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Well we had the pad poured. You were right, he recommended letting it cure for a couple days before we put a tub full of water on it. We are looking at a Monday delivery. I'm gonna take pictures of the whole process and post em here. I may even let you know what it cost me to do the whole thing and then you can tell me if I'm getting a deal or not. Once again thanks for everyone's help and advice. It has been a real learning experience.

Okay so I purchased my spa from Backyard Masters, very happy with the deal they gave me. No Complaints so far. They are set to deliver it as soon as I have the pad poured for it, which will be done this week by a local contractor I know. Got a deal on that too. I'm taking everyone's advice and studying up on my water chemistry. It's not as complicated as it first seems and I am feeling more confident about doing it myself now. I still haven't decided on the service contract or not yet. I may just see how it goes for a couple weeks. Anyway I will update you guys when everything is delivered and maybe upload some pictures. Thanks again for all the great advice!

Just my .02 as well. Cost (appx.) of equipment to balance water in tub: Water cost ($3) Drop Kit ($60) [could be less or more depending on when/where/how you buy it] Chemicals ($75) [Also, could be less or more - my actual cost for startup of new used spa is around 85, but I needed spa-flush and a filter] Time (You tell me...) Here is the breakdown for me - if the maintenance service costs less than 138 the first year, and 80 bucks the next year, it would work for me at least. Most maintenance programs that I know of are like 50 plus bucks a month, covering various issues above and beyond water maintenance. However, I'm pretty sure that 138 in supplies will not top 200 for the year, and yet I will still be 400 bucks "ahead" of paying a service in my area. My wife initially HATED the idea of dealing with chemicals because they seemed very scary and dangerous (I mean, bleach, you should have seen to look on her face when I told her we were doing dichlor-then-bleach...) SOUNDING. But honestly, it's gotten to the point where knowing very little as I do at this point, I'm confident that I can pretty much balance any normal issues out. If it gets out of whack, it's not that hard to drain a spa either!!! Yeah I guess its not too bad to drain one. I'm not sure what they charge over there. I'll have to check on that. I don't mind handling the chems so much myself, I just don't want to screw it up. But I've been reading up here a bit and it doesn''t sound too tough. I might still consider a weekly service if the price is good though, just in case I get lazy or forget. Definitely a good idea to be testing my own water at bare minimum though. and always good to have shock on hand i see. Like you say, I will have to do the math and see what makes the most sense.

Let me first state that I'm relatively new to this forum and I have no personal knowledge about Backyard Masters, their knowledge, training, experience, years in the spa business, or water chemistry analysis procedures and regimen. I'm not a scientist and I have a limited understanding of hot tub water chemistry, primarily gained through this forum. My experiences with balancing hot tub water is restricted to maintaining my own hot tub. Thanks primarily to this forum, I can fortunately say that I have not had any difficulty sanitizing or establishing good water chemistry of my tub. Maintenance, as a result, has been very easy. (my disclaimers) I also understand that time is money and for some people time is a much more valuable commodity than money. Congratulations to those who are fortunate enough to have a surplus of both. To answer your questions: 1) It is not hard to balance your hot tub water and maintain it once it's balanced. 2) If you take the time to balance the water properly initially, you should not need a weekly service. 3) Once your water is balanced, it will take very little time to maintain your own hot tub. 4) You will have to invest some time initially in learning the basics of water balancing and establishing the initial proper water balance for your tub. How much time will depend on how diligent you are and the initial composition of the water you use to fill the tub. You should also invest in a proper drop test kit (e.g., Taylor Industries). The above being said, it seems to me that your making a huge mistake not wanting to invest the time to learn the basics about hot tub water chemistry...for the following obvious reason...if you do not learn about basic water chemistry and spa maintenance and you rely on the local dealer to handle your hot tub water chemistry for you, how will you ever know if they are doing things right? (The answer: when you have health issues.) It seems to me that if you do not get personally involved by acquiring some water chemistry knowledge and maintenance fundamentals, you risk your health and the health of your family and friends by relying blindly and solely upon someone else. I would recommend you peruse this forum and take advantage of the knowledge and information available here. I think you will quickly learn several things: 1) you do not need to make a career out of maintaining your tub water chemistry if it is initially done properly; 2) the experts on this forum make water balancing chemistry relatively easy to understand, even if it seems a bit daunting at first; 3) through the chlorine primer and bromine primer and those respective sanitizing/maintenance regimens (available on this forum), sanitizing and maintaining the proper water chemistry in your hot tub is not difficult; 4) that many dealers do not know very much about water chemistry themselves to balance water properly; and 5) get a drop test kit. Again, I know nothing about Backyard Masters and I'm not suggesting that they do not know what they are doing. I'm sure there are many local dealers who are well-informed about balancing and maintaining good, safe, and healthy hot tub water. However, I've found, after talking with spa dealer owners and employees, that there is a wide range of knowledge (or lack thereof) amongst dealer personnel (even within the same dealership) about how to sanitize, balance, and maintain proper water chemistry. Although many dealers will send water samples to a lab for analysis, it seems the basic water chemistry regimens adopted by many dealers (or their staff) is to rely on "test strip" results and adjust water chemistry based upon those test strips. However, my own personal experience confirms what has been stated many times on this forum....water chemistry analysis acquired via "test strips" are not reliable and can differ significantly from water analysis results acquired through drop test kits or lab analysis, which are more accurate. So, again my question...how will you be sure your tub's water chemistry is properly maintained if you know nothing about water chemistry and rely solely upon the local dealer? It's just my $0.02 worth, but I think if you want to own a hot tub, for your own health and safety, you owe it to yourself, your friends and family to make the time and take the effort to understand hot tub water chemistry and maintenance. Kindest regards and best of luck with your new tub. gman You have given me allot of good things to think about. I do appreciate you taking the time to answer some of my questions. You are absolutely right about the need to know whats going on in the water myself whether I do all the maintenance myself or have Backyard Masters come and handle the service. You do make it sound a bit more simple than I had thought it might be, so I'm gonna take a look through the rest of the forums as you suggest and go from there. Thanks again for your help.

I'm about to purchase my first hot tub from a local dealer call Backyard Masters. They offer a weekly spa service where they have someone come out and adjust the chemicals and clean the filters etc. Now personally I don't know a thing about water chemistry and I'm not sure I want to learn. What I'm wondering is how hard is it to take care of this myself, do I need a weekly service? I should add I don't have allot of time to be playing with it and I want to be able to just enjoy the new spa and not have it become another burden. How much time is gonna be involved? I don't mind doing a little but Like I said I don't wanna make a second career out of it. Backyard Masters also offers a Bi-weekly service, once every other week. Any advice is appreciated. I don't want to throw my money into the water but I also want to make sure I'm spending my time enjoying my new spa rather than it becoming a burden.