Sweetwater Palermo Tubs

[chigoogs]

 :-/ Looking at the Sweetwater Palermo, price is right with all the added extras like cover, cover lift, CDozone, Step, Chemicals, Drinktray and Delivery all for $6295 from Sundance Spas in Denver.  Anyone have any insight on this tub, looked great, doing wet test today, heard that people cant stay in lounge but I am 210lbs so I am not so boyant ! Also said some of the parts (or jets) had ball bearings and I heard this is not good.  Also concidering the Jacuzzi J-355 but higher priced with no extras.

[Chris_H]

Chigoogs:

In general the Palermo is a larger spa by 7 inches.  I wouldn’t worry about the jets being ball bearings because every manufacturer uses ball bearing in their pulsating jets (except for Sundance).  

I would expect the Palermo to be less expensive than the J-355.  The Palermo has less of a warranty than the Jacuzzi J-355.  It has a three year warranty on the pumps, motor, heater, and electronic controls.  The J-355 has a 5 year warranty on those items.  However, if you removed the front panel from both brands you will see that the pumps, motor, heater, and control panel are the same in both manufacturers.  However, the Palermo has the exact same warranty on jets, cabinet, and stereo (if you get one).

The Palermo has better filtration than the Jacuzzi Premium.  It has better filtration because of the weir door that Sweetwater uses.  This allows you to not expose the cartridge to the rest of the spa when cleaning.  In the Jacuzzi, the cartridge will be exposed to the rest of the spa.  I recommend you to remove the cartridge in both brands to see what I am talking about.  Nasty stuff just falls out of the cartridge.  You can also try to ask the dealer to upgrade you to the Sundance filtration.

Any more questions ask away.

Chris

[ebba]

I like the Palermo.  ($6,395 in my area)  It's a good size and I like the layout.  I'm a little put off by the 3 year warranty, so I've also looked at the Jacuzzi J-375($7,395 in my area), it's a little bigger and offers more of a variety or jets.  I also like the ABS basepan on the Jacuzzi.  I've also been considering the HS Grandee ($7495 in my area).  I like the open seating of the Grandee and I don't know if I really need a lounger.  I wet tested all of them, but it was over the course of 3 weeks and they all felt pretty good.  The Palermo did king of push me out of the lounger (I'm 6ft. 185lbs).  I never thought it would be so difficult to pick one, but it sure is.  Good luck with your wet test!