After way to long we finally have our spa in place and heating as I type. I started last April digging the trench for the conduit. But after putting the pick through our sprinkler system 3 times and having 2 unrelated drip system blow outs that caused the trench to collapse, the project was delayed due to the phoenix summer. Once it cooled down ( in late October) I finally finished the conduit run. Then after reading this forum and several other resources on the web we changed our mind from one of the Costco spas to ???? thats right after putting in the conduit we didn't know what we were going to hook it to.
So we started testing spas we started with hot springs Envoy which I loved (I really liked the moto massage), but the Wife didn't really care for because of floating issues. Then we went to the Dimension one store. The sales lady was so annoying chomping and smacking her gum while her teenage daughter was gossiping on the phone. We didn't make it to the test because of how annoying she was. Our third visit was to Marquis, were we tried the Epic . The wife loved this one because she didn't float, I liked the leg massage. But the back massage wasn't as nice as the hot springs. The day after trying out the Marquis I found a 2 year old Epic with a Gazebo for 6000. Since I am allergic to the sun we wanted a gazebo or umbrella for the spa so this was perfect. We were also able to take the GFI box and all of their wiring.
We are in the beginning stages of building a vacation / retirement home up in the mountains and will be moving this spa up there so we used spa pads instead of a slab (the fact that they were $500 cheaper also helped).
We hired a spa moving company at $300 to move the spa over 60 miles from its old house to ours. Which I though was reasonable. Only problem was our eve's were to low so it was tear down our shed and the gazebo or crane it over. We needed a 126' crane at $250/ hour with 3-4 hours estimated. So down came the shed and gazebo, and out came the movers again for another $200.
After the movers left I pulled the wires and hooked it up while the wife scrubbed it down. Its up to 94 and soon we will be able to Soak.