RickJS

perhaps a small jet and pump for his navel could be a one person tub? ... makes my extra 60 lbs not so bad :-(

Hi.. you may want to check out the lengthy thread "Hows' your Evolution (Strong Spa) Working" ... these are sold through Costco.. but pretty much the same, just a few feature changes i think from retail.... i've had my strong for 6 months now.. absolutely LOVE it... You will see lots of pros and cons.... many dont like that this is a "cheap" spa.. but i've had Hot Springs and Dimension One the past... and for this price.. i think its great!...

... I had a vacation home with a spa... not the best looking solution, but I had a 1/2 inch metal pipe (galvanized) with holes drilled at each end.. and i used eye bolts attached to the tub frame... then had plastic covered wire that i could loop between the pipe holes and tub bolts that i could put a small padlock on... yes, if determined, one could get in... but this seemed to stop most un-invited guests hummm.. but an ex.. there could be no stopping

Hi... I love mine.. check out the forum thread "hows your evolution (strong Spa) working" tons of comments, good, bad and otherwise, but best of all, Chad , the technical support manager from Evolution monitors and comments on this thread

Well, there has been some major debates on this... but your friend may want to check out the Evolution Spas sold through costco.com ... Costco did have a bad rap with some previous manufacturers, but their current supplier - Strong- has been getting great reviews. I have had mine for 4 months now.. love it... And costco does have an unconditional return guarantee policy (I took my 4 year old spa back to them, and had a full refund in 10 minutes). Check out the "hows your Evolution-Strong Spa doing" thread... Rick

der they make noise? Der you have guest from England? Maybe der making Bubbles and Squeak?

Hi Ginab.. to my basic understanding of electrical, the wire size is based on the Amps, or Draw that your tub will use.. if its designed for using "standard" household outlets, the minimum would be 12g for a 20 amp breaker, and i'm thinking it should be a dedicated circuit... but your tub may require more than 20 amps... the specs on the tub should tell you, or look and see what the GFI plug on your tub says Technically, you can plug a gfi into a gfi, but you could have needless tripping of the breakers.. (i was told this from a electrician buddy of mine) I could be wrong on these, and there are much better "brains" on this forum that may provide better advice :-)

...no... its very quite... when on low for filtering, i can hardly hear it..

.. i just looked at the Costco site.... the Key West looks like the Palm Beach i have, except they have added an additional pump.. oh well, i should have waited I would say with that addition, its a great spa... glad i'm not wild about powerful jets, so i'm NOT going to take this one back to Costco for an exchange I do agree with Spatech, there is definably a value to have a local deal set up, and be around to answer questions... that is a value judge you will have to make. I'm a fairly handy person, so I had no problem with setting up my tub, and could change a minor part if needed.. BUT.. from what i understand, Strong does contract with local techs for onsite service... You may want to contact Strong directly to ask how they handle service calls... I would ask for Chad, as he is a member of this forum, and the Tech manager there.... http://strongpoolsandspas.com/ .. their cust service number is on there somewhere

.. i just looked at the Costco site.... the Key West looks like the Palm Beach i have, except they have added an additional pump.. oh well, i should have waited I would say with that addition, its a great spa... glad i'm not wild about powerful jets, so i'm NOT going to take this one back to Costco for an exchange I do agree with Spatech, there is definably a value to have a local deal set up, and be around to answer questions... that is a value judge you will have to make. I'm a fairly handy person, so I had no problem with setting up my tub, and could change a minor part if needed.. BUT.. from what i understand, Strong does contract with local techs for onsite service... You may want to contact Strong directly to ask how they handle service calls... I would ask for Chad, as he is a member of this forum, and the Tech manager there.... http://strongpoolsandspas.com/ .. their cust service number is on there somewhere

Hi Griz.... there are a couple of longer threads on the Costco spas... the latest is "how is your Evolution.... " a few topics down.. and a LONG one a page or 2 ago... its very polarized.. i'm went with the smaller version that costco is no longer carrying.. the Palm... I've had it a month or so now, and love it... yes, the jets are not strong with only one pump, but for me, it was fine. For the price, i found it a very good purchase... I used a spa repair guy to move it in place.. he said he felt the construction was top notch.. and a great value.. One advantage, i had an old, horribly built spa from Costco that was 2 years old.. i took it back.. got a full refund in minutes. Yes, a pain to do this, but what a great warranty against getting something you dont like. Ask any local dealer if you can return the spa for full credit down the road? to me, that was worth not getting a "wet test".. and sacrificing a few features. You will see Strong has a excellent track record of supporting their products both on here, and over the phone... I have had D1 and HotSprings in the past... all were great.. all had some problems over the years. IMHO, I was willing to sacrifice some local service for the several thousand dollars of what i thought was comparable locally... I spent about $150 to get mine moved in place by a qualified spa mover... good luck!

Hi Chad.. maybe adding the dip switch settings for pump timeout in your user guide would be a good idea? .. or maybe just have your factory set it to 30 minutes from the start? Seems that a 15 min timeout is pretty short as a default?

sorry for cross posting.. forgot the one was started.. Balboa Speed 2 timeout - Just chatted with tech support at Balboa... you can change the dip switch setting to lengthen the time out from 15 min to 30.... which would be #5 on / #9 off.. that gives 2 hours on low, 30 on high... and fyi, there is a chart on the pack cover inside that shows several options ... Sadly, it does not look like the remotes will work with the VS300 series... the tech guy said they would have to check with the engineers, but he though he remembered they only work with the 500 series..

Hi, as far as your last question, I just returned a 3yr old spa to Costco, and just got the Strong.... I did have to pay the cost of getting the tub back to Costco... although I did not push for getting that cost back. I had my refund in minutes...

thanks for the info.... i'm usually at 101 degrees.. so i'm guessing that is still hot enough to cause the sanitizing reaction? Cheers rick