govikings1

the poor guy needs to get a life....sounds like he is a bit insecure that he paid too much for his spa. First of all I didn't buy my tub at Costco, bought it online. Yeah online.... but you can't buy a decent tub online can you? You simply must go through a dealer and pay the extra $4K to get a quality tub. I for one can speak from experience of owning both an expensive name brand tub for many years -- a high end Jacuzzi -- and now a Hydro spa. I can tell you that I'm enjoying the look, feel and features of the Hydro Spa much more than my Jacuzzi -- and from my initial inspection of the inside of the tub, the Hydro spa will be MUCH easier to fix when something does go wrong. I spent a year chasing a leak on my expensive, high-end Jacuzzi, the "quality" tub bought through a dealer. But I forgot, that shouldn't happen with a quality, expensive, dealer tub. There is alot of truth in the statement that underneath it simply alot of tubes and pumps. It is not a complicated product. But to be sure, only time will tell how well the Hydro performs. I've found their customer service to be very helpful so far, always answer the phone quickly. I called them quite a bit when I was making the decision to buy. But the jury is still out -- I'll see how long it takes them to fix the leaking jet under warrantee.

I just purchased a Platinum II after several months of research. The spa was delivered a week after I ordered it through BlueWater spas online. It was a leftover model from Costco 2006 product line, last few units sold. I paid $4200 plus $575 shipping. The tub arrived in the evening and the two drivers and a a neighbor of mine moved the spa to the backyard pad, with the help of a spa dolly. It was fairly easy to move it into place. I connected the electrical this weekend (didn't have to make any changes since I previously owned a Jacuzzi tub, 9 years old). Again, straightforward. The filling and power up went well. Issues: - leaking fitting on one of the jets - 1 inch dent on side of tub at lip from shipping (not sure if there is anything I can do in that regard), short of returning the tub. It doesn't affect operation, and is not that big a deal. Stereo is great, sounds better than expected. All jets work well. - a few of the white foam panels were broken We were in the tub last night and it is fantastic -- performs as expected. I called the customer support line this morning and after a short wait on hold, explained the issues. They are sending out the defective jet, and the name of a service provider in my area -- we'll see how that goes. He said there wasn't much that could be done about the chip, but he'd send a repair kit, although he wasn't optimistic how well it would do. I'm not sure if I should demand something from them for this or not. I really don't want to exchange the tub. Comments on the quality of the tub. As a former Jacuzzi owner with sprayed insulation on the piping, and all around the tub -- I vote for the Hydro Spa approach. When you have a leak with a fully foamed spa, it can be hundreds, if not 1000s of $$ to track it down at $80 an hour. Every spa will eventually leak somewhere, most likely. Hydro does not insulate the pipes and fittings -- and from the looks of the inside of the cabinet -- repairing leaks will be relatively easy. It is made for easy servicing. The insulation does look pathetic compared with my jacuzzi, which had a combination of sprayed foam, and 4" thick fiberglass insulation surrounded by plastic, around the other edge of the tub. Although it was cumbersome to remove and was easily damaged, it did keep the tub well insulated. This Platinum II spa insulation is not good. I will consider adding additional insulation. Another thing I don't like is that there is a gap between the tub and the cabinet around the entire tub -- where insects will easily be able to stop by and make themselves at home....perhaps that can be resolved with added insulation. One other feature I had on my Jacuzzi, that is not available on my Platinum II -- the ability to program the heater to come on at any time of day, of my choosing. In the economy mode of this tub, it is driven by when the spa is powered on, and I think every 12 hours for 2 hours. I will miss that option since my state has a "time of use" electric process whereby you get cheaper electricity at certain hours of the day. That is handy for programming the tub to accomodate those times, as well as personal schedules. Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the controls to include a clock with programmable timer? Or would the entire spa pack need to be changed? So far, so good -- the jets seem to function well, and each seat has it's own feel....lots of variety. Waterfall is nice, but overrated, and the stereo is great. So, overall -- I think this is a great spa for a very good price -- easily save $3-4K off of similar spas locally. I did talk to the local "service person" for Hydro spas, and he believes the spas are a great value and well made in general. I'm pretty happy with it, but time will tell of course -- it really is too early in the game to say...