Artesian Piper Glen vs Sundance Optima

[East_TX_Spa]

 Wow!

[tileman]

You are definely correct there Vinny. The Optima has a total of 25 pee shooters.

[Vinny]

 Wow!

Hey Term,

Those are intakes not jets and in my tub the cover is about 4" round and the thing underneath #3 is a bottom drain. All the rest of those round silver things are the jets!  


tileman,

Based on the warnings, we really shouldn't be looking for tubs with all those small jets - should we?

[sledjunkie]

I also don't like the little pee jets or whatever you call them. That was one of the first things I learned during wet testing...

[wesj53]

One thing I've found on these sites is quite a bit of ignorance when comparing models of spas. For everyone's information, the Optima has a blower and the small "pee jets" that some of your are referring to are the air jets. There are 14 of them; 2 in each of the active seats and 4 (out of in the calf level. The Piper Glen doesn't have a blower; thus no "small jets".

I've wet tested both and found them both to be very comfortable and soothing. I believe the PG gives you more bang for the buck with more water jets, but the Optima has air therapy as well as stronger foot jets. The PG in our opinion lacked aggressive pressure to adequately work the feet. One final negative on the PG is that the jets are NOT interchangeable (at least that is what our dealer told us); therefore, an owner does not have the ability to exchange any new jets Artesian may come out with in the future. Regardless, the PG would still be our choice because of the independent pump system. The individual controls is a very nice feature!

[patty]

... what are those little round things on the base of the seats or in the foot well?

The small jets in at the base of the seats in the Optima are air injector jets for the blower.  There are 14 total; they are not included in the jet count.  

As for the smaller jets there are 4 "euro" jets on the Optima.. Two are at neck level on the 2 corner seats next to the waterfall.  And 12 "accupressure" jets ... 8 are on the foot well, and 2 sets for the calves.

Our Optima was just delievered week before last.  I thought the Emerald appeared to be VERY similar in layout to the Optima and it was on my list to look at before making a final decision.  Unfortunately the nearest Artesian was an hour away.  We did actually make the road trip one night after work - only to find out they carried only the Island line.  (I had even called ahead to inquire about the Emerald and Opal - they gave me pricing...go figure. )  I would have loved to test Emerald and even Piper Glen (depending on price).  

[Vinny]

For me, I'm only messing around. I never looked at the Optima and the Piper was sitting next to my tub, I wasn't going to pay $10K for any tub.

I really think these threads get WAY too serious for what we're talking about. They all "copy" each other and the idea is to find the "best" tub for ourselves reguardless what anyone else thinks.

If someone is happy with a Walmart tub, then who am I or anyone else to say it's crap! Did I buy such a tub - no but I didn't buy a "top of the line", "super deluxe", bestest spa either - to me there ain't no such bird - Remember if you paid $3000 or $13,000 - they make hot water and have jets.

Now if someone complains about breaking down a lot or power consumption, then it could be suspect to the type of spa they bought but as we see here - ALL spas might have problems!

Think about it!

[Skellman]

Remember if you paid $3000 or $13,000 - they make hot water and have jets.

Exactly the reason I will be looking at the Bahia and comparable models in a few weeks when my tub hunting season opens.
Although I have not yet ruled out the Optima, Envoy etc.