Bullfrog A8 Series Pricing And Questions

[RicoTubbs11]

Greetings - this is my first post on the forum but I have been reading the forum frequently for the last month or so. It has been very useful, thanks so much to all of you experienced folks who take the time to post such good info.

I have been doing a lot of research and dealer visits and so far my favorites are the Bullfrog A8L and the Hot Springs Envoy. I have been quoted about $13K for the A8L, the Envoy quote is harder to pin down and seems to vary between about $12.5K and $14.5K depending on phase of moon and whether dealer is in "special sale this week!" mode. What are good prices on these tubs? I'm trying to figure out what I should aim for. Trying to find pricing information from actual owners has been tough, particularly on the NXT models. There are still no user reviews for the NXT tubs on the Hot Springs site either, have any of you actually purchased one - if so how do you like it?

I am going to visit another city next week that happens to have a Jacuzzi dealer so I will check them out as well. I have visited a number of other spa dealers and while most of the products I have seen appear to be pretty decent, the dealer salesmen left much to be desired.

Is there a tub model any of you could recommend that has a set of jets in the wall specifically for "stand up" therapy of hips and legs?

Are ozonators really safe? I have been trying to get a straight answer on whether the ozone is hazardous to human skin, very interested in this answer as my hide has already accumulated more than enough damage from lifelong UV exposure - must avoid any extra damage...

[RicoTubbs11]

Well I had the previous message split up into paragraphs but it ran it all together when posted. Sorry folks, I did not mean to post a big run-on paragraph...!

[kitchener]

I'm shopping this size (and price point) too, and also recently wet test the Bullfrog. He quoted me $11,700 on his in-stock A8D . I had it in my mind I'd offer $10,995 if we got down to brass tacks. I'm interested to hear your impressions of the Jacuzzi (400 series?). We wet-tested the 470 and really liked it, but I'm trying to find a 480 before we make a decision. Looks like my local Caldera store just got in a Cantabria I'll be able to test this week, too. I'll have to use that test to form an opinion about their Niagara and Geneva (and the Cantabria itself of course).

Make SURE you wet test. You've read it all the time but from my experience this past couple weeks, some well regarded tubs were struck from the list after wet-testing, one of which was one I really wanted to like (Artesian Pelican Bay). Looks like we're moving on from the A8 series, too, albeit for very subjective reasons. My wife had float issues. I didn't at all, so your mileage may vary! But you'll never know about that or any other unless you test.

The Caldera store also carries Hot Springs, and those NXTs are sharp looking tubs, but for reasons known only to HS, they really ignore feet in their Highlife collection, so we aren't considering it. We're a dedicated skiing family and have had varying results in our tests so far, but some good enough performances to know it's an area that's important to us.

[Puckcoach3]

We recently bought the Bullfrog R7. Paid about $9K, including tax, delivery, steps, lift and the circ pump. The A8 is a little bigger with a couple more jet packs. I'd recommend looking at the R7. It has the same two pumps and less jet packs -- this gives you more umph to each jet pack since the pumps are pumping the same amount of water. The A-Series has fancier lights and a fancier touch pad but I find these features to be extraneous and another expensive repair down the road. The R-Series also has a couple extra seats without jet packs. If you're like me, you just like to sit and relax in the hot tub with moving water and not always be sitting in front of jets. These extra, non-jet pack seats allow that. Food for thought

I did look at the Hot Springs products too. I found them to be gimmicky and expensive. Just my two cents.

Make sure to wet test both (and try the R7 too) and make your decision after that. Try not to get caught up in all of the jet/feature mania. In the end, a hot tub is a place to relax and unwind :-)

[Loopcity]

$13k is exactly where you should be on an A8, depending upon what is included with it and what the delivery is like. We see so many people talking about what they paid for their spa, but they often neglect to discuss these other things which can affect the price by thousands. If it's a difficult delivery and requires extra help or a crane, this is huge. Did it include ozone? Cover lifter? Steps? Wi-fi access? Circ pump? Stereo?

Anyway, $13k is certainly a reasonable price for the A8 and I imagine most dealers are right around that price. The above floor model A8D at $11,700 is a great deal. I can't imagine selling that spa for under $11k, so don't expect that offer to be accepted. Not delivered and with any accessories, at least. Maybe, MAYBE, for just the spa and cover, depending upon how long it had been on the floor.

Good luck guys! You are looking at some great spas (including the Jacuzzi).

[kitchener]

Thanks for the feedback, Loopcity -- and I want to add that in all my research (I do know how to use the Search button!), I've gotten a lot out of your past posts.

We're fresh from wet-testing the Caldera Cantabria this afternoon. Nice tub. Big. But I think Jacuzzi really has found a great, balanced tub -- its well-placed jets, and their function, just had some kind of wow factor that the Cantabria and the Pelican Bay didn't offer. For future researchers, let me add that had I not ever tested the J-470, I'd probably take the Pelican Bay over the Cantabria simply on price alone, as they were both great 9' tubs. Tough call, maybe, The floor jet array in the Cantabria, now that I think about it, probably had a little more to offer more people at one time, albeit for a good bit more money.

So, tomorrow, we're wet-testing the J-480, and seeing where we come down on the lounger or no lounger question in what looks to be the tub we're going to purchase (480 vs 470) and then it's brass tacks time. The store with the wet-testing J-470 offered us $12,895 for his 2013 J-470 demo, and $13,895 for his non-demo 2013 J-480. We're headed to a different store, about an hour away (vs 45 minutes for the first store), to demo the J-480. I haven't asked if it's a 2013, or a 2014.

I suspect we'll be making some offers tomorrow. What would be reasonable on the 2013 leftovers I outlined above?

Aaron

[RicoTubbs11]

Thanks very much for the info folks. I did not get to look at the Jacuzzis yet but hopefully will get to see them this weekend.

PuckCoach, how is your R7 holding up? They look like very nice tubs and when I was looking at them at the dealer I was thinking about the exact same points you mentioned. I had previously confirmed with the manufacturer that they used the same pumps as the A series and they looked like a lot of tub for the money, not many feature differences between them and the A8.

I am still debating the Wellspring circulator pump and the ozone system. I am still wondering about the safety of the ozone for the tub occupants, i.e. does it do anything bad to skin lungs etc. On the wellspring, it does send all the water through the filters but the water re-enters the tub through a separate fitting so you need to run the pumps occasionally anyway to make sure the water in the rest of the plumbing does not stagnate.

I did learn about the lighting on the Bullfrogs after seeing the A8s in person. It was not obvious at all from the pictures how the LEDs were placed. Turns out that the inlet to the tub which is used for the ozonator and wellspring has what looks like a gasket around it, it actually has LEDs in it. Other LEDs are in the back of the seat directly across from the control panel, there are 3 mounted above the waterline so that if you plug the cascadia jetpack in there it will illuminate the waterfall. The main light is in a bullfrog logo-looking thing inside the tub, they lit up pretty brightly. Haven't seen one at night though.

I like that Hot Springs envoy but as mentioned have not seen an NXT or seen many reviews. I wanted to look at Arctic and a couple of others but there is apparently no dealer in North Texas, closest listed was in Houston.

[RicoTubbs11]

So I was finally able to make the grueling journey to Dallas to check out the Jacuzzi and Sundance tubs. Unfortunately I went on a Sunday and their hot tub guy was not there, the salesman on duty was very friendly and let me play around with the tubs but could not answer detail questions.

Compared to the other spas I have looked at, I was fascinated by the bubble action in the big Jacuzzi spas. Most that I have seen inject some amount of air into the jet streams, but the Jacuzzi tub had a knob for controlling the amount of air that gave very fine control - from small amount of bubbles to turning the whole spa into the equivalent of a giant alka-seltzer, so many tiny bubbles it looked like milk. When I turned off the pump motors there was a sizzling noise and I thought maybe the motors had overheated, but it was just the sound of millions of bubbles hissing as they broke the surface.

I did not have time to wet test but I did poke my arm in and grope around on the different jets to get a feel for power and flow. I found it interesting how different the jets would feel as you varied the amount of water and air. I have noticed a number of people mentioning having trouble "floating" out of lounger seats and such, and have been told somewhat indelicately by some of the spa salesmen that this is a problem that some of us, uh, "huskier" individuals just have to deal with. If that is a problem for a given individual, it would seem that fine control of the air bubbles would provide an easy solution to the floating problem. Since the air bubbles displace water, there should be less buoyancy in the foamy water than in plain clear hot water. This would seem to be borne out by the difference in "feel" from the jet thrusts with lots of bubbles.

So what are your thoughts on the bubble issue - great feature, gimmick, something you use a lot, something you never fool with?