Ive narrowed my... WET TEST UPDATE 10/27

[Andy-VA]

I think my head will explode with all the information I have in my head. These notes are a help to me to keep all the info straight, so forgive me if i ramble. Ive been looking for over a week for a tub and I have eliminated these:

Cal Spas.........Too many neg comments

Thermospas...Couldnt see any more value in it than others and neg comments

Leisure Bay....A brand sold by Recreation Factory Warehouse. The seats sat funny and I didnt get that warm fuzzy freeling.

Vita...............Looked like junk

D1.................The jets looked too flimsy, overpriced, the store was very small and sold christmas trees too. The store didnt give me that "Ill service it after the sale " look

Marquis.........I had been warned about dealers constantly switching brands and this was one of them. He told me he had dropped Calderra a year ago because of problems and now he was proud to carry this .....yada...yada...yada. The pumps seemed underpowered and he didnt have a circ pump.

Ive also eliminated manufacturers secondary brands...Sweetwater, TigerRiver, Calderra, Down East, Everyday and a few others Im missing. I didnt even look at them only because I dont mind spending the $1700 more for the premium brand.

These are my final 4 which Im going to wet test:

Jacuzzi......I sat in this tub and it was very comfy with no water in it. Great sales staff and had carried the line for 8 years. Had the least powerful jets of my final 4, but it was also the least expensive. I only did the scientific "hand in water" test though. This dealer is 4 miles from my house which is a plus. We looked at a
J-355 and was quoted a price of $6399 with all the goodies. I wasnt looking at price until i narrowed it down, but thats what he quoted me b4 i left.

Sundance....Very nice tub. The jets seemed in better positions than some, sat comfy dry. We looked at the Cameo. Had air injection and aroma stuff. Seemed well built. Salesperson talked a bit of price and it seems with further negotions, this tub with goodies could be had for $7300

Master Spa...Impressive tub, variety of jets, neck jets great seating, awesome controls. Most horsepower of any tub looked at. Nice fiber lighting, waterfall effect. Gave you the option of FF or TP although this wont be a deciding factor in which tub I pick. Had 2004 model with TV, stereo that hes trying to unload for $12K. If that was my budget, I woulda bought it. Not sure of the model I looked at, but im sure this wont be the least expensive of the final 4.

Hot Springs...This brand oozed quality. Seemed really well built. The moto massge was crazy cool and you could interchange another plate with it. I listened and felt the Spaudio....beyond cool. It scares me to think that if I bought this tub, I WANT that Spaudio and would end up spending more than I want to. The dealer had carried the brand forever and I felt good about getting any service that I thought I would never use with this brand. If they sold a vista for less and no warranty, I would buy it. The jets werent as powerful as the Master or Sundance, but close. The controls and seating were well thought out.

Thats it, I plan on wet testing these in the next week or so. If there is anything I missed or any advice you have, Im all ears.

[yokeman]

 wow!   earlier this afternoon i started a post  on this same subject but had to leave because of an early dinner date that had crept up on me.

i had just returned from looking for the holy grail spa and had finally reached my saturation point concerning spa shopping.

i to have looked at these spas...... dimension one, marquis, vita, nordic, arctic, tiger river, master,and everyday tubs, marquis' entry leveltubs.

had considered sundance  but the local dealer only had one model on the floor.  artesian and jacuzzi were to far away for any practical purposes when needing warrenty work.

hadn't even considered hot spgs figuring they were to expensive.  so i took the challenge of the vita sales person and drove to the hot spgs dealer for a wet test.

wow!!! what a difference!!!! i felt the same way about hot spgs . they oozed quality in workmanship AND engineering.

wet tested the sovereign and wasn't really looking for a tub with a lounger but this one might do. my needs are for neck, shoulder and foot therapy.
actually i liked everything i saw but several models were out of my budget.

i think my quest for the holy grail might be ending soon.

thanks to the vita sales person for the BEST advice i've gotten from any spa person yet.

andy hope you find your grail also let me know.
!  

[tluxon]

We wet-tested most of the spas you mentioned when we bought 3 years ago.  The most powerful was the Sundance Optima and a close second was the Marquis Euphoria.  We bought the Marquis Euphoria primarily because I didn't want the circ pump, we didn't want the footwell hump, and I had to have the cooler running 56 frame motors.  The Hot Springs had the appearance of greater quality, but it was the least powerful of our top 5 - plus, it had a circ pump.

We never found the perfect spa, but we were anxious to get into hot water on a regular basis.  So far, we've been extremely pleased with our choice.

Success in whatever you decide,

Tim

[Jordy]

Hi Andy,
I'll be interested in finding out your comments after you've had a chance to test-soak your final four. Have fun and Good Luck!!!

[Aztec]

Am surprised you dismissed the Caldera. It is not an entry-level spa.

[Mendocino101]

Andy...

I wish you the very best in finding the spa that is right for....but I must say that from reading some of your comments....it seems that you might being influenced a great deal by sales people and "their" opinions of things...D-1 is a highly respected tub...as is the Marquis....not that they are the right tub for you...but the reasons you mention like....."look like junk"....didn't give me that warm fuzzy feeling" or the store had that look of no service after the sale" ...or the "proud to carry...yada...yada....yada"....it just strikes me that you are discounting some very good spas ( including 2 of the most commonly respected spas)....for less than sound reasons....Again I sincerely wish you the best in finding the spa that is right for you...it just seems that you have a bit of prejudice in your shopping.....

[newtubcpl]

nice work Andy. From looking at my Master Spas brochure, Im guessing the tv model you looked at could have been a 750 FST if 7x7, STS if 8x8, or the monster 1050 FST. Dats the one at Camp David.

Owns a Downeast and proud of it.

[yokeman]

andy,

forgot to mention that the hot spgs is the only tub that filters all the water 100% of the time....no filter by-pass when therapy jets are being used.  and the water looked like it as compared to some tubs in showrooms that i have experienced.  in fact one dealer was looking for a scum line to prove a point about tub color...yuck!

in all my research i missed this feature...no other tub has it ....plus hot spgs have corona discharge ozone generators while some of the others mentioned still use u.v. bulb systems.

as monty did so shall we continue the search for the holy grail !

[HotTubMan]

andy,

forgot to mention that the hot spgs is the only tub that filters all the water 100% of the time....no filter by-pass when therapy jets are being used.  and the water looked like it as compared to some tubs in showrooms that i have experienced.  in fact one dealer was looking for a scum line to prove a point about tub color...yuck!

I am grwoing a little tired of hearing about the no filter by-pass. I respect HotSpring for making a fabulously engineered tub. It is reliable and attractive. Like so many "exclusive" features on hot tubs, I wonder "How are the hundreds of thousands of people that don't have this feature surviving?" What is the beneft to the end user of the non-bypass?

Is the water safer? No.

Cleaner? Perhaps, but everyone else has good water  too, right?

My Two Cents

HotTubMan

[Mendocino101]

Hot Springs is not alone in 100% filteration....Marquis also does this.....

[spahappy]

I am grwoing a little tired of hearing about the no filter by-pass. I respect HotSpring for making a fabulously engineered tub. It is reliable and attractive. Like so many "exclusive" features on hot tubs, I wonder "How are the hundreds of thousands of people that don't have this feature surviving?" What is the beneft to the end user of the non-bypass?

Is the water safer? No.

Cleaner? Perhaps, but everyone else has good water  too, right?

My Two Cents

HotTubMan

I'm with you HotTubMan,

When it comes to water quality I doubt it makes a big difference if a spa has one or not.

If it did, the majority of spa manufaturers would see the benifits and do the same thing. Very few spas made today have added this technology to their filtration system.

From personal experience it's more important to have a filtration system that catches stuff before it gets to the filter. All Coleman spas have a skimmer basket on top of the filter. It's easy to get to, easy to remove, and easy to clean. these are just some of the things I"ve found in mine... leaves, dirt, grass, toys, bugs, ponytail ties, band-aids, paper cups, bottle labels, olives, ect.

Without this feature you'll be pulling all that type of stuff out of all those filter pleats weekly...

BTW, ever tried to catch an olive in a hottub?

Spahappy

[Wisoki]

Well, in the long run it turns out to be a boon for the HS dealer. The customer is going to have anywhere from 3 to 5 filters to maintain, that's a LOT of filter cleaner solution. Since they now have the "micron" filters, which clog even faster, the filters now run about 80 bucks a piece. If you are not into filter maintinence you'll probably be buying new filters every year or sooner. That's 400 dollars worth of filter in the 5 filter model. Personaly, I don't think is't a great idea at all. Enginering, what ever, it's a hot tub. They have gotten better looking in recent years.

My dimes worth.

I am grwoing a little tired of hearing about the no filter by-pass. I respect HotSpring for making a fabulously engineered tub. It is reliable and attractive. Like so many "exclusive" features on hot tubs, I wonder "How are the hundreds of thousands of people that don't have this feature surviving?" What is the beneft to the end user of the non-bypass?

Is the water safer? No.

Cleaner? Perhaps, but everyone else has good water  too, right?

My Two Cents

HotTubMan

[salesdvl]

Wow.   Of your final 4 my advice would be to eliminate Master Spa.  I carried them for a few yrs and had lots of reliability issues.  

[salesdvl]

I also have a couple of pennies to pitch in about the filtering issue.  I think the phrase "100 filtration" and "100% no-bypass filtration" are being intermixed.  EVERY spa filters 100% of the water....eventually.  By the way if you look on Marquis' website you will see that they show the bypass suctions in a diagram of their filter system.  They use the phrase "100% of the filtered water..." not really the same thing.  Now, having said that and being a Hot Spring dealer I think that with proper water chemistry the number of filters isnt as big an issue as the consumer is lead to believe.  Afterall, In the new HS Vista you have 5 filters that are 65sq ft ea for a total of 325 sq ft of filtration.  Overkill? I'd say.

[stuart]

I also have a couple of pennies to pitch in about the filtering issue.  I think the phrase "100 filtration" and "100% no-bypass filtration" are being intermixed.  EVERY spa filters 100% of the water....eventually.  By the way if you look on Marquis' website you will see that they show the bypass suctions in a diagram of their filter system.  They use the phrase "100% of the filtered water..." not really the same thing.  Now, having said that and being a Hot Spring dealer I think that with proper water chemistry the number of filters isnt as big an issue as the consumer is lead to believe.  Afterall, In the new HS Vista you have 5 filters that are 65sq ft ea for a total of 325 sq ft of filtration.  Overkill? I'd say.

The intakes on the bottom of the spa can be used for several things; a drain, a bypass or a filter intake. Marquis uses them as a secondary filter intake.

Wow.   Of your final 4 my advice would be to eliminate Master Spa.  I carried them for a few yrs and had lots of reliability issues.

My seniments exactly! I had a similar experience with Master although Windsurfdog (AKA WindyBob) seems to have had a great experience as an owner of a Master.