Education on Arctic Spas

[stabone]

To start with a little background on myself, I have been in the pool and spa industry from the time I was a teenager, and I have serviced, built, sold, all types of pools and spas. That being said, after reading some of the forums on this site I would like to encourage some of you "know it alls" to educate yourselves on a particular brand before lumping it into a group of thermal panel spas, and assuming the components and materials are the same as what the others offer. The brand I am refering to is Arctic Spas!! I am a dealer, so I do have certain amount of bias,  and no brand of spa is perfect, and there are alot of great products in this industry. I have sold and serviced both full foam and thermal panel tubs, because Arctics are more similar design to that of a thermal panel, they get throw in with that group. All the problems I hear on this site about thermal panel spas and have seen for myself in the field are that thermal panel spas are just full foam tubs with out the foam. And as a result have issues with piping, shell structure, and operating cost. Believe me, I never thought I would sell anything but full foam because of these issues!!I believe, and it is only my opinion, that Arctics are truly different from top to bottom and use the correct materials, design, innovations to make them really in a league of their own.  If any one has interests or questions about Arctics I would like to hear from you. I did not put this up to argue with you full foam guys, I respect your products, I would just like some openminded discussion!!  And save the, " I know someone that bought an Arctic and had problems with it",  Well guess what I can probly say the same about what you sell.                                  

[wetone]

Arctics are truly different from top to bottom and use the correct materials, design, innovations to make them really in a league of their own.  If any one has interests or questions about Arctics I would like to hear from you.     

Explain how an Arctic spa is better than a Coleman spa

[JcDenton]

..and here I thought I was the only Arctic guy on this site (user--not a dealer) -  

I have only have my Arctic Summit Signature for 3 months and I have been happy so far. I hope this trend continues

Jc

[stabone]

I'm sure Arctics aren't better than a Coleman in all areas, so I can't even start that arguement, would you like to narrow your question down a little. I don't think I said an Arctic was better than anything, only to learn more about a product than it is not full foam so it must be like every other non full foam tub.

[spahappy]

This should be interesting......

Spahappy

[wmccall]

I'd love to see an Artic spa, but according to the dealer locater on the website, "Sorry no store within 40 miles of you!!!"   I guess that guy 41 miles from me is out of luck

Lets not try to hit this guy too hard, I'm sure he will be another valuable asset to the forum.

[Chas]

I would be more than happy to discuss with you. Should we take it feature by feature, or claim by claim?

[wetone]

I'm sure Arctics aren't better than a Coleman in all areas, so I can't even start that arguement, would you like to narrow your question down a little. I don't think I said an Arctic was better than anything, only to learn more about a product than it is not full foam so it must be like every other non full foam tub.

When you say "Arctics are truly different from top to bottom and use the correct materials, design, innovations to make them really in a league of their own" to me implies that they better than the rest.

So... let's start with what are the correct materials?
Maybe you can inform us.

Reason I ask is, last Arctic spa we serviced had Gecko pack and controls, 56 frame A.O.Smith motors, waterways wet ends, waterways jets, cedar cabinet, fiberglass base and 4 inches of insulation on the cabinet and base, fiberglass backed acrylic shell, flex pipe plumbing.

Would these be the same materials found in some full foam brand name spas?

[Chris_H]

I know why they are so much better.  Remember that independent energy efficiency study… that really showed me how great they were.

[huh?]

Stabone,

    Take it easy on this one guys.  He has a point.  "I'm sure Arctics aren't as good as Colemans in all areas."

If there were only one type of buyer and all of his/her needs were met by Coleman, then we could say that Arctics/Calspa/XYZ Spas should never be considered in the purchasing proccess.   FORTUNATELY there are more than one type of buyer.  And for some of them, Arctic will meet their needs.

There are plenty of buyers out ther, competition is a good thing!  If we all sold the same brand, the majority of us would be out of jobs or even worse...working in IT!  

Cheers

[stuart]

I would be more than happy to discuss with you. Should we take it feature by feature, or claim by claim?

Me too! You can deal with Chas first and I'll wait by ringside for a tag!

[moshspa]

First of all, thank you to everyone who shares their considerable knowledge on this board.  I just bought my spa a month ago and this board/information was invaluable.   So I thought I would try and return the favor by explaining my shopping experience and decision process.

There were two major things that when I was looking at various spas, turned me off to two dealers and consequently their product.  The 1st was  the Hot Springs dealer who told me that by using the special HS breaker my tub would use less electricity because the circ pump would only be drawing from the 20amp circuit instead of a standard 50amp.  I don't know why he went with this story since the circ pump should be drawing the same amount of amps on either circuit.  If he would have told me something along the lines of "The benefit is that if the heater trips the 30 amp breaker during cold weather, the circ pump still has a chance to prevent freezing(I just made that story up)”  I could have seen the rational.  But not money saving due to breaking the same load between two breakers.  It's really too bad because I liked the HS vanguard but they were the only dealer.

The second was the Arctic Spa dealer that showed me the floor model was only heated by the pump.  I like the idea of easy access, and once again I like the spa models.  If he had just explained how Arctic try to recoup otherwise lost heat and it provides an additional benefit to their easy access philosophy, I would have been happy with the explanation.  But don't tell me some BS story about heating a 500 gallon spa with the pump.  At least not on a $10,000 spa, that should be saved for a $499.00 car.

The third dealer I went to had nothing negative to say about other manufactures he just explained what features his spa had and answered every question I had honestly. When I asked about various options he explained why certain options were nice and told me why he would recommend against one I wanted.  When I explained I was trying to decide between him and HS, he told me I couldn't go wrong either way.   Needless to say, he got the sale.


Maybe I'm wrong and if a HS or Arctic dealer would like to explain why I am, that would be great.

[Mendocino101]

from what I have read here on on other boards the problem that most have with Artic is not their spas but of their claims of of absolute superiority to all others...I am sure they have some nice feature some of which might but truly unique to Artic...but the sales presentation is way over the top and that is why they get slammed so much.....

[Lori]

Wow!  Nice... ...too bad about the Vanguard!  But I agree, if the salesperson had said something like that to me, I would have walked, also!  I dealt with great people when I looked, and Arctic was not a choice I could consider, no dealer here!

May I ask which tub you got...or I might guess...Sundance Optima (sorry guys, they just seem to sell like hot cakes)!!!  

First of all, thank you to everyone who shares their considerable knowledge on this board.  I just bought my spa a month ago and this board/information was invaluable.   So I thought I would try and return the favor by explaining my shopping experience and decision process.

There were two major things that when I was looking at various spas, turned me off to two dealers and consequently their product.  The 1st was  the Hot Springs dealer who told me that by using the special HS breaker my tub would use less electricity because the circ pump would only be drawing from the 20amp circuit instead of a standard 50amp.  I don't know why he went with this story since the circ pump should be drawing the same amount of amps on either circuit.  If he would have told me something along the lines of "The benefit is that if the heater trips the 30 amp breaker during cold weather, the circ pump still has a chance to prevent freezing(I just made that story up)”  I could have seen the rational.  But not money saving due to breaking the same load between two breakers.  It's really too bad because I liked the HS vanguard but they were the only dealer.

The second was the Arctic Spa dealer that showed me the floor model was only heated by the pump.  I like the idea of easy access, and once again I like the spa models.  If he had just explained how Arctic try to recoup otherwise lost heat and it provides an additional benefit to their easy access philosophy, I would have been happy with the explanation.  But don't tell me some BS story about heating a 500 gallon spa with the pump.  At least not on a $10,000 spa, that should be saved for a $499.00 car.

The third dealer I went to had nothing negative to say about other manufactures he just explained what features his spa had and answered every question I had honestly. When I asked about various options he explained why certain options were nice and told me why he would recommend against one I wanted.  When I explained I was trying to decide between him and HS, he told me I couldn't go wrong either way.   Needless to say, he got the sale.


Maybe I'm wrong and if a HS or Arctic dealer would like to explain why I am, that would be great.

[Tman122]

from what I have read here on on other boards the problem that most have with Artic is not their spas but of their claims of of absolute superiority to all others...I am sure they have some nice feature some of which might but truly unique to Artic...but the sales presentation is way over the top and that is why they get slammed so much.....

You got it. I love the looks of the tub and to this logical guy it would seem they could do with 4 inches of insulation what others have to fill the cabinet to do as far as energy effieciency (the 16 hours a day the motor is not running still has me perplexed as far as heat loss) but that's another issue. The sale's pitch is bunk but the tubs seem OK, as good as 10 or 15 other brands, and anyone convinced of there superiority because of a sales pitch or a training class is also bunk.  Just my simple opinion!