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I would want to wet test before I bought. I might be willing to wet test a similar tub, but I would want to be sure I was comfortable with what I was getting before purchasing. As an example, when my wife and I were looking to purchase, we were pretty sure we wanted a tub with a lounger and the dealer brought one in for us to wet test. When we wet tested, my wife floated out of the lounge seat. They had another tub that was the same size without the lounger. The dealer didn’t have it set up to wet test, but did have a larger tub with the same seats and jet configurations set up, so we wet tested that one. We liked it and bought the smaller version. Have been happy ever since.
Couple things to keep in mind. 1. The VAST majority of people do not wet test. *"WHAT", you say. "But everyone on the message boards talks about wet testing.2. An even GREATER, vast majority of people don't use message boards (consider this, roughly 250,000 spas are sold in the US each year [estimations are there's a total of 5 million spas in use in the US], how many views do message here have?).So for a dealer, it comes down to 'risk vs. reward', and the amount of work required to take the risk. If a dealer is not set up properly, and doesn't have the personnel, it can be an incredible amount of work to set up one spa to be wet tested one time (it's not like simply grabbing a key, and test driving a car). Maybe you'll buy it, maybe you wont. Does the dealer feel it's worth his efforts? In your case, apparently not.
Quote from: Quickbeam on June 15, 2015, 02:05:44 pmI would want to wet test before I bought. I might be willing to wet test a similar tub, but I would want to be sure I was comfortable with what I was getting before purchasing. As an example, when my wife and I were looking to purchase, we were pretty sure we wanted a tub with a lounger and the dealer brought one in for us to wet test. When we wet tested, my wife floated out of the lounge seat. They had another tub that was the same size without the lounger. The dealer didn’t have it set up to wet test, but did have a larger tub with the same seats and jet configurations set up, so we wet tested that one. We liked it and bought the smaller version. Have been happy ever since.Quickbeam, That is the whole reason why we want to wet test before purchasing. We both want a lounger but if we float out of it why buy it! then we will look at other options
Filling a spa or not for you has nothing to do with whether they will take care of you after the sale.. I get you want to try one, but I wouldn't judge their service by not filling a spa for you!
Hard to fault any message in this thread. My advice, just let it be one factor. That said, bought our first hot tub without wet testing and had it 10 years. Bought #2 after a wonderful wet test, which absolutely did effect our deal choice. Without it, I might have bought the Vanguard, or the Jacuzzi that my wife floated out of and I would have been outside alone most nights and probably quit using it, though after my back surgery, that would be hard to imagine.
Quote from: Coleman on June 15, 2015, 11:50:27 pmQuote from: Quickbeam on June 15, 2015, 02:05:44 pmI would want to wet test before I bought. I might be willing to wet test a similar tub, but I would want to be sure I was comfortable with what I was getting before purchasing. As an example, when my wife and I were looking to purchase, we were pretty sure we wanted a tub with a lounger and the dealer brought one in for us to wet test. When we wet tested, my wife floated out of the lounge seat. They had another tub that was the same size without the lounger. The dealer didn’t have it set up to wet test, but did have a larger tub with the same seats and jet configurations set up, so we wet tested that one. We liked it and bought the smaller version. Have been happy ever since.Quickbeam, That is the whole reason why we want to wet test before purchasing. We both want a lounger but if we float out of it why buy it! then we will look at other optionsIf you are looking for a lounger, then I would not buy the spa under any circumstances without a wet test. I think loungers are great and at times wished we had one, but without a wet test we would have not known that my wife, and to a lesser extent myself, floated out of the lounger in the tub we wanted.