Repair rate for various brands?

[solo]

I was talking to a guy at the gym this morning about my new spa that will be here in a week and a half.  He has one too.  He bought a hotsprings 4 years ago because he felt like they had the fewest repairs.

I didn't ask him why he felt that, but am curious if there is a service that tracks repair rates on various spa brands.  Such as how many defects per hundred spas sold, most frequently repaired part, etc.

I didn't even think to try and look this stuff before I bought mine.    But would be interested to know.  

Anyone have a link?

[Gomboman]

I'm sure most of this information is kept confidential by the manufacturers. It's such a small industry and I doubt you will find any accurate public information regarding spa sales or defect rates etc.

Does your dealer charge trip fees for warranty work? I'm sure you researched this already.....

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 It really doesnt matter what brand or price a spa is, a spa can break most are minor problems, generally if a new spa is going to break its within the first month or week for that matter.

 If you take into the account how many spa manufactures there are, then look at how many parts they use for instance pumps,most use Hayward or Aquaflow they vary. Now multiply that by hundreds of thousands of spas that are built each year with at least 2 pumps per spa or more,  there is bound to be a certain percentage of pumps that break down for whatever reason.


 If you buy a cheap Costco type spa chances  gonna have problems!  You buy a top end spa Jacuzzi,Sundance,Hot springs ect,ect.   You still can have problems but probably not as many, plus you have the warranty to back it up.

[mark 2550]

Most problems will be trivial, hopefully fix them yourself or get a buddy to do it, when it comes to electrical hopefully you know some one to help out but all other problems can be solved by any confident individual and most electrical as well.

[D.P. Roberts]

I've posted this on another forum, so some of you may have seen this:

Yearly Sales:
Watkins (Hot Spring, Caldera, etc.): $75 million
Thermospa: $55 million
Sundance: $54.5 million
Jacuzzi: APPROX. $50 million
Blue Falls Mfg (Arctic): $52,729,420.03
Tatum Mfg (Gulf Coast & many OEM spas): $35 million
Cal Spas $19 million
Marquis: $17 million
Dimension One: $15.6 million
May Mfg. (Artesian): $7.8 million
Keys Backyard: $7.6 million
Infinity Spas: $1.2 million



Complaints to the Better Business Bureau:

Company                36 mos            12 mos

Arctic                      0                      0
Artesian                 0                    0
Bullfrog               2                     1
Marquis                      3                     1
D1                      4                      3
Watkins             10                   3
Master                      24                  10
Jacuzzi/Sundance    31                   n/a
Hydro Spas              37               27
Gulf Coast            48                  18
Cal Spas            84               n/a
Thermospas          129                    60*
Infinity                4                    4*
Keys Backyard        23                  9*

Notes:

1) I've been told these are 2004 sales numbers (I got them from Hoovers dot com). So they may be old, but the ratios are probably comparable.
2) Jacuzzi is an estimate because their report indicates all Jacuzzi products (bath fixtures, etc.) I'm basing the $50 million figure on a statement made by Jacuzzi Brands of "over $100 million in sales" between Sundance and Jacuzzi.
3) These are manufacturer sales dollars, not dealer sales dollars.
4) The asterisks in the BBB results indicate an Unsatisfactory rating with the BBB for failure to deal with complaints.
5) BBB complaints are obviously not the total number of "problems": undoubtedly most of them get ironed out by the dealer and/or manufacturer before they escalate to the BBB. However, it's the only unbiased report on hot tub  "issues" that I've been able to find.

Having said all that, I think a "complaints per sales dollar" figure gives a reasonable estimate of the "quality" of a manufacturer. For example, Hot Spring & its brands are averaging $75 million in sales & 3 complaints per year, or roughly 1 complaint out of $25 million in sales. On the other hand, Gulf Coast had 18 complaints in $35 million in sales, or 1 complaint in $2 million. So, Gulf Coast's complaint rate is roughly ten times higher than Hot Spring. Thermospa's is twenty times higher than Hot Spring. Very rough estimates, but I think it tells the consumer something.