tubostuff

Trust me, I've thought of that option... It would be a serious pain in the rump to do that. I don't think the seller even sees the tubs they are selling. They just put the order though and make a bit of money for doing it. Surprisingly the seller and manufacturer are both %100 percent understanding of my situation and are willing to do anything to have me happy in the end. I got a full refund for the waterline LED lights that were installed at different levels, I got a full refund for the circ pump, they are sending a tech out to fix the ozonator and a couple of leaks, also I contacted a spray foam company that the manufacturer agreed to put on spray foam all the way around the tub where it is lacking... Also, they have sent me a couple of spare filters, sub zero insulation to go around the whole tub and a start up chemical kit. They called yesterday and said they would have a tech call me in a day or two to come and do the work.. I haven't heard anything yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. It really is a beautiful tub, I hope they all don't turn out like mine.. I'm just glad I'm a hands on kind of guy and can figure out how things are supposed to work... Let me guess, you bought a big box tub because it was cheaper? Am I right? Well, how do you think those big box tubs are sold cheaper? By saving on the cost of insulation!!! Insulation is the biggest cost in making a tub and no one ever looks at that so guess what gets cheaped up??! Your only option is to take the tub back and get a tub from your local dealer who will sell you a tub with good insulation that will only cost a few pennies a month to run instead of $500 like yours! The dealer CARES about quality, unlike the big box store who only wants to offer heavily discounted products. Okay, sure, the dealer tub will cost a little bit more but you get what you pay for and, also, the dealer has to eat too. Happy tubbing!

I think this is one area where "Costco vs. Name Brands" posters are missing the point. Some people simply care more about getting a quality item in one category vs. another. Take, for example, home theater (one of my favorite hobbies). Some people carefully evaluate loudspeakers, read reviews, and spend thousands of dollars getting a quality speaker. Others are happy with a $99 Costco "Home Theater in a box", or even a boombox. Some people spend a thousand dollars or more on a purebred dog. Others are happy with a mutt from a kennel. Some people spend lots of money on clothes, and think high-quality clothes are important. Others just want a bargain. Some people spend tons of money on expensive cars, others just want basic transportation. Some people are "foodies" who eat at the most expensive restaurants, others are happy with national chains. Some people spend lots of money on a name brand spa, others just want to soak in hot water. It's not necessarily a matter of what you can afford, but what's important to you. Personally, I'll gladly spend more on electronics and spas, but I don't spend much on clothes, pets, or cars. I've always been a "cheap eats" person, but I think I'm starting to change in that area. It's all a matter of opinion, of spending your hard-earned dollars on the things that are important to you. Personally, I would not want to buy a Costco spa. But many Costco shoppers are legitimately happy with their purchases. They believe that they got a better "value" for their dollar, and those of us who prefer the higher-end brands will never be able to convince them otherwise. Conversely, I have always been extremely satisfied with my high-end tub, and no amount of arguing from the Costco crowd will ever convince me that they made a better purchase than I did. So, can we just let it go, and agree to disagree? Great points. People are getting a lot of cheap, flashy junk at costco but they really think they are getting a 'bargain.' Is the big-screen tv at costco as good as one you get from a reputable dealer? Is the computer you get at costco as good as the one that a computer store sells? Are the clothes at costco as good as the clothes at a nice department store? Are the food items at costco as good as the food you get from your local supermarket? No, of course not, and that's exactly why people should realize that the hot tub they get at costco is not as good as the tubs that their local hot tub dealer is selling. Companyies like Pacific Spas or one of the other big hot tub outfits are selling an extremely high -quality product that they would never allow to be sold in a...costco store next to the giant boxes of toilet paper, the tires, and the recliner chairs. Never. But suppose they did? What would their existing dealers think if the factory started selling one of their hot tub models to costco for the same or less price that they were charging the loyal dealer? Those dealers would be not happy, for sure. The bottom line is that those 'bargains' at costco are not the bargains they appear to be.

I think the consensus of this forum would be that as long as you didn't buy a costco hot tub you got a great deal.

Uhh... OK, the difference between a well insulated spa and a poorly one can run $100/month or even $200/month if its a real piece of crap and your rates are sky high but certainly not $500/month as you stated. As far as your assertion "$5 per month is certainly achievable depending on how cold the outside is, how hot the tub is set at, how often it gets opened, etc.", that is just grandstanding. Why not stick to realistic numbers? They paint enough of a picture and still make your point like: "A poorly insulated spa can cost you an extra $100/month or more to operate than a well insulated one." I'm agreeing with your overall concept but your posts about $5 per month versus $500/month just makes your point unbelievable. You are underestimating just how bad a poorly-insulated tub can be. Picture an in-ground tub with no cover at a mountain ski resort with the temp set at 40C. Or picture an old above-ground tub with a thin, leaky cover, old controls, rusty old heater, no side insulation, and the bottom of the tub sitting on the ground. Now throw in a cold arctic wind and high power costs and the hapless owner needs to take out a loan to pay the power bill. $500? Easy peasy.

Please stop making stupid statements. -Earlier in the week you said a poorly insulated spa can cost $500/month more than a well insulated one! -Now you say the well insulated one costs less than $5/month. Therefore, you're saying the well insulated one is $4/month and the poor one $504/month? That's so ridiculously off base it’s funny. Uhh...Spatech...I asked you what YOU thought the difference was and you were silent. A well insulated tub will lose much less heat than the poorly insulated one, that's just obvious to everyone except you. Sometimes a poorly insulated tub will lose so much heat that the owner cannot afford to run it any more. That's really sad to see., especially when it is at a place like an apartment house or condos where it is enjoyed by many. The $5 per month is certainly achievable depending on how cold the outside is, how hot the tub is set at, how often it gets opened, etc. It is possible to lower that to $0 per month if you set the temp down, live in a warm climate, and don't open the tub up. Maybe you need to upgrade your tub if your heating costs are getting out of hand. I can provide a good recommendation...

Energy efficient tubs cost next to nothing to run...less than $5 per month...because they have a lot of insulation that keeps heat in so you don't have to heat them.

Hydrospa doesn't have any dealers (unless you count Costco...snicker) because they are way too stingy to support dealers so people can be confident when they go to a hot tub dealer that they are not getting a hydrospa tub.

The 25 dollar guarantee just shows how confident they are about their tub since even if power rates in a city are double or triple what they are in another city, they will still make their 25 dollar guarantee and stand by it. Now that's confidence!

As I pointed out Costco selling the EXACT same watch for 15% more than EVERYOTHER online dealer...so why do people keep thinking Costco is selling at amazingly low-margins. I am currently working at a special event against a dealership who is selling Cal, Elite and Viking...some of the deals I have ran against are very similar to costco pricing...but the dealer is paying over 80,000.00 to be in this special event with one of the largest booths I have ever seen. Now he is selling 8x8 spas with lights stereo 40 jets for 4400.00...now is he just taking less margin or selling a lesser tub? LESSER TUB, no insulation, prorated warranty, cheap components and smallest filter I have ever seen. These tubs are just so low quality the build costs are tremendously low. You get what you pay for guys, Costco does not pay for all of its overhead using your membership fees and Hot Tubs is probably one of the most profitable outfits they run only simply because they have higher margins knowing what they can buy tubs like Hydro, Infiniti, Sun Peak for and what they can sell them for to still be cheaper then anyone in market. Will everyone stop please bragging there hot tub worked from day #1, guess what guys, it did what its suppose to do, maybe the scary thing about buying from Costco is your waiting in anticipation if the hot tub will work or not, people who buy quality tubs dont wonder if there tub will work when it gets to there house, they arnt forced to do there own repairs, rewiring ect ect ect. Costco is selling cheap tubs nation wide and hurting the industry, people keep thinking they are getting some super dooper deal from Costco when if you research Costco works on bigger margins then other online companies and probably buy the same watches and other products for less expensive do to there superior buying strength. Good is seldom cheap and cheap is seldom good. I don't care if your buying a toaster or a diamond ring, the less you spend, the less it cost to make, the less effort and expense equates to that low price. I hate reading all these Costco defenders, I would like if they would name their occupation so I could explain to them how to do their job since they seem to know mine and others like mine so well. I wont tell you how to catch a crook, balance a 401k, build a bridge or otherwise...stop pretending you know the costs and margins of these spas because in our eyes (people in the industry) you look stupid. Incredibly perceptive comments! And there have been plenty of people whose costco tubs didn't work at all since day 1...people like Silver1 who couldn't even get his tub to turn on...Saskman who went through two months of pure hell trying to get his tub to work...and Duck_man who couldn't get his tub to work right, either. And all three of these buyers had multiple leaks in their tubs as well. It's no wonder that ALL THREE had to take their tubs back to costco for a refund. If that doesn't tell people something, nothing will. If a tub won't even hold water, how can you have any confidence that the rest of it will work? Costco is trying to be the one stop shot for food, clothes, furniture, tires, books...and now hot tubs and shoppers are starting to see through it. You can go to a nice department store and try on different clothes to see what fits and looks right or you can go to costco and buy clothes off of a table out of a box. Sure you might save afew bucks but that didn't help you get clothes that looked right.

Tobo...I have had a few of my post deleted...no biggie! I have read some of your crap and it was probably in need of being deleted. What I was wondering was how was he even able to read and reply to a post that had been deleted days ago and why was he posting a reply to a post that no one could even read? I'm more curious than anything else.

What is your ballpark estimate? (Don't forget to consider the high power rates).

Good point. Setting the tub at 104F (40C) would make the added costs even more than if the tub were set at 100F or 102F.

Okay, maybe on average it was less but average means there are areas that are greater, much greater. And variation, just by itself, is a bad sign.

Its at least a Hundred Bucks a munth to run a cheaply insulated tub(thats extra). You're probably using unrealistically low power rates. Most areas have much higher rates so the added cost is much more. Also, you have to remember that it gets very cold in the winter so the cost is much higher than in the summer. Much higher.

El fanático de Pacífico, I think you have a typo in that last sentence. Why? What do you think your home heating costs would be like if you had a four square foot hole in your wall in the dead of winter in Saskatchewan?

Good catch on this, Saskman. I think you meant to say it was a 2 inch gap which would be four square feet of cold air rushing through. Can you give us a rough estimate of the amount of money you have saved on heating costs by getting rid of your poorly insulated hydrospa and replacing it with the Pacific Spas tub? I would expect the savings would be enormous, maybe a ballpark of $500 per month?

Oddly enough, there is an Arctic Spa factory rep here almost every day (at least for long enough to delete some spam ) but I do my best to stick to factual (rather than sales oriented) answers. And for what they pay me, I'm a real bargain! You are quoting a post that I made here that was deleted by the forum moderators four days ago, for some reason they never bothered to tell me of. Makes me wonder about the 'why' and 'how' of it. Also, if you are a moderator, please state why the post you are quoting was deleted and provide an example of the same rule being applied consistently to others, including yourself.

Great insights Saskman. Thank goodness you've finally come to your senses and seen the light. You buy a hot tub at Costco and it's a broken-down piece of junk and what do you do then? No hot tubbin...no sir. Instead, you have to go through the endless round-and-round on the phone, wait for the parts, deal with the surly customer service reps, and the incompetent repair techs, all the while with no hot tub even though you paid for one. Now, with a good dealer, the dealer will 'deal' (heh) with the service issues that come up and you will be free to enjoy what you are paying for in the first place...hot tubbing. Sure, you might save the thousands of dollars on the costco tub but you will be getting a lesser-quality tub with no dealer support. Is it really worth it? The answer is obvious. It's great that you were able to return the tub to Costco and get y our money back. I don't see how Costco even stays in business selling a lot of flashy junk at an apparent good price and then having to refund the money when the customer returns the trashware. Well, you're done with that. Your hot tub journey starts now! I can't tell you what tub I like the best or the moderators will delete my post like they did the last 10 or so. Otherwise, I would. Good luck!!

Great insights duck_Man. Thank goodness you've finally come to your senses and seen the light. You buy a hot tub at Costco and it's a broken-down piece of junk and what do you do then? No hot tubbin...no sir. Instead, you have to go through the endless round-and-round on the phone, wait for the parts, deal with the surly customer service reps, and the incompetent repair techs, all the while with no hot tub even though you paid for one. Now, with a good dealer, the dealer will 'deal' (heh) with the service issues that come up and you will be free to enjoy what you are paying for in the first place...hot tubbing. Sure, you might save the thousands of dollars on the costco tub but you will be getting a lesser-quality tub with no dealer support. Is it really worth it? The answer is obvious. It's great that you were able to return the tub to Costco and get y our money back. I don't see how Costco even stays in business selling a lot of flashy junk at an apparent good price and then having to refund the money when the customer returns the trashware. Well, you're done with that. Your hot tub journey starts today! I can't tell you what tub I like the best or the moderators will delete my post like they did the last 10 or so. Otherwise, I would. Good luck!!

Would you rather buy a tub from a company that spends bucks on their dealer network or would you rather buy a tub from a penny-pinching company who sells to lowball outfits like Costco? The answer is obvious. Costco offers flashy junk at an apparent great deal but people will get smarter about it and recognize the value of dealers rather than just a low price and then they will beat a path to the dealer's door.. Wait til your neighbor has a problem and then trys to get the dealer to fix it. Not a chance. He'll have to call the factory and talk to some disinterested factory customer service rep by long-distance. Good luck with that. And then if he needs a part, he'll have to wait for the part to be shipped to him by dogsled. And then who'll install the part? Your neighbor? Not likely unless he is handy with tools and doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. Those thousands of dollars of savings won't look so good when his hot tub is a broken down wreck sitting there waiting to be returned to Costco. What would he rather have, the thousands of dollars in savings or the peace of mind in having the support of a good dealer and service department? The same thing happens with appliances and computers at Costco. People go buy the flashy junk at the apparent great deal and then when something goes wrong, where do they turn? If you buy a computer at CompUSA, you can take it back and they'll fix it if something goes wrong. If you buy a computer a Costco, you have to go find service from someone or fix it yourself.

What can possibly be inflammatory about spare parts and the appearance of the tub internals? These are both legitimate points of discussion. What is wrong with you people, anyway?

Saskman and Duck_Man both have pointed out some great reasons why Pacific Spas have Costco tubs beat hands down. First, there's the guts of the tub. The Pacific spas just look a lot bettter inside according to Duck_Man. Then there's the spare parts. With Pacific spas, you can just get the parts from the dealer who stocks up parts to repair the tub. With Costco, you have to call the hot tub factory and Saskman has pointed out that it takes 10 days for the part to be shipped to you and then they send a bill for the part as well. If you are sitting on the fence, trying to decide which tub to buy, you should tip over to the Pacific side and get their tub.

Take the tub back to Costco and get your money back and then go get a GOOD tub . Good tubs never have any problems like that.

Probably you should take the tub back and get your money back. Go down to the store of one of the spa companies posting in this forum and get a GOOD tub.

So then you hate Balboa controlls? Balboa makes some nice controlers, but they make some cheap ones also. Any controller that shows 'hfl' and 'dr' when the circ pump's not pumping must be one of the cheap ones.