Hey guys,I'm back after a year of hot tub thinking

[Cajun_Mike]

Over a year ago, I was all fired up about buying a Hot Tub.  Drove all the way to Port Neches, Texas to wet test a Sundance Optoma and on the way home, I was totally turned off to the idea.  

Why?  because I was looking at hot tubs during the month of July in South Louisiana/Texas.  The heat outside was unbearable and there just wasn't anything rejuvenating about going from the heat outside to the heat of a tub on a showroom floor.

That being said, I now know that you folks up North probably get a lot more use out of your tubs than people in the south do.... Fall, Winter and early spring are ideal though for me and I think I want to revisit the idea.  The thought of blending margaritas and sitting in the spa with my girlfriend seems pretty darn good...

In my town there is Hot Spring and Dimension 1.   Towards New Orleans there is a Sundance dealer and equal distance West into Texas is a Sundance dealer.  There is also a Coleman dealer in this town but the neck pads are a deal breaker.   I wet tested the Optima and loved it.  At the time there was also the sweetwater line which I now know is incorporated with Sundance...I definitely preferred the Optima to the Bahia.  What was not in the picture when I was shopping was the Majesta (was this introduced for 05?) and I really like the looks of it on the Sundance website.  As much as I loved the Optima, the size was a bit overbearing and my girlfriend and I do not have any children from a previous marriage....so, I think it will primarily just be the two of us enjoying the bubbly....  

Have any of you compared the Optima to the Majesta and is the size difference that noticable?  I like the idea of the cool down seat in the Majesta........  Also, is it possible to not have the water so hot so it can be used almost like a swimming pool in the summer time?

[johnvb]

Also, is it possible to not have the water so hot so it can be used almost like a swimming pool in the summer time?

We had the same thoughts when our tub first was installed last June, but ended up preferring a 95-96 degree water temperature in our Optima this last summer.

The room in which it is in has a temporary A/C setup that kept the air temp around 80 degrees. Because of the circulating pump heat gain, (with the cover on and heater turned off) I usually had to uncover the tub a few hours before we got in it, to cool it down a few degrees.

Now that fall has arrived, this isn't necessary, and we are gradually ramping up the water temp.

Because of where you live, depending on how you install the tub, I"m not sure you will be able to maintain a pool-like 80-degree spa temp in the summer.

[hottub.pool_boy]

I agree with jhnvb on the water temp. 80 is generally too cool for spa use(unless you like being borderline hypothermic in 10-15mins).

HotSpring and Tiger River have a summer timmer mode which shuts down the circ. pump for 8 hours for you guys in the southern states.

Sundance may have the same feature.

[johnvb]

Sundance may have the same feature.

Sort of. The Optima will lock out the circulation pump (and ozonator, if one is being used), when ever the water temperature goes 2 degrees above the heater set point.

So even though I adjusted the filtration modes to have no heat come on, I still had to set the heater temp setting at 98 degrees, to insure that the filter pump would stay on. An hour or so with both jet pumps running will easily raise the spa temp up from 95-96 degrees to 98-99 degrees, when the ambient air temp is high enough.

If the tub "overheats" and you aren't aware of it, and slapped on the cover, with the ambient temperature  high enough, I could see the filtration pump/ozonator could staying off for days.

[PaulMc]

  We bought a Majesta a couple months back. Love it. We also wet tested the Optima among others. It's a nice tub as well but the Majesta just seemed a better size for our family. I did feel about two weeks into ownership that maybe I'd rather have had a larger tub but that was because we had lots of visitors trying it out, and I got over it quickly. To handle party size soaks would have meant we'd have needed a Maxuss and that's way to big for us. The Majesta is big enough for the four of us to enjoy, and just the right size for my wife and I to really enjoy.

 The seats felt slightly different but not significant to us. Both had lots of power and now we quite often don't do the intense massage action for an entire soak. I do turn them up when I use the seats beside mine to do my knees. And while the cool down seat is already popular, I expect it to be even more so as the weather cools off.

  The only issue I've had has been the filter. The first one we had collapsed inward after about a month. So did the second. Bad batch of them I understand. But the dealer just gives me another one and will do so until we get good ones from the filter manufacturer. Oddly I'm kind of happy with that. Gives me a couple extra months without filter cost.

 Good luck with your hunt.   paul