Artic Tundra Legend Extreme Vs. Sundance 880 Optima

[mathman]

Hi and thank you for your help

we are considering the artic tundra legend extreme and the sundance 880 optima and wondered if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions. i like the number of jets (and varity) in the artic but hard to beat the feet jets for comfort in the sundance. I also might say that the artic jets stick out (ie poke my back) more than the sundance. major diffence i see is the insulating panels of the artic vs. the spray fome of the sundance. is there a sigificant diffence in quality? how about the filtration? sundance deal said to go with the light bulb based ozone (isnt that just UV?) vs. the artic with the CD ozone.

any help is appreciated. thank you!

[spatech (the unreal one)]

Hi and thank you for your help

we are considering the artic tundra legend extreme and the sundance 880 optima and wondered if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions. i like the number of jets (and varity) in the artic but hard to beat the feet jets for comfort in the sundance. I also might say that the artic jets stick out (ie poke my back) more than the sundance. major diffence i see is the insulating panels of the artic vs. the spray fome of the sundance. is there a sigificant diffence in quality? how about the filtration? sundance deal said to go with the light bulb based ozone (isnt that just UV?) vs. the artic with the CD ozone.

any help is appreciated. thank you!

1) I'm a little surprised to hear that the jets are not recessed enough. Did you get a chance to see how that feels in a wet test or was that just a dry test?

2) Both should be well insulated. I'm a fan of full foam in general but Arctic's method of foaming the panels is good as well so I wouldn't lump them in with other thermal pane spa makers and personally would think both would do the trick for you.

3) Both should be good quality and don't worry about filtration, they should be on par with each other in that area.

4) I would definitely go with a CD ozonator over a UV type. Both dealers should have both methods available for you to get pricing.

[mathman]

thank you for the reply. any views on the CD ozone? i read that they were better than the bulb based solution but the sundance dealer told me the bulbs last for 5yrs while the CD only for a year....find that hard to believe.......

i liked the sundance a little better but i dont understand why the sundance dealer wanted almost the same money as the artic dealer when the artic had 1/3 more jets, better stero option, and CD ozone. ......

[Dennis B]

1) Definitely wet test. When we sat in the Arctic dry, we felt the jets, but you'll never sit in it dry at home. During the wet test(s) , we found no issues with the Arctics. They will also let you replace, change any of the (changeable) jets you want when you first get the tub.

2) Two different schools of thought, as above pointed out. Go with what you feel comfortable with.

3) same as above

4) something to look into... Arctic has that new Onzen system, which is pretty cool. I believe Sundance offers CD ozone as well.

[spatech (the unreal one)]

thank you for the reply. any views on the CD ozone? i read that they were better than the bulb based solution but the sundance dealer told me the bulbs last for 5yrs while the CD only for a year....find that hard to believe.......

i liked the sundance a little better but i dont understand why the sundance dealer wanted almost the same money as the artic dealer when the artic had 1/3 more jets, better stero option, and CD ozone. ......

1) UV bulbs can illuminate for years but the reality is the amount of zone they produce will drop off after and a year or two so to say it "lasts" for 5 years is not relevant. How much ozone its still producing at 18, 24, 36 months is. I've always told people they pretty much want to change the bulb every 18 months or so. To say a CD only lasts for a year is just salesmanship as well. The CD type is the way to go. There certainly are quality levels of both the UV and CD types but the CD is the way to go.

2) Go with the spa you truly like best. The fact that one has 1/3 more jets should not be a big factor. Quality of the jets, variety of the jets and a wet test to see how the spa feels overall is far more pertinent than counting the # of jets. As far as a stereo goes, they are not a great deal for what you get. Ask for a quote both with and without. If you don't care about the added cost, add it in.