bahia vs niagra

[rockypath]

I am planning to buy my first hot tub and have narrowed the search down to a sundance bahia and dimension one niagra [corrected to be dimension one nautilus, thanks stl-rex].  Does anyone have any comments on which one is better?  I live in an area in which there are cold winters with below freezing temperatures and was wondering if one brand was better for this type of climate.

[stl-rex]

I'm curious why the Bahia and not the Optima.  In my mind the Optima is a more realistic comparison to the Niagra.  I sat in both the Bahia and Optima.  Although they are similar in design, I felt the Optima was a much nicer spa.  It's jets had a better and stronger feel and the foot dome had 8 jets instead of the 4 the Bahia has.  With a person in each corner, all eight feet in the Optima can be hit at the same time rather than alternating in the Bahia.

By the way, Caldera makes the Niagra.  The Dimension one equivalent would be the Nautilus.  Either way, I'd compare them to the Optima.

[rockypath]

The Bahia is less expensive ($6500 vs. $8000 for the Nautilus) and as far as i can tell there doesn't seem to be a lot more that you get for the extra thousand- but thats part of my question.

[stl-rex]

I didn't wet test the Nautilus but my wife and I sat in it dry.  Have you wet tested both?  The Nautilus is in my opinion a deep tub with the better seats positioned fairly low.  If you have a user who is under probably 5'5" tall, that person may struggle in the Dimension even with the foot dome.  Both appear to be well made tubs.  From the research I've done, the water purification/management of the D1 is more sophisticated than the Bahia.  If you want another tub to examine that is very similar and priced pretty comparable to the Bahia, check the Jacuzzi 365.  Jacuzzi and Sundance are made at the same factory to the same manufacturing standards.  The jets to me on the Jacuzzi are much more comfortable.  They have larger orifices and don't "needle" you as much.  Think 800 series Sundance performance with 700 series water management.