New Caldera spa issue.

[Hottubguy]

Service guy just left, replaced the circ pump and the 20 amp breaker in the box that was supplied by Caldera. He said it should be warm tonight, hot tomorrow, yippie!! On a side note we ordered it with the Bluetooth sound system, it didn’t show up in the menu. Called and was told it’s on back order, what they couldn’t tell me when it was delivered??? The tech looks and says oh here it is not plugged in and in the wrong location. Now the Bluetooth works in a soon to be hot tub. My take away, I bought this from the same dealer I have bought 3 other tubs from over the last 20 years. The service has gone downhill tremendously to just above crappy. Now I’m wondering about this tub, anyone have any experience with a Caldera brand?

The breaker I get they probably aren't tested at the factory and I've gotten a few bads ones though none recently.  Circ pump I would think would be checked more thoroughly at factory.  The Bluetooth stereo needs to be installed by the dealer when the tub comes into there store.  So that explanation makes zero sense.  Sounds like the tech they sent out was pretty good.  As a Caldera brand I've had few few issues on Paradise or Utopia Tubs (been selling for about 3 years.)  Have had a few issues with thermistors on Vacanza series tubs but they take about 2 minutes to swap out.  I haven't had to replace a single Circ Pump yet.  Overall as a dealer I have been happy with the customer support from factory and the overall quality is on par with every other high end brand  in the market.  I actually took on Caldera because one of my techs who has been servicing hot tubs for 20 years thinks they are the best brand out there as far as quality and knowledge at the factory.  I also carry Marquis which is high end as well. 

50% off the Hot Tub experience is the Hot Tub itself the other 50% is the dealer you bought it from.  This would've been caught on fillup with my company because after the electrician comes we come out and fill and start the same day.  Hopefully after this little hiccup at the beginning everything goes smooth from here on out

[bud16415]

I have a Caldera Geneva for the last 3 years. My opinion as just a homeowner and a first time tub owner are mixed. I did my own installation 100%.

The tub does everything it is supposed to do, and does it very well. On the other hand we bought the Geneva with the understanding it was to be the cream of the crop from a top of the line company. In working on the tub and having a few problems here and there the last one being a hose clamp failure where a defective 75 cent hose clamp was used instead of a quality $1.50 clamp causing me to loose half my water during sub freezing day. I wasn’t real happy even though the repair only took me an hour. If I wouldn’t have been home and caught it the outcome would have been different. Or if I wasn’t handy and had to hire the repair done or wait around for a service call it could have been different.

I personally didn’t feel the construction of what you don’t see in their tub is up to the quality of the fit and finish you do see in their tub. I don’t know how completive the high end tub market is or what kind of profit margins they run under. I understand the manufacture needs to make a profit as do the distribution people and the dealers. The items I see that I didn’t think were of the quality I expected were mostly not the high cost things.

It was a little bit like if I would have bought a 6k tub instead of a 12k tub I would have expected to see these differences.

In your case you clearly have a mixture of dealer and manufacture issues. I do disagree that the GFCI panel they provided shouldn’t have been tested as an assembly. I do agree it most likely wasn’t tested but if it is a requirement you use their panel and it is supplied it should be fully tested under load after being built. The test would be quite simple and for as many as they supply could be set up to only take a few minutes to do. I suspect Caldera never even sees the panels as it didn’t come with the tub the dealer had a bunch in stock that I’m guessing went straight to him. I had my panel in hand at the time of the purchase and waited a couple weeks for the tub. Although they gave me the panel to wire in the directions were wrong I was given and I had to dig the correct information out on line. My dealer had no clue as to what the dual GFCI was all about.

Again we are happy with our tub. Being closer to the workings of the tub than most owners has given me thoughts about how I might shop differently in the future for a tub.

On a slightly different note I did try and reach out to Watkins with some of my concerns with the intention of nothing more than talking to them. They are a very hard company IMO to communicate with in that way.           

[Linedog]

Great to hear everyone’s opinions on the tub. We have the Caldera Mackena, nice tub, definitely a step up from my old one. We were in it at 4AM, (don’t ask) and it all worked as it should, I don’t think it was quite up to 102 then, but close. So far so good, as I knock on wood. We also purchased the Covana auto cover, makes life a bit easier to say the least.

[BullFrogSpasMN]

Great to hear everyone’s opinions on the tub. We have the Caldera Mackena, nice tub, definitely a step up from my old one. We were in it at 4AM, (don’t ask) and it all worked as it should, I don’t think it was quite up to 102 then, but close. So far so good, as I knock on wood. We also purchased the Covana auto cover, makes life a bit easier to say the least.

nice you got the complete setup, I've sold a few Covanas, they of course are not exactly the most budget friendly item but man they are certainly the most convenient option in terms of customer usability, some of the installs can get pretty creative as well.  If Covana ever "cleans up" my territory I'll def. be bringing them back in to sell, congrats on a cool purchase!

[Spatech_tuo]

We were in it at 4AM, (don’t ask) and it all worked as it should,

C'mon, why mention it if we're not allowed to ask?

[Linedog]

LOL good point, after being with out a tub for close to 10 months, the Mrs was so excited she woke me saying “let’s go tub”. Needless to say I’m  dragging at work today.