Just wanted to post my used tub experience here.
After going in my buddies 500$ craigslist hot tub i realized maybe one day I could justify a hot tub purchase.
So I casually searched craigslist and facebook market place for a few months and then one day I saw a 10 year old Jacuzzi J-365 pop up in great condition for 850$ Unbeknownst to me the Jacuzzi brand was one of the most reputable, It just looked like a good unit so I jumped on it and reached out to the seller, apparently I was 2nd in line (out of 13+ interested people) First guy fell through and the seller gave me the opportunity to buy it. The seller had it disconnected it and it was sitting in their driveway,they even had PVC rollers to move it. Fortunately I also have a tilting snowmobile trailer so I got the cash and rushed over. Only took two of us to push it up onto the trailer with the rollers and the deal was done.
I was skeptical of buying this without seeing it run and up to temp but the sellers gave us a very good feeling and mentioned the upkeep they have done with the unit and contact info in-case we had any trouble.
Next was to locate the tub, I knew I wanted it in my back yard, on the deck or next to the deck was the big question, After some deliberation I decided it would be easy to put it next to the deck as well as easy to remove it if didn’t work out. I was trying to keep cost down so I made an 8x8 pad out of re-purposed timbers and brought in 5 yards of crushed gravel which I compacted for the base, I topped this with a few bags of pea stone, overall base investment – 200$+/-
Was able to back the trailer right up to the pad and roll it off with two guys. A few weeks later I had a professional electrical come out to wire it up the proper way. $700.00 This was the moment of truth, While it was being wired, I was also filling it, once it was wired up we turned it on and it fired up just perfectly, everything worked (and still does, 2 months later)
We have been enjoying it 3-4 nights a week and I have been to the spa/pool shop to help with the chemical balance.
For Christmas I have ordered a cover lift and 4 new pillows.
Total investment $1,750 +/-
I think I made out pretty well. Even if I need to replace some pumps/heater/etc over the next few years, I won’t be losing too much sleep over it. Especially when I think about how much this unit cost new.
