SmilinBare

IMHO, a big plus for Arctic is that they obviously design their tubs for use in COLD environments. I continue to be amazed by the little amount of electricity our outdoors Arctic hot tub uses in the middle of winter when outside temperatures dip into the single digits Farenheit. Our neighbors have a tub that was conceived of and is manufactured somewhere in southern California and they complain about the "hundreds of dollars" it costs to run their tub for a month in the winter. You get what you pay for.

Stateside owner of Arctic Frontier Ultra (I *think* that's the model). Purchased in December '05. Original dealer disappeared. In 2009 (as I recall) the heater crapped out. After some frustration found another Arctic dealer who ultimately solved my emergency and replaced the heater element. Been running fine since. I love the Arctic tub. BTW, we live in central Massachusetts.

I'm with you PS. I like BaquaSpa! I'm a stickler, though, about taking a shower before getting into the tub. I suspect that the majority of tubbers don't (want to) do that and I'm bettin' that there'd be more problems with my BaquaSpa tub if I didn't require the beforehand shower. You'd never know it from all the naysayers on this board but there are obviously many more of us BaquaSpa users or the product wouldn't be available. Just want to chime in that I've been using BaquaSpa in my Sundance Capri for nearly 4 years now and I couldn't be happier. Water is crystal clear, no odor, no problems, and maintenance is about 5 minutes once a week.

Coming up on 4 years (in December) with my BaquaSpa-sanitized Arctic spa and still lovin' it. I went through a goo episode early on, treated it and never had the problem, again. Last spring I finally had an outbreak of white water mold and so I drained it in May and did a thorough washing (with chlorine) and then rinsed, rinsed and rinsed. Spa water is back to crystal clear as I write this.

What a PITA, Tomab! I'm surprised, though, that the dealer has to *check* with Arctic Central. I would think that the dealer would have checked to be sure that the tub THEY sold you was the tub they delivered. Evidently not.

It was the heater. Replaced it and the tub is up and running. I'm waiting for warmer weather to *deal* with the white water mold. I'm gonna be bummed if I have to give up BaquaSpa and switch to some chlorine-based sanitizer.

At the start of November 2008, a day or two after I had completed the quarterly water change, I found the hot tub cooling off and discovered there was no power to the tub. After resetting both the outside disconnect switch and the main panel breaker in the basement several times I decided to pull the tub panels to see if I could fix the problem. The only thing I did was wiggle the multitude of plugs going into the master control box which evidently solved the problem and, upon resetting the breakers, the tub started up and ran fine. Until now. Mother Nature gave us a couple of days of warmer weather, last week, and I took advantage of the temporary warm up to change the tub water, again. After refilling the tub and getting it up and running, again, I went out-of-state on a business trip for a few days. Looking oh so forward to returning home for a three-day weekend, including nightly soaks, I was surprised to find the tub water at 85 degrees (I have it set to maintain 104) when I got home late Friday night. I'm just in, now, from an hour or so of resetting breakers, removing panels & wiggling wires and connections to no avail. I happened to notice when I lifted the tub cover, little bits of white scummy stuff clinging to the bottom intake ports and coming out of a couple water jet ports. I checked the filter intake and it looks fine. Can't help but wonder, though, if that white scummy stuff has something to do with the problem. In fact, I've got a real uneasy feeling that the white scummy stuff is the dreaded white water mold and now I'm behginning to suspect that the main circulation pump might be clogged and thereby creating too much of a load on the electrical system thereby causing the electrical disconnect. This may be the time where I finally denounce my beloved BaquaSpa. Not sure when the tub actually shut down but fortunately, even with the outdoors temp right around freezing, the tub water is only down to 73F. I was going to stick a little electric cube heater out there inside the tub cabinet, until I can track down a service tech, but given that the heater I have runs quite hot, I'm afraid to put it in the tub cabinet for fear iot might melt something. Hopefully the local hardware store or, if necessary, the nearest big box store will have some sort of a thermostatically-controlled electric heater I can safely stick out there under the tub. Bummer!

The only time I turn on the jets is when my bod is particularly sore from a new exercise at the gym OR excessive snow shovelling. Otherwise, I much prefer to soak quietly and am annoyed when that darn pump comes on with the heater to restore water temperature set point. When friends come to soak, we get all pumps and bubblers crankin'.

I'm 6'3",too, and spend 99% of my tub time in the deepest corner seat. Once in a great while I use the lounger. I can't remember how many people our Arctic Frontier is supposed to seat but the most we;ve had in it, comfortably, was 6 folks. It's a 400 gallon tub.

You'll be far better off investing in a fence or barricade for privacy for an outdoors-install than what it will ultimately cost you to control the excessive humidity if you put your tub INSIDE your home. With the cover off of a tub (and even with it on) there will be a helluva lot of water vapor in your house and, like it or not, without a carefully designed and installed ERV (see Matt87109's post) that humidity will wreak havoc. For a mini-demonstration of what you can expect, try boiling a large stockpot full of water on your kitchen stove for an hour. If your home is as "tight" as it should be, in these days of high energy costs, you'll see the water leaving your stockpot in a vapor state condense back to liquid and run down the inside surfaces of your kitchen windows. Put a hot tub in your basement without controlling the humidity and the water vapor leaving your hot tub will condense on your foundation walls and, worse, probably inside the wall cavities on the exterior of the upper house level, too. Putting a hot tub inside a house, in a cold climate, is just a bad idea period. BTW, if you go the two-dehumidifiers-route, don't blame the huge increase in your electric bill on the hot tub!

I have an Arctic tub which I thoroughly enjoy. Easy to maintain and amazingly energy-efficient! A little more than one month ago, however, the tub had an electric problem. When I called the dealer where I purchased the tub, a recording instructed me to submit an e-mail requesting service. After doing so and receiving no response, I called another store (associated with the first dealer) and was told that their one technician was "at least a week out" with service calls and that he would "call [me] back before that day was out". Never heard back from that dealer. Because I was given a heads-up back last summer by one of this list's moderators that there were two new Arctic dealers in my *region*, I called one of those dealers. The person I spoke with told me he was reluctant to service my tub because of prior experiences servicing tubs bought from other dealers. I then decided to take matters into my own hands, pull the tub panels to see if I could fix the problem. The only thing I did was wiggle the multitude of plugs going into the master control box which miraculously solved the problem and, knock on the cedar cabinet, I've not had a problem since. I called that "new" dealer and asked him to please consider taking me on as a customer and, that if/when I needed him in the future, I would pay him for all parts, labor and shipping costs and (if need be) I would battle it out with the Arctic Company later. He agreed to provide me service when needed. My suggestion? The best hot tub in the world ain't worth diddly crap if you can't get service when you need it. I travel both for business and pleasure and, while I am capable of fixing all sorts of things, I'd sure like having the option AND security of knowing that if I can't fix it there is a dealer standing by who WILL! In addition to wet-testing, therefore, I recommend that you purchase a tub from a dealer who has a PROVEN track record. Get references!

We never wear swimsuits. We have the occasional shy guest but when they realize we're gonna be nekkid, anyway, they usually join the crowd.

I wouldn't buy any hot tub that I hadn't wet tested first.

I leave my towel inside the house as well as my robe. I used to take my robe outdoors but quickly soured on putting on a COLD robe after emerging from the warmth and comfort of the tub. After a 15-20 minute soak at 104F, I'm plenty warm to emerge, step into my Crocs, close the cover and secure it and go back into the house to dry off.

Won me over, too. In energy-efficient *house* design, one aims to keep the central heating plant and distribution pipes/ducts withinthe *heated envelope*. Being very concerned about how much electricity was going to be required to keep my tub at 104F, here in New England, it only made sense to me to go with the thermopane design. As it's turned out, I only run a filter cycle once in 24 hours and keep my tub at 104F and the increase in my electric usage has been surprisingly low. I only clean the cedar cabinet and stain it, once a year, in August. Still on my first gallon of Olympic stain, too (after 3 years). It takes me all of a couple of hours from start to finish and, IMHO, it's worth the effort for the natural wood appearance. The jet thingies in my tub don't protrude into my back at all. I got the fancy light package and never use it. Nor do I use the waterfall or the air bubbler thingie. They work fine when I turn 'em on in the course of demonstrating all the horns-'n-whistles to guest tubbers but I never really use them. Finally, IMHO, before you buy any tub...WET TEST!

Arctic Frontier. Five comfortably.

I always shovel the snow away from around the hot tub AND from the stairs and patio leading to the tub. Fortunately, my tub is on the south side of the house and, on sunny days, any leftover ice and snow after shoveling melts and drips down through the joints on the stairs and the soaces in between the patio bricks. For a little extra *insurance* however, I got four rubbery mats (from Home Depot) that are approximately 2' X 3' that I clean and shake the snow off and I have them on the brick patio between the stairs into the house and the stairs into the tub. Works like a charm. Oh! And I also wear Crocs to and from the tub and have several extra pairs for guests to use.

Heck of a nice sunspace you've got there. Do you get any passive solar heat from it? My inspiration for wanting a hot tub came from numerous soaks in the back-country hot springs of Oregon, Washington and New Mexico. A lot of the enjoyment for me is lying back in the tub and gazing at the night sky. And, it just *feels good* being outdoors doing it. The colder outside the better!

Mine is ten feet out from the back door on a brick patio. Close proximity to the door was a priority in my hot tub *design*. I feared that if I put it too far away from the door, I'd be reluctant to use it if there was snow on the ground. As it turns out, *shoveling out* the hot tub is the first thing I clear after a snow storm. I find that, after a soak, putting on a robe that has been hanging outside is horridly unpleasant (cold) so I don't bother and just dry off when I get back inside the house.

As per the manufacturer's suggestion, I give the cedar cabinet a scrubbing every August, let 'er dry and then apply a coat of Olympic stain.

"Perfect tubbing weather" is one of the few positive things I can say about winter in New England, anymore. I laughingly tell my friends that an outdoor hot tub should be required by code for winter survival in Massachusetts! Once the outdoors temperature consistently dips below 50F, after sunset, a nightly soak is routine in my household. As dave nh expressed upthread, the only time soaking can be unpleasant is when it's windy out and then it is the absolute pits. Before I got my tub, I had grandiose plans for building an electrified "warmbox" to keep towels in tubside when emerging from a soak but I've found that, after soaking in 104F water for 15 - 30 minutes, I stay plenty warm enough when I get out to close the cover, lock it and walk ten feet into the house to towel off that there's no need for warmed towels. And you owe it to yourself to follow Hillbilly's lead and leave your swimsuit in the dresser drawer.

There's no substitute for quality and for big-ticket purchases I only want to have to do it, once, so I'll fork over a few extra bucks for what I perceive to be "best quality". I can't speak for other manufacturers' spas and tubs because my Arctic is the only tub I've owned. What I can tell you is that I'm coming up on three years of ownership and I still believe the Arctic tub is one of the best investments I've made. My only regret is that I didn't buy one years ago. FWIW, I NEVER wonder if I paid too much for it. We negotiated some and got some extras added in for no additional money and that (old sales trick) made us feel like we'd gotten a deal, initially. Now, almost three years later, we feel like we DID get *a deal* by deciding to go Arctic.

The only times I ever turn on the lights are (1) as a courtesy for a guest so they can see their way in/out of the tub (once they're situated comfortably I turn the lights off) and (2) if a guest wants to see all the horns and whistles that my tub has. I seldom use the jets, either. Only use 'em when I'm sore after a workout or long bike ride. I prefer to sit out in the tub, quietly, under a moonlit sky due in part (I suspect) to my early-on experiences of hot springs soaks after a long day of backpacking.

Approaching 3 years of 99 and 44/100% satisfaction with my Arctic tub. Without question it IS one of the best "investments" I've ever made. We wet-tested a slew of different tubs and the comfort and quality of the Arctic line AND the patience and willingness of the dealer to field our ever-growing list of questions is what sold us on the product. I'd recommend an Arctic tub to anyone!

Thanks, Glid! Actually, I've noticed a spa dealer in Littleton, Mass. (about 10 miles down the road) is displaying a huge Arctic Spas sign. To be honest, I'll have to look Goffstown up on the map to see where it is.