My D1 Lotus Bay is about 5 years old and I thought I would update the + and - of it.
My previous hot tub was a generic energy sucking thing that however lasted 18 years without issue and would have gone longer if it had not fallen through the deck.
So I bought the attractive ( it is) highly rated D1 Lotus Bay about 5 years ago and unfortunately it has had issues. The jets are great although not overly strong they will turn you into a noodle. The captains chair is great. Some of the corner seats have a bit more jet coverage and a few have less so you can titrate what you want by where you sit. The captains chair was my favorite although I wish there were also direct foot jets but is does get your thighs and back of your legs. The temp tops off at 104 and I used to want a degree or two more but was ok with it.
The combination of ozone and the vision silver cartridge and occasional chlorine work well. The vision cartridge is about $99 every 6 months.
In the beginning the main control panel want out about 6 times- just about every 4 months it would get moisture in it and it would fail. They kept replacing this with the same defective units that they knew were defective but at least did so under warranty. My current control unit is about 2 years old but now getting moisture too so I do not know how much longer it will last.
It has 6 plastic rubberized neck pillows. After 5 years these completely crumbled into dust. I had to vacuum them out with a wet dry vac. Thats about 200 bucks worth of neck pillows.
The ozone generator goes out every 2 years and instead of replacing the light bulb you need an entire new unit. Thats at about $250. It has cool magnetic buttons that allow you to control the two back chairs from the back. But they crumble into dust every couple years too and need to be replaced. I would not be surprised that some of the crumbling rubber dust makes its way to the motors.
One of the hoses to the neck pillows just sprang a leak, and the fountain stopped working a year ago.
I do not think it filters 100% of the water as you can usually still see items floating to the top that never seem to get completely filtered out.
In short it is an attractive spa that is great when it works. The dealer has been excellent. D1 is helpful and stands behind the product. However the
spa itself has some shortcomings that require lots of maintenance. You have to take out and clean the filters every 2-4 weeks.
All spas likely need some maintenance and repairs but with the over the limit issues I have had with this spa itself, unless they have been fixed, and I doubt they have, I would not recommend it. I have had at least 6 control unit replacements, neck rests crumble and spring leaks, seat control units crumble and need switches replaced, and a fountain stop working. The plastic around the jets is also bleaching out.
I would look for something where you can just replace an ozone light bulb instead of a whole ozone unit and one that filters 100% of the water. When you buy a spa look at the maintenance issues 5-10 years down the line.
Again The deaker has been responsive and so has D1 so I am not faulting customer service, just that it was needed so much.
