New Spa buy- confusion among manuf...

[chilidipper8]

The wife and decided last night we were ready to buy a spa. Went looking today and man can it be confusing as you speak to these manuf  and dealers. I have looked into any websites for consumer reviews with no luck. Any ideas??
Looked at a Sundance Altimar = $12,000
Elite (by Maxx) 80=$7700
I could see some difference between the two, but $5k worth? We looked at a home were they are always doing a show special price. We did not bite. Are these prices any better at home shows:-/

[tanstaafl2]

Altimar at 12K seems a bit pricey but it appears to depend in part on what part of the country you are in. When I was looking a few months ago the Maxxus could be had for about that or maybe a bit less.

[Chas]

There are no web sites to find unbiased info. There is a logical reason for that: web sites cost money. Somebody has to pay that money. If it is a manufacturer, then their product will be the 'best.'

If the money comes from advertising, then the advertisers' products will look pretty good.

If you go to a forum like this or the dozen others, you will hear that whatever a person purchased is the best. If they had a bum dealer, you will hear about that, though it might mean nothing to you unless you are in the same city.

If dealers like myself post, they will gladly tell you about the wonderful features of the products they represent. I would be glad to.

So - what to do?

Buy a HotSpring and relax.  

Or, at least look closely at things such as warranty, company size and track record, complaints in the local area about the dealer you are working with, and so forth. If you would like my opinion, I would always say to stick with the leading sellers; HotSpring, Tiger River, Sundance, Caldera. Of the smaller companies, Marquis, D1, Jacuzzi and Beachcomber seem to make nice tubs. In my opinion and the opinion of hundreds of thousands of shoppers.

How's that?

[MarKee]

Chas: Last time I checked Marquis, D1, and Jacuzzi weren't that small of companies.  I think of the larger companies as:

Hotspring/Caldera
Sundance/Jacuzzi
Marquis
Master
Coleman/Maxx
Dimension 1
Arctic


Smaller companies:
The other 200 or so other spa manufacturers

[Gomboman]

I thought Marquis was an independent "Employee Owned" company. That implies that they are a smaller company. Since they are Employee owned, they don't have to abide by the same standards as some of their larger counter parts. In most cases, that can be a good thing.  
 
There's nothing wrong with being labeled as a small company. In some respects, it is an advantage. Without knowing their actual sales numbers, we can not confirm if they are a large or small spa company. Marquis does have the reputation of building world class spas though. That's all that matters in my mind.

[hottubdan]

Define larger company.

[anne]

f you would like my opinion, I would always say to stick with the leading sellers; HotSpring, Tiger River, Sundance, Caldera. Of the smaller companies, Marquis, D1, Jacuzzi and Beachcomber seem to make nice tubs. In my opinion and the opinion of hundreds of thousands of shoppers.

Chas, I appreciate that you presented all of that as opinion, and I appreciate that you made it somewhat clearly tongue-in-cheek, but wouldn't it be fair to tell the poor guy that 3 of the 4 above mentioned "leading sellers" are owned by the same parent company, and that 2 of the 4 are even sold by the same dealers?

[MarKee]

I'm curious to know, how many spas does Caldera sell a year?

[Chas]

tell the poor guy that 3 of the 4 above mentioned "leading sellers" are owned by the same parent company, and that 2 of the 4 are even sold by the same dealers?  

Anne makes a very good point.
Did you know that HotSpring, Tiger River, Solana and Hot Spot spas are all built by Watkins MFG? And Watkins owns Caldera as well, though the Caldera shells are built in Mexico and then the rest of the spas are finished in Vista.

Caldera is a 30 year-old company with a certain style of its own which was purchased by Watkins x years ago.

[MarKee]

I know all the companies that Watkins owns but I was wondering how many units a year Caldera sells if anyone knows, or a ball park figure?  Isn't Hotspring in the 40-50,000 range, or is that all of Watkins including Caldera?