Jason77

I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a tub sans warranty. I bought a hotspring back in early November. I've had 4 service calls, and got a factory return authorization in six weeks. I guess I got a lemon. My second tub has been trouble free (knock on wood). Dealer service quality is very important. Hotsprings has wowed me with their customer service. But a warranty is the piece of mind on a new tub. Especially one with a lot of access points in the shell for the lights. Good luck.

Is the tub new? I had to do spa purge and deconamonate to get rid of the brown scum in my new tub.

My 09 envoy does the same thing. The 09 sovereign I had did it as well with a different water feature. I'm pretty sure that is normal. The water feature is real nice with only that light on and the rest of the bar top lights off.

Get the biggest tub you can afford. I'm returning my sovereign for a phase ii envoy. The sovereign had some problems and was too shallow. I had to sit on the floor to submerge my shoulders (6 ft 1). I initially wanted something small, but it didn't work out. Fortunately my dealer is respecting that they assured me I would fit. (wet test wasn't an option since 220v wasn't in the close). Tubs feel smaller the more you get used to it.

I just got a Sovereign Phase II less than a month ago. Fortunately I read a lot of topics on this forum about hot tub selection. The two most common tips were to wet test, and dealer satisfaction. I found two tubs I liked a little better (Sundance and Caldera) than my Sovereign, but we didn't have a local dealer (90 miles away). The dealers both would sell and work on the tub, but it would cost us a service charge. So I still got a very nice tub at a local dealer. Since the tub was delivered I've had a heater go bad 2 hours after delivery, moto massage needed adjustment since it hit the shell when it changed direction, and now my bar top lights need a harness replaced. I'm very dispappointed in my tub's intital quality. But I'm so glad I went with the local dealer, and one that I liked. The dealer has helped a lot and been out to fix every problem immediately. So my advice is only get the Envoy if it has a warranty. The Vangaurd is an awesome tub. But keep in mind it doesn't have a lounger.

I put in a HS sovereign a few weeks ago. I wanted to put in a slab, but a very wet fall didn't help. So I put in an ez-pad with a 2 in sand base under the pad. It hasn't moved or settled yet. So far I'm happy, but it was a lot of work getting a truly flat and level base. I thought my site was close to level. That was until I used a string level around the location of the new pad. Needless to say 9 in drop in a 96in run was a lot of digging. Get an 8 foot 2 x 4 to help make a flat site. It is very easy to over look voids or bumps under the pad.