spa_lover

Thanks everyone for the excellent advise. I am still a little unsure what to do - the Sundance dealer has come down on the price and right now the Sundance Chelsee would be only about $1300 more than the Caldera Hawaiian. I really wish I could wet test a Hawaiian but there is no chance of that anywhere near here. My question is this - regardless of price, is the Chelsee a better tub compared to the Hawaiian, or would people consider them to be roughly comparable/similar? If price were identical, would there be a clear winner? Thanks for the help.

Is the change to the warranty for the 2010 Paradise series due to any quality issues? Why are they making this change? Wet tested the Chelsee yesterday - both my wife and I really liked it - slightly larger/roomier, very comfortable, and overall a very nice tub. It does lack air jets or an in-line spa frog system, but the filter seems better than the caldera models, the lighting and waterfall is much nicer, and we found the tub very comfortable. It also is about $2000 more than the Caldera Hawaiian. Now I'm really confused and not sure what to do. Any other opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated! Both dealers I think are very good, high quality, highly reputable. Thanks for any help.

Thanks for the replies - much appreciated. The dealer in question is quite good - it's a highly reputable shop and I'm very comfortable with them. We are wet testing a sundance chelsee this week - should be an interesting comparision. The chelsee would be $9500 - $10,000 though, considerably more than the hawaiian. Does anyone have any feedback on whether the chelsee is worth the extra $$$? I've checked out the dealers for some other tubs - arctic spa, marque, limelight - Though there were definitely some nice enough tubs there they seemed quite expensive for what was being offered, and for whatever reason have not been so impressed with these. Maybe I am overlooking something?

I have been reading the forum for many weeks now and learning lots as I research a new spa purchase for a spring deck/spa project. We haven't wet tested any spas yet but are wet testing a caldera this week. My issue is that a local dealer is offering a new 2009 caldera hawaiian model for $6500 Canadian, which is significantly cheaper than other tubs I have been looking at which seem to be comparable quality (e.g. sundance chelsea, caldera niagara, hotsprings vanguard). The other tubs are slightly better but are all around $10,000, which is significantly more (we do not want a lounger). I don't have the option to wet test a hawaiian anywhere near here. My question is - is it crazy to go for the hawaiian based on a wet test of the caldera geneva? The price difference seems so significant that as long as we generally like the feel of the caldera geneva that it would be worth a bit of risk to not have the perfect tub and go for the hawaiian. the other option is to spend $10,000 for a geneva niagara or sundance chelsea. The hawaiian looks to me like it would be more than enough tub for us (mostly my wife and I using, occasional entertaining). Any advice/feedback is greatly appreciated!