Reiner

It's now almost a year that we own our Evolution Spa and I have no complains. Any questions I had in the beginning were answered by Strongs customer service. A very good quality product.

I bought the Evolution Elements II from Costco and been very happy with it. Has what you ask for and is in that price range. I bought it when they have their special $500.00 off. There are few Evolution owners on this board but usually get pounded by some of the experts here; just wait and see. It's a Costco vs Dealer thing I guess. The Evolution line is made by StrongSpas and varies a bit from their models. Call them and ask questions and make your own judgement. Good Luck!

The Evolution Spa's at Costco are made by Strong Spa's. There just differ a bit from their models.

I agree on the feature difference but not on the quality difference...and that is my mayor point and that is also pointless to discuss with you...because you don't want to hear that. End of story and the pissing contest!

Seems to me I have the same control option like you. I recently switched to the ECON mode and see a drop in daily electricity use already, have to see my next bill what it will total to. My temp drop between filter cycle is 2 degrees and it is set to 100 as well. No matter day or night. Now I live in So Cal but the nights are close to or at freezing at the moment. Wish I would have the on/off peak hour option from the electricity provider as well, this would make it even a better option.

Sigh… but none of us are telling you that you should have gotten a $60K BMW instead of a $30k truck. I only roll my eyes that you compared a $10k Sundance to your $5k Strong when shopping. Nobody was ever saying you should have gotten a premium $10k Sundance instead. What some are saying is that if you were going to look at other alternatives to a Costco spa the proper comparisons would have been spa offerings such as a Marquis E-series spa or a Hot Spring Hot Spot or a Sundance 680 series spa... NONE of those are anywhere near $5k more than a Strong. Hopefully your Strong works out for you but please don't try to make it sound like we were advising you to buy a $60k BMW instead. I never stated that, it is the negative attitude against a product some don't like and ultimately references bad quality. Some here have no idea that certain features of a spa has nothing to do with quality of the product itself. Spa X can have a lot of whistles and bells and if I don't need them I don't pay for them. Still has nothing to do with quality. That is all I'm saying, nothing else.

I bought a Strong/Evolution spa ElementsII from Costco last October and I'm very happy with it. Paid $5K including tax and delivery. Called a spa mover form Craigslist and they put it in place for $150.00. My electrical came to $1K, was a fairly long run and had to replace the panel in my pool house to accommodate the extra load. I tested a Sundance spa at the local dealer and could not see my self spending 5K more for their product. Mine is not a full foam spa which I preferred and have it currently running in the Economy Mode, meaning it only heats during the filter cycles twice a day. My temp loss is 2 degrees during that time. O.K, I live in So Cal but our night time temps drop to near or below freezing as I live further inland. What I learned on this forum is that most of the so called Experts will never give you a straight answer when it comes to Costco products, they are all "cheap" alternatives in their view. It's kind of like you're looking for a truck and buy one for 30K and people tell you the BMW for 60K is better. For sure Costco had their share of lemons but I thing the Strong product is not one of them. Any questions are answered when you call them and any problems have been resolved right away as past post will show you if you search this forum. Some people on here even stated that they experiencing an approx. 10 to 1 service call ratio on Strong spas to others...funny thing is you never see anybody posting here having problems. Do your research, find what you like/need and take the criticism on Costco products with a grain of salt.

There are two specific threads going about these spas, answering all your questions! http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19126 http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21666

This is odd, did somebody delete my earlier post?? Reiner