drylandfarmer

I have a salt system installed in my Arctic Spa hot tub. It is the Genesis salt water system, produces bromine. I love the salt water system. It has been maintenance free and very easy to keep the bromine levels where they need to be. The water is always crystal clear and no foaming issues. With my work schedule I wanted something that I did not need to have a lot of upkeep and the Genesis has delivered for me. I check the bromine levels weekly and adjust the filter cycle to control bromine output. You really get a feel for the bather load and adjust accordingly with the amount of bromine needed. When I am not going to use the tub for extended periods for vacation or work reasons I just lower the filter cycle time and produce less bromine in the tub. Water clarity and levels are always where they should be. Have occasionally produced too much bromine, but that is very easy to bring down to within proper levels. I also love the Arctic Spa tub that I own. Have had it now for 17 months and it has been trouble free and alway ready for use. Spa ownership is a real treat when everything is easy to maintain and trouble free. I would highly recommend the Arctic Spa with the Genesis salt water system.

There are some controllers that can be set higher than 104F. Once you get to 104 max temp setting, press and hold the up arrow for 3 to 5 seconds and the temp setting will go to 105F. Press and hold for 3 to 5 seconds and temp setting will go to 106 etc. You can get it all the way up to 108F. The temp setting will flash when you press any of the buttons indicating it set higher than the max 104F temp. This is on a 2010 gecko controller. Not sure if this is on all gecko controllers, but it is on mine. I found this by just playing around with it. I am sure that there are other controllers that can be manipulated also. I like my hot tub to be at 105 and 106 when it is real cold in the winter. 104 just does not cut it for me.

That is always the best route to go. Usually those kind of jobs can take all day and into the early evening hours. :P

I would recommend using a qualified electrician recommended by your dealer. The lowest cost electrician quote is not always the best idea. There was a post a while back about a hotspring tub hooked up to a 50amp where a 60amp was required. Mistakes can be costly and the headaches would not be worth it. My cost for hooking up my tub recently was $648. This did not include the wire as it was run when the house was built 6 years ago and this did not include the GFI breaker as this was supplied by the dealer. I am guessing the total cast from scratch may have been in the $1000 range.

Owned an arctic spa summit for 3 months now and love it. Is really energy efficient in my opinion and have not noticed any big increases in my power bill.(I do have a large power before I bought the tub, so the increase is only marginal) The tub has been trouble free and I use it about 5 nights/week. Have the genesis salt water system installed and it has been running perfect. Keeps the bromine level right where I want it. Would highly recommend the arctic. I have the Legend jetting package and the northern lights. The winters here are very cold, have tubbed in -20F many nights. If you have a wind blowing across the tub with the cover off in these temps you will lose water temperature. When the wind is calm temp stays right at 104. The jets do turn a little to easy and you always have to check the position of the jets before sitting down. (you can control the flow on each individual jet by turning them) Really like the filtration system on the Arctic. The floating weir is a very nice feature. The main pump on low speed pulls a nice volume into the filter when on filter mode, so my tub stays sparkling clean and I have found no floating debris at all in the tub. I filter for 2 hours 2 times/day. Seating is awesome on this model and is very versatile with different heights and widths so everyone can get comfortable There are many people who like to pile on the Arctic. There may be a few unhappy owners out there but most of the piling on comes from other dealers who like to bash arctic for what ever reason. I have come to the the conclusion that other dealers like to attack Number 1, and it's kinda lonlely at the top. No other brands of tubs were injured or attacked in this post.

You can still overide the 104 max temp on some hot tubs built after 2006, mine is a 2010 model and I have it set for 106 degrees, was easy to do, kinda just stumbled on it.

Some controllers allow you to do it by pressing a couple of buttons. 106 is veeerrry niiice. (Borat voice)

I am using these filters. Have about 6 weeks on my first one and my water is crystal clear. Plan to change it out after 3 months. The reason I went with them right from the start is due to the non-maintenance. I did not want the hassle of pulling the filter out and washing all the time.

I am losing around 3 inches water every 2 weeks. Topping it up every 2 weeks. Temperatures outside are very cold creating a lot of steam. Using the tub daily for about 1 hour each time. No leaks that I have found so assuming most of it is evaporating.

Did a 4 hour tub at -21F with a large bottle of rum, that was fun at the time not so much the next day though. Do not mind the cold, but when you get the cold and the wind kinda takes the fun out of it. We have had -10F for about 3 weeks, was in the tub every night except 3 of them when the north wind was blowing. Just came out from a 2 hour tub, outside temp was a balmy +23F. Not missing the cold temps at all.

Tubbin in the winter is the best. Just came in from a 2 hour tub. Temperature is a balmy -23 celcius (-9 farenheit). Hair freezes into a nice helmut. Have music piped into the deck and the drinks are always flowing. It is so relaxing. My tub sits on a bottom walkout slab with a roof over it and open sides so the snow does not fall on me directly, but you are definately out it the winter elements. Have had a 2 day blizzard so I was waiting impatiently for the wind to stop to get out there, but the wait was worth it. The tub sits about 10 steps from the door so you are in and out pretty quick. The only problem I had was the beer was freezing so you had to submerge it every 20 minutes or so, minor inconvenience I guess.

I have purchased the Arctic Summit just before Christmas. I can tell you I am extremely happy with it. Love the seating arrangement. Captains chairs are of different heights and widths and each one has a unique jetting configuration. The open seating arrangement is very versatile and I do like that option for many different seating positions. If a lounger is important to you, I would wet test as I found that I floated out of them and did not like them. Each person has different comfort requirements so it is important to find what is best for you. Cannot comment on the Jacuzzi as their nearest dealer was too far away from me, although the research I did online looked like a very good tub. Dealer support and proximity to your location is very important also. Good luck with your search.

Aaaahhhhhhhh. What took me so long to get a tub. Have been tubbin daily sometimes twice. Last night went tubbin just before dark. There was no wind and the ambiant temp was very cold. Steam rising off the tub, coyotes started yappin in the distance. So relaxing. Half a dozen beers later and some good tunes playing on the stereo ended up spending 5 hours in the tub. Once the new wears off I am sure the hours spent may go down, but right now just lovin the Arctic Spa. Can't say I have a favourite seat yet as I kindof use all of them. Glad I chose the Summit as the seating is very versatile. Going to head out now for a quick tub, then you guessed it friends coming over tonight and more tubbin.

To OP. I add 2 capfuls of refresh when I want to shock my tub. Laminated directions from my dealer, did not do the calculations on the bottle. I have the Genesis system not the Onzen. You stated earlier that you were using 5 capfuls, wondering if it is possible you are using to much refresh (MPS) when shocking.

Pulled the trigger yesterday. After the wet test decided to go with the Arctic Spa Summit. Amazing how different the tub feels when tested wet. Wet test is something I would highly recommend to anyone shopping for a tub. The Arctic Summit is very comfortable and has a nice jetting package. Open seating on the one side and very comfortable capatains chairs made this tub my pick. My daughters also picked this tub, even though the chairs are a little deep for them I picked up a couple of booster seats to make up the height distance for them. Getting it delivered tommorrow and hooked up at the same time. Had to clear out a huge snowdrift with the tractor to get to my bottom deck where it will sit ground level on my basement walkout. I am kinda like a kid at Christmas right now, can't wait for the maiden voyage. Couple of posts back someone mentioned "how will the equiptment bay stay warm when the pumps are not running during a power fail?" I would view the tub and entire enclosure like a big heat bank and the tub of heated water would then transfer the heat back down into the equiptment bay. The Arctic has very little heat loss anywhere in the tub enclosure or the cover, so heat loss would be very slow.

Some very good points, thanks for the replies. This spa search has taken about 2 weeks solid so far and man what an enormous amount of information out there. When I go and look at a spa, I am sure the sales people are surprised that the first thing I want to see is the side panels pulled off to look at the equiptment inside rather than the tub itself. There are some nice and unique features on every brand of tub that I really like. Saw one today that had dual speed pumps on all 3 pumps and that is a really nice feature. It cuts down on the noise considerably with nice water movement when on the slow speed. I think all tubs should have dual speed pumps or even variable frequency drive pumps as that technology is now very affordable. Anyways there are 2 very important features that are important for me in a hot tub. The first one is insulation and heat loss. On the farm that I live on power failures in the winter time are quite common. We had a 16 hour power loss during the first major snowstorm in November. We have an aging power grid in North America and a multi day power failure is going to happen someday in my opinion. A tub that can retain all of the heat in the tub and the equiptment for an extended period of time with the least amount of heat loss during winter is important to me. Some of the manufacturers have venting spaces near their equiptment and do not have very good if any insulation on the equiptment access door, especially on the foam filled tubs. Arctic Spa meets this criteria for me and would have the best heat retention qualities, in my opinion. The second one is keeping mice out. I hate those vermin. We have cats on our farm and an exterminator has bait traps set up all around the home. Very few mice remain, but they do keep a coming. They will find a way to get into a tub if possible to nest. Looked at a tub today and I found a place where you could stick a finger underneath the space where the cabinet meets the floor and feel the insulation inside. Access doors to the equiptment on another tub was not a complete seal with 2 small gaps, mice love this kinda thing. The Arctic Spa to me looked completely sealed up and I could not find anyplace where mice could get in. They have a floor drain flap opening at the bottom in case the tub has a leak that would open and let water out that could provide a way in for a mouse if the flap somehow was not fully closed, but other than that the Arctic looked mouse proof to me. As you can see I am definatly leaning towards the Arctic Spa. Have not done any wet tests as of yet, but will next week. Barrier free seating is something that I really like and I may have to sacrifice it for the Arctic Spa. But the 2 points mentioned above are just too important for me, so the Arctic is in the lead. The search still continues. I do not in any way want to bash or run down any of the brands. Each brand has some very good features that I really like. There is no best tub out there in my opinion and competition is driving the market to get better all the time. It is very impressive to say the least. The 2 points I raised may not be a big deal for some people, but for me they were very important in my tub search. Talked to some people about the dealer for the Acrtic Spa and everyone had nothing but praise and positive comments for him. He and his staff are very helpful and knowledgable. The other dealers in the area also have good track records and have not heard any complaints from the people I have talked to. Pretty competitive for Hot Tubs in this area so I guess you have to bring your A game all the time. May pull the trigger next week, and can't wait to go tubbin.

Hi all, new to the forum. Have read the last few years posts to get all the info I can. Good information here, well most of it is. Anyways I am in the market for my first hot tub. There is a very good local dealer for Arctic Spa and has given me very good pricing on a Tundra and a Summit. Leaning towards the Tundra. Will do a wet test this weekend. Very impressed with the Arctic tubs so far, but I do not want to rule out others just yet. I am also going to look tommorrow at a Hotsprings Grandee. Do not know much about the Hotsprings as of yet, but will find out more tommorrow. The other tubs in my area fall off dramatically for quality after that, so I am sticking with those two for now. There is a Beechcomber dealer 1.5 hour drive away, but may just stick with the local guys. Cold weather tubbin is the norm up here. Does anyone have any opinions on barrier free seating? I have always thought that would be the way to go to stretch out and move around etc. The arctic spa has comfortable seating, but looks like you are kind of locked in one position. The Hotsprings brochure shows a more open seating design where you could move around to whatever position you like. Wet test would probably be the only way to find out. I like to spend long hours in a tub, so was thinking being stuck in one seating position would get old fast. Anyways sorry for the long first post as you can tell the kids and I are pumped can't wait to go tubbin. PS. I also have very bad arthritis at 42years/old, so this tub is long overdue.