I share your sentiments about a hot tub purchase being a difficult research project. We purchased a tub in August (ended up choosing a Caldera Niagara Utopia) after spending approximately 3 months researching and wet testing. We narrowed our choices to tubs by Caldera, Hot Springs and Marquis. We ruled a few brands out due solely to poor salesmanship at the dealer. The three we chose all were carried by polite, knowledgeable and accommodating dealers.
Prior to wet testing, we were dead set on purchasing the Hot Springs Vista, with the Marquis Reward as our runner up. After finding this site, we heeded the advice of others and requested wet tests for all of the tubs we were interested in.
My wife and I learned immediately that neither of us cared for the lounger in the HS Vista, though the other seats were decent. We tried the HS Grandee too, but it just didn't do much for us. We then headed down the road to the Marquis dealer and tried the Reward and Euphoria. Both were nice spas, though we were only comfortable in one or two of the seats in each.
Our last visit of the afternoon was to the Caldera dealer, where we tried the Aspire, Geneva and Niagara. Again, we did not care for the lounger in the Geneva, so we ruled out that one quickly. We then moved to the Niagara and were pleasantly surprised to learn that we enjoyed every seat in the tub, even the "psuedo-lounger". Our only complaint was that the controls had rather odd placement (the controls to change some seats are on the opposite side from the seat). We then moved to the Aspire and really enjoyed that tub, and particularly liked the built-in stereo system. Unfortunately, the Aspire is a smaller tub than the Niagara, so the foot well was on the verge of being cramped with 4 people in it (we took two friends along for their opinions and to see what the tubs would be like with more than two people in them).
Since the Aspire and Niagara were equally comfortable tubs, we ended up choosing the Niagara primarily because it was larger. Since we did like the music while soaking, I installed a wireless outdoor audio system to provide "soaking music."
After 4+ months of owning the Niagara, we're still 100% satisfied with the tub and are confident we made the best decision. For what it's worth, after wet testing, our second choice would've been the Marquis Reward, especially since its price was almost $2000 lower.
If you're considering doing your own wiring, then you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to wire the Caldera. If memory serves, it took about 45 minutes to do the wiring, with the majority of that time dedicated to pulling wire from the main panel to the GFCI sub. I'd imagine that the Hot Spring would be very similar though, given the fact they're both made by Watkins.
The best advice anyone can give (IMO), is to wet test and if you'll frequently have guests in your tub, take a couple of extra people with you so you can see how the tub seats 4+ people.
Jason
