in my 2cents. From personal experience, I would prefer an insulated cabinet instead of a foam shell, or better yet, a combination of the two. I have a foam shell (2000 Sundance) and I have had a few times where the circuit breaker tripped and shut the tub off. The water in the shell stayed nice and cozy, but the service area was vunerable to the cold and the tee housing with the flow switch swelled and cracked. Caused me a mess in the dead of winter.

For pumps, I prefer having a dedicated circ pump (even if they can be a PITA), and then depending on how many will use the tub you may want 1 jet pump or 2 jet pumps. I like 2 jet pumps because I can have 2-4 people in the tub at any time and I like that extra water movement on all available seats and floor.

Personally I like Hot Springs method (go figure!) which is to separate the circ pump breaker from  the breaker for the rest of the components in the hot tub (heater, jet pumps, ozonator, controls...) so that if one of those components trips the breaker the circ pump will continue to run and keep water flowing. Its a great idea for tubs in cold weather and you still get the fully foam insulated spa.

[rosewoodsteel]

I'm not quite sure why your local dealers won't do the hook up.   My guess is that any issues or repairs would be welcomed by these guys with the same lack of customer support that they provide to their customers initially.  By the way, I like perimeter / easy access insulation. 

[watson524]

We're still in the investigation process but we did find a Jacuzzi dealer that seems good to work with. Friends of ours bought their tub from them back in 2000 when they were selling a different brand but raved about their customer service and on the surface I'd have to agree. They do want an electrician to sign off on the hook up I guess (my husband stopped by today) but that's not an issue. I can run the wires and all myself and have one of my electrician friends review/sign off on it.

[Quickbeam]

Not sure what size tub you're looking for, but we bought the Jacuzzi J-345 this spring and really like it. Haven't even had it a year, so it's far, far too early to tell you anything about reliability, etc., but we certainly do enjoy the tub. As for the size, it's great for my wife and I. It also fits 4 very comfortably. You can fit 6, but that is getting pretty tight.

Continued good luck with your search.

[watson524]

Think we're looking at the J-365 from what my husband saw in the showroom. They gave him pricing of $7,950 on it. The J-385 would be around $10,700 if they have to order it (if it's a big order, price may come down a bit) and it looks like the only difference is it's a bit wider to be a true square and has a few more jets but for the price difference, I'm thinking it's not worth it. I'm going to go take a look at it and decide if we want to do a wet test. We had thought about a lounger and are still debating a bit but we'll see when we get there.

Since you have the 345, you might be able to tell me... On other tubs we've seen, there's diverter valves on top (2) which these tubs have and then on the jets themselves you can turn the face plate for more or less pressure which these seem to have but then on others we've seen, there's knobs in different places on the top that I think let air into the jets and the 345 and 365 doesn't seem to have those. Just wondering how Jacuzzi does that since so many others I've looked at have the 3 systems for changing jets on/pressure and Jacuzzi seems to be "missing" a system.

[Quickbeam]

Yes, the J-345 does have the air injection and I'm sure the J-365 will have it as well. You will see "toggle switches" by each of the seats (on the inside of the shell, just down from the top of the shell) and this is the air control. Makes quite a difference in the pressure from the jets. And you are correct, they also have the diverter valves and you can individually control the jets (there is one seat where there is no individual jet control but on all the others you can control them - to be honest though we very seldom use this control - we use the diverter valves and the air injectors all the time, but we very seldom if ever use the controls on the individual jets). As for wet testing, I would strongly recommend you do so. We put our tub on a roof deck and were restricted in the size we could get. The largest tub we could get was a 7' x 7'. Originally we were looking at the J-335 as I wanted a lounger. When we wet tested the J-335 my wife really floated out of it, and while I wasn't as bad, I did still float. So we ended up with the J-345 instead. We were so very glad we wet tested. I should also add that the price you are being offered on the J-365 sounds pretty good. I don't put a lot of stock in price comparisons on this web site, because different jurisdictions have different prices due to a lot of different circumstances, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds like a pretty good deal.

[watson524]

Ok I think I see them in the picture and will be on the lookout when I go look at the tub. I'm like you, I could see us using the diverter and the toggles more than the faceplates of the jets themselves for adjustment. We'll definitely be wet testing the one we buy. Right now I'm just trying to figure out the layout and see which ones are worth the wet test So far this Jacuzzi is getting bumped high up on the list given that we're comfortable with the dealer too. I thought it was a bit odd that each of the pumps are single speed only but I guess it must work LOL! I like that there's a circ pump too since I'm assuming it's a very low HP and will use less power for the circulation part vs one of the full sized pumps coming on.

[Quickbeam]

Up until 2014, one of the two pumps on the Jacuzzi was a two speed. I'm not really sure why they changed it, although someone told me that the single speed pump would last longer. This is our first tub, so I can't say for sure if we would have used that lower speed. We had heard from others that they did like it, but with not having had a tub before, it is not something we miss.

One other thing I should point out to you with Jacuzzi. If you do decide to get one, you can have the wiring configured to either 40, 50 or 60 amp. I'm not sure about the 40 amp setting - if I remember correctly with 40 amp if you have either of the Jet Pumps on the heater will not come on. I know with the 50 amp setting if you have both of the Jet Pumps on the heater will not come on and if you have the 60 amp setting you can have both Jet Pumps on and the heater will still come on. There is no extra charge with any of this. I believe the tubs come set up for 50 amps and it is a very minor adjustment they do to switch it over to 60 amps. It all depends on the wiring you run. With our situation we had built a new house and had it pre-wired for a hot tub. Only problem was, unbeknown to us, our electrician had pre-wired for 50 amps. We really debated on what to do and in the end we spent the extra money to have new wire run so we could go with the 60 amp set up. We are really glad we did this. If you are wiring from scratch and have the ability to do so, I would strongly advise you to run the correct wiring so you can set the tub up for 60 amp service. Again, this way your heater will still engage if you have both Jet Pumps running.

[watson524]

Thanks for the tips. I definitely plan to run #6 AWG and a 60a breaker in the main panel with a 60a GFCI in the spa panel so we should be covered.

I'm not so concerned about 1 speed or 2 speed, so long as it feels good at full blast. I've been in one recently that even at full blast it just didn't seem strong enough.