Goodwing

Well Roger, To be certain and to be clear I have absolutely no intention of gathering "data". "Data" is something that scientists and engineers gather (or an android). I'm none of those. Just a regular schmuck who would have liked to have a better idea of the costs associated with a spa. What I will do is watch my hydro consumption and compare it to the average monthly consumption for my home for the last 5 years. Yep, no one year is like another, but the average of the previous years as compared to this year, should be good enough to let me know approx. how much more energy we're consuming due to the spa. I'll then be able to tell people how much my particular model of spa (with my appox. and type of use) is costing me. For those regular "Joe's" like me, that info could be useful or informative. For the more scientifically minded who would like to know exactly how much it's costing down to the kilowatt hour - well, they can rely on you for that data. Can they? Cheers, Mike So Mike are you going to meter your spa right from the get go. Because any data other than that collected from a meter is useless.

Bite your tongue you scallywag! Just paid $8600 for our spa which should be up and running by Monday night. Big bucks aside(for us in any case) all the time and effort put in to shop, choose,test,buy, install the thing; well i think I'll cry or do something equally unmanly if we dont end up using it!!! Seriously though, good post. Think I'll start a spa-use journal to see how much a spa costs per use in a year. To be continued. Mike

Heya Waterpen, Cool name for a spa, btw. Strangely enough, I had an electrician over this morning. I'm in Quebec. They're gonna charge me $610.00 for running the cable roughly 20 feet, drill through me concrete coldroom up into the patio where the spa is going. The sub-box will be installed in said coldroom about 5 feet or so from the Spa. The wire's gonna run up and along the ceiling of my cold room which will obviously require some clamps. The price quoted is total incl. parts. Cheers, Mike PS. I wasn't able to get a competing estimate - electricians are mighty busy in our neck of the woods at this time of year.

Thanks Wallville - that does help. Sounds like we have lots in common - 'cept of the allusion to wild sexual escapades (read orgies). :-) Kidding' who knows maybe the tub will make an 'orgy-guy' out of me (Seinfeld-reference for you non-tv folks). Cheers, Mike

G'day from Canada, I'm wondering if you have Caldera tubs up down there too. The reason I ask is that I've found out that Caldera is also made by HotSprings manufacturer (Watkins). IMO they seem really well made, just a bit more reasonably priced. Analogy: Lexus vs Toyota (if you have those car dealers in Kiwi land). I've opted for Jacuzzi. The HS model I was contemplating is 10500$ Cdn. The Jacuzzi is 7599$ . I've never been to NZ - I wish! But I'm wondering if the weather isn't all too different from NE US. If so, I think you'll be better off with full foam. I'm no engineer - but the "heat Lock system" - well, I just don't buy it. My hot-water tank and fridge for example, both require good insulation to save me electric consumption, and neither of them rely on "heat transfer" from the pumps. Biasedhistorian's posts (do a search) seem to indicate that owners of SPA's with the heat lock systems waste little time going to their local hardware store to buy extra insulation. Good luck in your search. Keep us informed!

Well, I don't have my SPA yet, so I'm in the same boat as you. But, I've decided on a model and will make the purchase either tonight or tomorrow. I've decided to keep a running journal (see Spa Chronicle #1) and I'll be adding electricity consumption info - so that others who are buying a year from now may have access to more info. Like Roger said, it's highly dependent on where you live. But, for me (Quebec, Canada) I've come to the conclusion that full foam is the only way to go. From what others have said, and based on the models I've checked, it seems that Hotsprings/Caldera and Sundance/Jacuzzi are among the better brands. But, they're naturally more costly too. More important is the 'fit'. My gf is really short - so I'm actually passing up on quite a few models that were really well priced (Sundance Altamar w. stereo, etc) for Jacuzzi - based on how it feels during a test. In my neck of the woods ALL SPA's come with: cover, lever stairs, electrical box and start-up chemicals. So, I don't even 'listen' when a salesmen gladly 'throws this $700 value for 'free'! They all do. Good luck and keep us posted. Mike PS. Haven't got quotes on the HS models you mentioned in another post - but the HS Aria was $10500 Cdn.

G'day all, I'm days away from getting a spa. At the moment, it's the Jacuzzi J355. I'm arranging to wet test two HotSpring models (Aria and Limelight - can't recall the model). Problem is that I cannot find an alternate dealer for HotSpring in Quebec (big big province, think of Texas only bigger). What worries me is that should this guy close shop some time, I'm 'screwed'. Speaking of which, another salesman today told me that HotSpring parts are hard to get. She almost suggested that their aftersales care is rotten. Any thoughts? Thanks, Mike

Thanks for the reply. It's so strange to me to think that we're gonna spend lots of cash on something that I'm not even sure how much I'll use. At the moment I think I'm gonna use it lots - but we'll see when it's here. Let's just say I like the idea of using it?! What kind of tub do you have, if you don't mind my asking? Cheers, Mike

G'day, Never owned a spa. Tried one, once. I wonder, how long do people sit in them on average? Is it like a 20 minute dip and then you've had it? Or do some people sit in the tub for an hour or more? I'm sure this might differ from one person to another - but I'm curious. Thanks, Mike

G'day all, I've visited a whole bunch of SPA dealers. Only ONE had HotSprings/Caldera. Just so happened that the owner/salesman was also the nicest, most helpful and most promising of all the salespeople I've met since my SPA purchasing odyssey began. BUT, I'm trying to find another dealer in my area (Montreal, Canada). The reason: I want to make sure that the prices he's gonna quote me (visited 3 times, still don't have a great idea of the prices!!!) are reasonable in comparison to other dealers... although I really did like the guy and my feeling is that he's trustworthy (but he's still a salesman). More importantly, I want to make sure that if this guy ever closes shop, that I have another authorized dealer around. I went on the Hotsprings web site. They don't even list Canada on their international dealers site! Can't believe that somebody in the CHANNEL islands will have a dealer but not in Canada! The Caldera site is better - but they only list one dealer in Quebec ( two stores, same name/owner). I'm wondering if anybody out my way has different information on authorized dealers in my area. Thanks, Mike

Ron, Great question. I hope that somebody with some expertise will comment/respond. I have NO idea - but I'm guessing that MAYBE a reason they don't have them yet is the idea that heating-up water from (for sake of arguement) 90 to 100 degrees costs more money and takes more energy/time than maintaining it at 98. That's my guess. Cheers, Mike

G'day, I'm in the same boat - SPA? as you. Spa hunting. I've been to loads of stores and sat in many SPA's (all dry tested so far). I've written a post to chronicle my search so far. Because I live in a cold climate, I had other considerations (jets and initial cost aside). My suggestion to you would be to consider the insulation, particularly if you live in cold weather as I do. Keep us posted... even after you've made your choice and have had your spa. Good luck, Mike PS. Can't believe that I'm gonna spend between $7 and $9k to sit in hot-water myself. Seems completely nuts.....

G'day, The record winter we had this year totalled the above-ground swimming pool we own. We live about 40 minutes NE of Montreal. Since we didn't use the pool much at all - our summers are short and the warm weather lasts all of two months, we decided a SPA would be much more useful. Since a replacement pool would cost roughly 3000$ cdn, and a SPA is 5000$, we figured that we could afford the difference in price.... Also, a SPA looked like a big bathtub to me, so I figured it would be easy to buy, install, use and operate. :-) You seasoned SPA owners must be laughing at this canuck already. I've learned - been fed - a lot of stuff in the past 4 weeks while waiting for the insurance company to decide how little they were going to give us for the scrapped pool. Here's a bit of what I've gleaned so far and the road I've travelled SPA-purchase wise. SPA CHOICES as I matured/grew more informed/more brainwashed??? Bullfrog 451 (5600$) --> Legacy WhirlPool "Enterprise" (8127$) --> Vita Spa "Versailles" (5976$) --> Vita Spa "Elegante" (7331$) --> Sundance Altamar (2007 model, 9700$) --> Jacuzzi J355 (8662$) .... All of these come with the usual, Spa cover, lever, stairs, electrical box, delivery and start-up kit. The Sundance and the Legacy had the sound system. We're days away from purchasing. As you see, I've seen and 'considered' quite a few spas. Luckily (this forum and one or two 'good' sales people) have clued me in on the important elements to consider (for us) in making the purchase. Here are my current purchase criteria: PURCHASE CRITERIA 1) Full foam. FULL FOAM. Nothing else will do. Came so close to buying so-called "four season" SPA's that reportedly can cost upwards of 1500$ /year in electricity bills. Particularly in Quebec, due to the cold winters. 2) Re-circ pump. Just seems to make loads of sense to have a smaller dedicated pump that will do the work of keeping filtration going. 3) Lounge chair & Comfort. I'm 5'8". My partner is 5'0". So many SPA's just don't fit properly - unless I buy my gf a snorkel. :-) 4) That's it. Don't really care all that much about JETS and configuration. It's probably important, but there are so many different types, styles, etc., that I know that I can't use that as a factor. PROBLEMS faced prior to purchase: 1) INSTALLATION. What a shock the day I found out that you can't just 'plop' the thing anywhere. Now many of you probably scoff, but it just never occurred to me that the thing would weigh so much. I had 3 choices - my concrete/cement patio (which houses a cold storage/workshop below it), the wooden deck (approx. 5 ft off the ground) annexed to the patio or smack on the ground. I wanted the first choice, since we're talking about 5 feet from my backdoor, so I know I'll be more keen to use the SPA during the winter months. The problem was trying to find out if the patio could take the weight. That's when I found out that reinforcing the deck and/or building a crushed rock or concrete slab was probably gonna cost me 'round $500 - $1000 more. Not one store I initially walked into (4 different places) could tell me WHO I should contact to find-out which alternatives were best. Not having built the house and knowing squat about construction - well, I didn't even know who to contact. Drove me nuts. 2) BUYER'S GUIDES (Absense thereof). Whenever I made big purchases in the past, I usually do my homework - Caveat emptor guides me. So, I consult buyer's guides. My motorcycle and car were bought because I liked them AND because they were highly recommended in various buyer's guides. So, I naturally tried to do the same for this SPA. OOPS. NADA. All I could find were 'bogus' sites that claimed to be a guide but which upon closer inspection were comparing themselves to themselves. Guess there are just too many models/factors to consider. Thank goodness for this forum. OKAY, enough said. I hope that this information can be useful to somebody. There aren't too many specifics - I figured if somebody wants to know more, they'll respond or PM me. Cheers, Mike

G'day all from north of the border, I'm in the market for a new SPA. Probably a few days away from buying one. Have been hard at work (shopping, researching) for the past month. Just wanted to say that this forum and the people that post to it have been an immense help to me. Probably helped me in avoiding some big pitfalls in what has turned out to be a major endeavor (imo). I want to thank ya'll. Biasedhistorian's posts were particularly appreciated and I'll explain why: I found (limited searches though) that many many people would post prior to getting a spa but few seem to follow-up after they have one, unless they've encountered a problem. That's really too bad! Reason is that the shoppers get various advice and recommendations, which they seem to intend on taking or following-up on. Then, we get the "SPA arriving soon/excited post." and then NADA. I'm assuming that's because all is great and the people are too busy "SPAing" to bother to write. BUT, for the future "SPAers" it would be really useful to get some feedback, call it a debriefing, on how their SPA is and what they think relative to the advice the were given. I guess that's why I particularly appreciated Biasedhistorian's accounts. SO, I've decided to chronicle my own SPA experience - from pre-purchase, to purchase, to post-purchase. My aim is to share what I've learned/been told (been brainwashed??) so that other's may have a source to consult as I had (and as I had wished to have). Once again, thanks to those that wrote and responded - it's helped me, even if I wasn't the one asking the questions. Cheers, Mike

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