At the end of 2003 HotSpring made 38 changes to their spas
Chas,
Not picking on the line here buddy but that sounds like a phenomenal amount of change so lets explain. Hotspring is one of the manufactures that have been pretty resistant to big changes over the years. In fact I believe the original idea was to try the new things out on the TR line.
Most manufactures try to make as few changes as possible while still trying to maintain a competitive edge and install the most up to date technology.
I personally don't like to see more than 2 or 3 changes on a line per year unless the tried and true method is so archaic that it just isn't working anymore. No matter how good of an RD department you have, you can’t always foresee what the long-term issues might be with your changes. 38 changes in a year could be a negative in the long haul if they are mostly “new and unique”. We’re a young industry so although there is a world of new things available for us we need to take it slow and test, test, test. Remember, many of the people selling are selling it as the “Only way to do it” and telling customers these will last forever. The combination of this and many companies using the customer as the guinea pig (not referring to Watkins) is what gives us some of the negatives that are coming up more and more with prior owners.
Major mold and configuration changes means major price increases down the line. It isn't cheap to revamp!
BTW, I do like many of the changes to HS this year!
