When buying a Hot tub what is most important?

[ZzTop]

When buying a Hot tub what are the most important factors to you?

1.   Price?
2.   Engineering and design?
3.   Predicted long term Total Cost of Ownership?
4.   Comfort?
5.   Warranty and its exclusions?
6.   Number of jets and pumps?
7.   Reputation of the Manufacturer?
8.   Reputation of the Dealer?
9.   Type of water care?
10.  Ease of Maintenance?

[empolgation]

I'd have to say "yes".

For me, you have listed all of the most important factors. Choosing which tub is the "best" becomes an arduous task of considering how all 10 factors compare tub to tub - I simply won't get "the best" of everything in one tub.

Though I must admit you have to start with price range since for the most part all remaining factors are directly dependent.

[ZzTop]

I simply won't get "the best" of everything in one tub.

Yes but if you do your home work particularly on Engineering and quality you will at least get what you pay for.

[drb]

I'd leave out "Ease of water care."  I don't recall reading anything that leads me to believe that any particular manufacturer has "Magic Pixie Water" that will reduce chemical needs....

The problem here is that the rest of your list is all important.

[empolgation]

Yes but if you do your home work particularly on Engineering and quality you will at least get what you pay for.

Oh so true! It's aaall about the homework.

As for ease of water care, though less important there are features such as The Frog that can simplify water care.
'magic pixie water" eh? I'll have to keep an eye out for that...

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Help me out here guys (and gals), I really don't quite understand this.

I understand ergonomic engineering, but unless you're designing a spa specific for one person, it's irrelevant. There's a lot of different sized bodies using spas.

Electrical engineering I also understand...... But realistically, no spa manufacturer designs their own electrical controls.

Plumbing engineer? We're talking flow rates here. Pump manufacturers publish them for their pumps, jet manufacturers for their jets, and head loss for plumbing is well documented. I would tend to think a sharp 10th grader could figure this out........ (kinda tempting to mention another site about right now :0) hahahahaha)

THE SHELL!!! Ok, perhaps we could put a little engineering into a new material for the shell. Maybe a little engineering on the support structure as well (though I have a feeling that many spas are grossly overbuilt on the structure to give some additional "perceived value").

So, whats the big deal about all this engineering and how exactly does it come into play....... For that matter, how do you determine if a spa really is "engineered?

That aside, my order of importance;

1. Price
4. Comfort (this includes #6)
5. Warranty and its exclusions
8.   Reputation of the Dealer?
7.   Reputation of the Manufacturer?

[Tman122]

I'm with Doc. Except if price was no issue comfort on your backside and dealer then price. After all for some people this is not a major investment, it's just another overpriced toy we have to have.

[Bill_Stevenson]

When buying a Hot tub what are the most important factors to you?

1.   Price? - Not a primary issue, as long as the price is competitive with similar spas.
2.   Engineering and design? - Only important in terms of functionality.
3.   Predicted long term Total Cost of Ownership? - very important to me.  Add reliability to this one.
4.   Comfort? - Primary importance.
5.   Warranty and its exclusions? - Only important if something goes wrong.  Who cares about a warranty if the product is reliable and doesn't break.  Look at it this way:  Kia or Hyundai or both offer 100,000 mile warranties, Toyota does not.  By every meaningful measure Toyota reliability is very much better than the other two.  Also a warranty is only as strong as the company offering it.  If the company is not strong the words are just not worth much.
6.   Number of jets and pumps? - About as important as the warranty.  I could not care less as long as the functionality of the spa is good, the number of pumps and jets is really meaningless.  In fact the fewer the pumps and jets the better as long as functionality is not impaired.  Simpler usually means improved reliability.
7.   Reputation of the Manufacturer? - Quite important.
8.   Reputation of the Dealer? - Quite important.
9.   Type of water care? - Not likely to differ substantially from one brand to another.  How hard is it to take care of the water in a 300 to 500 gallon spa?  Worst case it is still no big deal.
10.  Ease of Maintenance? - Again, how much difference from one spa to another can there be?  Filter cleaning is not greatly different. The tubs themselves are all pretty similar.  Chemistry has already been covered.  What else?

When I went shopping I learned the names of some of the better brands.  Where did this list come from?  This and another similar forum.  The experienced people constributing here formulated that list from reliability assessments, customer satisfaction, demonstrated performance, and so on.  When I went looking, the decision had more to do with ergonomics than on functionality.  This was true because functionally all of the spas I looked at performed pretty similarly.  Truthfully I could have made my selection blind-folded because the spas under consideration were all good products from reputable manufacturers, and all had good local dealers.  These are the things that mattered to me.

Regards,

Bill  

[Spatech_tuo]

Bill,
It sounds like you took your time figuring out what you needed and I'm just curious what spa you ended up buying? Your profile doesn't tell us.

[Bill_Stevenson]

I bought a Caldera Geneva Utopia.  The others that I wet tested were Jacuzzi Premium J385,  Marquis (I can't pull up the model but it is their biggest one), and Hot Spring Envoy.  All of these were excellent.  I'll go fix my profile now.

[autoplay]

Bill......what did you think of the Envoy?  Just curious,as I saw it in the showroom a few months back,and the appearance of it impressed me. It appeared to me too,that they took the euro-pulse jets from the Caldera line....and installed em in the Envoy.

Might go wet testing 1 of these days just for giggles. Very happy 2003 Geneva Utopia owner.

[Bill_Stevenson]

The Envoy is a very nice spa.  It offers a separate control just for the neck jets on the lounge that I feel is a feature Caldera would do well to copy.  The Envoy and the Geneva are quite similar in size and many of the jets are similar if not the same.  The Envoy has that sequential up and down thingy (sorry I am not good with names) that some people seem to love.  For me, although I could feel it going down my spine over and over, it did not really make much of an impression.  The foot jets on the Geneva are much better and the Geneva has a whirlpool feature lacking in the Envoy.  

Not everyone has this problem, but I am 6-foot tall, my wife 5-foot.  Caldera has that raised floor bump in all of their spas, which allows the occupants to get a firm foot-hold to hold themselves in place.  This feature made the Caldera much more comfortable for my wife in particular.  HS does not offer this feature.  

Another difference is the filtration system.  HS offers a larger filter area than does Caldera.  The practical ramification of this difference seems to be that the filter in the Caldera would need to be cleaned and replaced more frequently than the HS.  The multiple filters in the HS cost more when they do require replacement.  Both spas had crystal clear water.  In the end I concluded that this is a push, meaning there is not a significant difference.  

Subjectively the Caldera offers stronger jets, but the HS jets are more gentle and easier to sit in front of with full power and air.  The Geneva jets offer very good adjustability to offset that factor.  This jet thing is a mixed bag.  The best way to articulate the difference is to say that whereas the Geneva offers more forceful jets, the Envoy is gentler, perhaps easier to live with for some people.

Both offer similar ergonomics (other than the floor bump), similar functionality, and similar very high quality.  In the end I picked the Geneva, but could fully understand someone else going the other way.  These are both really excellent spas.    

Regards,

Bill

[Mendocino101]

Hi Bill.

Thats a great job of summing up the differences of the those two spas...I actually had a deposit down on the Niagara but after wet testing decided it was not the tub for me...but I still think it is a very nice spa and one of the best looking tubs around...the lighting on the outside is really nice.....Congalutions and enjoy ...

[ZzTop]

When buying a Hot tub what are the most important factors to you?

1.   Price?
2.   Engineering and design?
3.   Style, Lounger or without, barrier free?
4.   Predicted long term Total Cost of Ownership?
5.   Comfort?
6.   Warranty and its exclusions?
7.   Number of jets and pumps?
8.   Reputation of the Manufacturer?
9.   Reputation of the Dealer?
10.   Type of water care?
11.  Ease of Maintenance?
12.  Extras, Stereo, LED Lighting. Ozonation?

[MNScoobie]

When buying a Hot tub what are the most important factors to you?

1.   Price?
2.   Engineering and design?
3.   Predicted long term Total Cost of Ownership?
4.   Comfort?
5.   Warranty and its exclusions?
6.   Number of jets and pumps?
7.   Reputation of the Manufacturer?
8.   Reputation of the Dealer?
9.   Type of water care?
10.  Ease of Maintenance?
.......................................................................................

I am shocked at some of the orders you have put in place....
MY ORDER of importance...

When buying a Hot tub what are the most important factors to you?

1.   Engineering and design!
2.   Long term cost/energy efficiency
3.   Warranties and exclusions
4.   Price
5.   Comfort!
6.   Reputation of Dealer
7.   Reputation of Manufacture
8.   Number of Jets!
9.   Type of water care?
10.  Ease of Maintenance?

Is Price really the number one reason we buy things?  We all know that there is a PRICE today and a COST tomorrow. So why wouldn't Energy Efficiency be #1?

This is the way I look at it. If a spa that I was looking at was the cheaper one at (call it spa A) $8,000 and Spa B was at $9,000.

Spa A's electric bill comes in at $60 per month
Spa B's electric bill comes in at $25 per month

After owning the spas after 5 yrs.....

Spa A ... $60 x 60m = 3600 + 8,000 = 11,600. after 5yr
Spa B ... $25 x 60m = 1500 + 9,000 = 10,500. after 5yr

I perfer to spend the money up front then pay it in the back end.

Of course only my opinion!!!