Thanks for the reply!!! We actually didn't "test" any spas at all. We looked at Beachcomber - there were a lot of things I liked about it, but then we looked at Sundance, and there were more things I liked about them. We used to have a Sunbelt Spa but sold it with our old house 1.5 years ago. I was going to buy another Sunbelt, but the dealer is over an hour away so I decided to look at other brands.
I went alone to look at the two brands and went away from Sundance considering the Cayman - because it was in what I thought was our price range. Then I brought my husband to look at them - he just loved the Optima - not that he went in it - he loved the looks of it - and the features. Since I wanted a lounger, we went with the Cameo. It was a very impulsive purchase on his part - mostly because we're in the process of building our deck and he wanted to get the spa shopping over with quickly, so he could do a concrete pad for the spa and continue building the deck.
By the way - my husband went in our old spa, which we had for about 2.5 years, no more than 3 times!!! He's telling me he'll go in the new one - but not in the winter!!! Winter is my absolute favorite time to go in - there's nothing better than to watch the sunrise on a cold winter morning!!!!
Thanks for the information about the filter - I kind of like the idea of not cleaning a filter - especially in the winter.
Hope you have many hours of enjoyment in your Maxxus!!!
Susan