Last year I built a 3 season porch addition and replaced our deck. This spring I will complete the project building a paver patio. I started thinking recently, that now might be a good time to catch a good deal on a used hot tub, since (I'm guessing) many people aren't thinking about buying hot tubs right now. We really couldn't afford more than $1,000 - $1,500. And I know nothing about hot tubs. So I browsed Craigslist a bit on Saturday and one caught my eye...but there was no make or model. The ad just said "hot tub in great shape, 6 or 7 years old, new one's are selling for $12,000, we're asking $2100." I sent them a message asking the make and model...they said "Marquis Epic" which still meant nothing to me...until I googled it. I couldn't find a single complaint about this model...other than maybe is was too expensive, but I didn't find lots of people who love it. Plus, the new one's don't seem to have changed much since 2007. Well, $2100 was still out of our price range and it didn't matter how good of a deal it was (and I think that would have been a good price). I respectfully offered them $1500 (top of our budget) and assured them I could have it gone by the end of the weekend, without much hassle on their part. As it turns out, that is exactly what they needed, since they just sold the house and needed to get it our asap, because the new owners didn't want it. We were thrilled and can't wait to get it going, unfortunately that will have to wait a couple months until the spring when we finish the patio. Something my wife is not happy about!
The owner did offer to start it up for us, since it was shut down for the winter. Maybe it was nieve on my part, but he gave me no indication that there was any reason to believe there was a problem with it, so I opted not have him fill it up and drain it the next day in the middle of winter. I think that would have been quite a hassle. Maybe not as much hassle as finding out the thing is riddled with problems, but I guess for $1500, I was willing to take that risk.
The tub came with a big box of misc chemicals, the steps, a remote, and a decent cover with an opener. I carefully checked under the hood for any obvious issues and inspected the shell for cracks and other obvious issues. Everything looked good from what I could see.
Was this a crazy purchase or did we do well? So now what...what do we need to be thinking about or doing before getting this tub running in a couple months?
