OK...I am making an offer in the next week

[Vinny]

Here in the U.S. we do use ozone in our drinking water supply and I believe new commercial pools and Olympic training pools are starting to use ozone as well. I think the difference is HOW ozone is introduced into the water.

All of my research has shown that for drinking water ozone is injected into a large chamber against the flow of water and possibly pressurized to give it time to work and force absorbtion. It may be put into a couple of chambers working this way with some type of device to monitor the amount of ozone in the water itself. Cold water holds ozone longer (swimming pools) but here in the States chlorine is injected because ozone really has no residual effect, I don't know if this is true in Europe.

Remember that we are usually talking ozonators for spas or pools that are 110 Volts and probably 2 or 3 amps and run on 21% O2 (air's standard amount of oxygen), for drinking water they use huge ozonators with 100% O2. Olympic swimmng pools in Europe may use drinking water technology and if a swimming pool can keep ozone in them for 2 minutes vs 22 sec of a spa, there may be a difference. Also, bacteria doubles every 20 minutes in spa temperature water where it may take an hour or more for bacteria to double in pool temperature water. The little bit of info I 've seen for pools puts the ozonator right after the filter so it has about 6 feet or so (above ground pool) to get back into the pool. Once the bubbles hit the water's surface they are done "mixing" and are not effective.

[dkersten]

Back to the OP question..

Never settle for the offer they gave you.. always ask for more.. Especially when paying cash.  The lift is $250 to $300, so if you get it included, that is the approximate discount.  Steps are overrated in my opinion, I built mine with composite decking material for about $40.  The gfci box is an expense that the HS throws in.  The HS box does indeed have a slot for a 110v breaker, although it is not in there when you get it.  This allows for adding lighting without having to run additional wiring.. most lighting does not draw enough to be a problem with overall current draw on the circuit, or imbalancing the legs.

I look at it this way:  The spa dealer is always going to shoot you a price that has a little room to come down.  It is like buying a new car.. there is a lot of competition and they know they will have to make their deal as sweet or sweeter than the competitors if they want the sale.. I cannot imagine a spa dealer that has so much business that he will not be willing to deal.. if that is the case then you are probably better off with his competitor.

Ask both of them to sharpen the pencil a little, THEN if you decide on the Sundance, AFTER they sharpen the pencil, offer cash/check and get them to throw in some added value, or reduce the price further.  If they won't go down and you still want that tub, pull out the credit card and remind them that it costs them an extra 2-3% if you charge it.. it only makes sense to them to give you something or reduce the price by a hundred or two.. Everyone pays credit card fees.

If you really want to get the best price, don't be afraid to walk out if they won't deal.  Once again, unless they have so much business they really don't need your sale, watching a $7k sale walk out the door will make any salesman reconsider.  

Oh by the way, for a 3% increase in the cost of the product, adding ozone is, in my opinion, a smart buy.. worst case scenario your water is a little cleaner.. I look at it this way:  Ozone does sanitize water, its just a matter of how well it does it in a spa.. so at the very worst, you are sanitizing a little.  BTW, I go sometimes 2 weeks without using my tub in the summer and if the water was clean to start with, it is clean after 2 weeks of no chems.. I use a HS with ozone and silver ion.