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Dry testing a spa is like test driving a car...without starting the engine.
From what I can gather, the VAST majority of people don't wet test, right? The only dealer that I visited that didn't make wet testing seem like a pain in the ass was the Marquis factory store. They would cheerfully fill any tub I wanted if I was serious. The Hot Springs dealer (seems like a bigger operation to me, Oregon Hot Tub) cannot fill a Grandee for me. I don't understand why you wouldn't want your flagship product to be shown in all of its glory. They were happy to let me test the Vanguard that they had filled. I guess that's supposed to give you a good enough approximation. If I went to a Ford dealer and wanted to try out a Focus and they said "the only demo we have is a Fiesta but that should be close enough", I would think that would be ridiculous. The Jacuzzi dealer is the same company as Hot Spring, but just calling them on the phone turned me off with the high pressure buy it now attitude, and they were badmouthing the Hot Spring, and the Hot Spring guy was bashing the Jacuzzi, and they're the same company! Way back many years ago I sold cars for awhile. This hot tub business is just as bad if not worse than anything I saw in the car business 20 years ago. Makes me want to say f-- it and just buy one from Costco, but I know better.
I appreciate the insight. There are a lot of Bullfrog fans on here. With Jim's observation about Jacuzzi, I can cross that one off my list. The Marquis I tried was a Wish. Is the Epic any deeper? Bummer for me is that I cannot drive and am not going to be able to try anymore for awhile. I was hoping to have one up and running so I can use it to rehab my injury. So Jim, that customer with the Grandee that had problems, was this typical of that particular product or was his bad experience an anomaly? As you know, you can find unhappy customers of any brand so it's hard to sort out.
I'm sorta in the same boat so to speak. We've looked at so many tubs it's mind boggling. I'm 6'1" and wear pants with a 30" inseam so my upper body is pretty dang long. I wet tested 3 tubs last Fall, the biggest Dreammaker(decent looking tub, very short and very low on jet power), next was a Jacuzzi but can't remember which model, shoulders still weren't underwater and I thought it was a tad underpowered and last was a Bullfrog I think it was an A6L, it was deep enough and I thought the jet power was a bit better than the rest but can't stand the dealer, high pressure, makes you feel bad if you walk out without buying something, been in there about 4 times only because they carry 6 brands. Right now we're leaning real hard towards a Nordic Warrior XL or Crown XL. I like the whirlpool action and the depth. Dealer says he'll be glad to fill one and let us wet test it. Trying to stay under $6K and we can do that with the Nordic's. This dealer, just south of Charlotte, has been selling Nordic for 19 years and been in the business for I believe he said for 30 years. He's been the lowest pressure sales person we've dealt with yet. He also sells Sundance. They service what they sell and they rebuild tubs to sell. The only really close dealer we have will not even service what they sell.