I believe that L.A. is now made like a Maax, at least that is what my secret shopper told me and what I gather from the website.
There is not just one thing that makes a Hot Springs superior, it is many. The insulation and energy efficiency, the quality of the components, the quality of support Waktins provides their dealers compared to what Maax provides, the amount of money spent on R&D and the expected longevity due to the quality of components.
I was an L.A dealer for two years prior to them being acquired by Maax and FWIW I now carry Marquis. The things I liked about L.A. at time was that their layouts were comfortable, were insulated pretty well considering the price, had what I thought was a good filtration, and were priced pretty well ( I only sold the Adventure Hot Tubs). What I disliked was that the Gecko electronics were not the most reliable, the covers were poor quality, the Aqua Kleen filter socks would plug up much quicker than a normal pleated filter which almost caused a few freeze ups because the Gecko electronics would not override the flow restriction to pump 1 and allow pump 2 to run, basically it disabled freeze protection.
Now that Maax has bought them, I think the insulation is less, I'm not a fan of the Maax insulation, looks like they are still using Gecko electronics (I prefer Balboa) and Maax is kind of difficult to deal with.
