Julian Thompson

Gents, please. You are embarassing yourselves, if I might be so bold. Anyone who buys an electric powered hot tub that is intended to stay hot 24 - 7 and be used only perhaps for one hour a day or whatever is clearly not a member of Greenpeace. Please don't concern yourselves unduly with your choice of cabinet apart from your personal choice from an aesthetic and maintenance standpoint. Kind regards Julian

Well I think Stevie has a winning strategy there; and interesting that, after all these weeks of such vehment arugment Mr Paintsunni actually has outlined a strategy that so closely aligns what a professional hot tub retailler considers to be the best course of action. I think that. if Costco did not exist and if he should occasion upon the need to do so then Mr Paintsunni might find himself rapping on the door of Stevie's showroom and winding up buying a spa! Well done to both of you for getting to the bottom of it! Cheers, Julian On which happy note, let us close this chapter and move on....

...Thanks Roger - that clarifies it well about the PH.

Just found a button called "lock Julian out to stop him fiddling with it" - and a nice padlock icon has popped up

Well, that will likely do for me then. I shall leave the control panel alone. Why is it that whenever there is a control panel and a load of buttons one finds it very difficult to resist the temptation to start prodding at it? There is nothing wrong with my water or anything else and yet here I am considering altering something!!! Must leave it alone...Must leave it alone...Must

Thanks chaps. It does have a 24 hour pump that does seem to move a lot of water. I think the manual means that changing modes will actually turn off this 24 hour setting and instead only circulate for the selected times - which would certainly seem daft. As a layman it would seem a great idea to have a system like this that circulates water all the time rather than just doing it for a certain number of times in 24 hours?

Hi again! As you know I'm absolutley in the same position as you 'spababe' in respect of being a new owner, but I can see already that you really do need to test PH on a very regular basis. Just putting in a predetermined amount of the same thing is not good enough because you don't know what status the water is at when you are adding that chemical. Hopefully someone more knowledgable than us will come along and make comment on this subject. In the meantime in the absence of that happening please take my (also novice!) advice just in case I'm right and get some testing strips! All the best, Julian

Thanks for reading my question - I am sorry if it sounds a little elementary! I was reading my hot tub manual (06 Sundance Maxxus spa) tonight and it explains that I can leave my tub in "standard" mode which continually filters the water. This is the way it is set up now. It also says that I could elect to have the tub only do this at certain times, which I am invited to program. I am curious as to why I would want to select this type of filtering? Surely it is more sanitary to have the machine continually filtering the water all of the time? Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply!

Sounds good - where did that come from then in the UK?

The difference with this dealer is that he has some imagination - that's what I took from the situation. He can see the win - win in it. He has a chance to sell a new spa on service but even if the supermarket take the sale he will still win on service tickets. This is what is clever. Many people would baulk at this situation and alienate the customer but this, I can see now, would be a total folly. I would add that if what you say about identical product being made available in bulk to supermarkets is accurate then Hotsprings have been rather sharpish but I suppose this is simple economics and economies of scale. If I were a dealer then I would feel a little short changed but as you say, this is life and it is just another obstacle to get in the way of making a profit. Profit, by the way, is not an ugly word. Profit is good - profit feeds your family and profit allows economic progress. Profit is your friend and you should work hard to remember that. Loss is bad. Loss means poverty and recession. Loss, and thin margins in every instance means hardship. The key is to make sure you too are making a Profit with what you do so you can let others do the same. Think about this one (and I won't insult you by discussing it further - it is meant as a token of respect because I too enjoyed the analogy when I first heard of it)....... If a financial advisor turned up driving a brand new Bentley would you embrace him for being successful and seeming to make a lot of money or would you not use him because he was obviously creaming off his clients? Would you prefer that he turned up driving a beat up old car which might show that he does not make a lot of money - or would this make you wonder that if he could not do well enough to afford a better car than you then why ought you listen to his advice?

Thanks for understanding; and I agree totally with a huge amount of what you say in your measured response; the internet does indeed change absolutely everything and the old fashioned business model is indeed in a rapid and unstoppable change phase. The difficult part for the consumer is deciding when to indulge in the potential fiscal saving available by careful online shopping. Notwithstanding this there are the times when the consumer just wants to reward him or herself for deals done and effort expended without indulging in yet more dealing; whether this is buying new Porsche or a new top of the line spa the net result is the same - money through the economy, wages paid and hopefully pleasure gained by the purchaser. It does, absolutely, go futher and is much, much more complex than part a + part b = price c. I do understand and humour your perspective and I think your views on current trends and the internet are perceptive but I would venture to suggest that your nation's spa dealers and professionals are far, far more than the "easy buck" merchants than you seem to give credit for, and that their happy customers would bring you to account for suggesting so. There was a post from a dealer on here that I read the other day with a beautiful and extensive looking showroom that I personally learned from and took to my organisation. I don't recall who he was but he stated as a response to a challenge that if a client came in to test a spa who was basically sold on an alternative brand he would still welcome them and encourage a wet test. This is 2006 + thinking; truly retail genius and although I don't know the man or even remember his name you just can't bet against people like this in a sales and service race. There exists currently an uneasy peace between out of area internet retail and local organisations in many industries; it would be a rare individual indeed who would predict the final outtcome of the situation in the longer term for items that are not ready candidates for mail order. I find this area fascinating and relevant to my business personally (though I suppose the original poster will be somewhat bored as he jumps up and down pointing at lounger seats and football jets. I am truly sorry for spoiling your thread. )

Note; I said I was bowing out relatively gracefully, and yet why is it that I feel compelled to continue- even though the original question and point seems largely lost? <Sigh> Post; I think that calming down is what a quality spa is all about, Mr Paintsunni. Please understand - really - that I can see that you're clearly a switched on, knowledgeable chap; this is truly to be applauded. I don't want to get involved looking at specification sheets like a game of top trumps because this spectacularly misses the point of trying your best to relax in a spa after a difficult and intense day at work. I have no idea if my Maxxus spa is up there technically with your Costco one and I have no intention of poring over a data sheet to find out. As long as my spa water is clear and bathable and as long as my dealer continues to answer the telephone and help me when needed I'll be happy with what I have bought. I would appreciate it greatly if you were able to extend me the courtesy of some respect for that decision; I have openly agreed that your ability to sleuth out a terrific spa deal is noteworthy but I take exception to your assertation that I am being emotional when I have openly admitted to being completely ignorant of the Costco Spa's specification, especially when I have already indicated that self delivery and set up was not on the agenda. Very kind regards, Julian.

Agreed. Which model of hydropool spa is it that you have? Over here, we wet tested a hydropool which was about $18000 with the stereo and everything. It was great and we would have bought one but Hydropool as a company in the UK here wanted FULL payment TEN weeks BEFORE the tub was delivered..... I just didn't DARE to part with that much cash and then risk anything happening!

Hi again Actually I have been misunderstood completely with this one!! - I never meant to suggest that your Costco tub was inferior to the Maxxus because.... I don't know anything about the Costco spa at all!!! - but in any event I would not have dared to buy one because I didn't want to have to arrange delivery, lug it in to position, wire it all up, fit all the accessories, cover, stereo and everything else!! I'm sure the Costco tub is terrific - what I was saying was just that at any price a supermarket supplied item would never have been an option for me because I wanted a complete, turn key service rather than a commodity purchase with me providing the legwork. Also, because I was having builders make a wall and stuff around the installation I would not have easily been able to "take back" the tub if I had not been pleased with it! (It isn't like a toaster where you can just pop it on the counter and ask for your money back!) Hope this clarifies where I was coming from - as I say, I have no idea about the Costco tub and I am certain they would not stock something that was no good so well done to you for finding what you wanted at a price acceptable to you. I also found what I wanted at a price acceptable to me so we're both happy!

Had to laugh at this - we even have a black and white 16th century cottage for a house with a red phonebox up the lane so I reckon we fit your idea of English countryside residents pretty accurately!