We checked out all lot of spas before purchasing the Del Sol, I guess we limited ourselfs to the amount of money we wanted to spend. We purchased the spa from our Sundance dealer and felt it was a good buy since the spa is built by Jacuzzi (Sundance?) and that they service what they sell. Like I said in my first post I still think it was a good buy. As for the winter use I'll let you know, I live in Ottawa , Ontario Canada and I think our winters could be compared to yours.