Arctic Tundra Or Summit ?

[Tomab]

I have been to my Arctic dealer to check out the Tundra and Summit. I am very interested in one of them. However my dealer has none of them in stock. He is more than willing to get one shipped in for me to wet test with no obligation to buy. The problem is that he would like to get only ONE of the two in to wet test and I can't decide what I should request. I know ideally I should wet test them both then decide but as of now that's not the deal.

What are your thoughts on each particular model. I have read the brochures/website extensively. Gone over the jet location and placement, seat arrangement....and so on and so on...

I'm still not sure!

I'm looking for any insite from anyone who has tried these out or has any experience with these. Dealers included.

All opinions welcome.

Buyers, did you try both? What was your conclusions and why.

Dealers, What was the main reasons the customer went with one and not the other.

Any insight would be helpfull.

Thanks,

Tom

PS, don't want to change the subject but is the Therapy Air worth it to get. Also, for those who purchased the Arctics would you mind passing on what you paid, model and level of options. thanks again.

[larrys1]

We purchased a Summit only because the dealer at the fair kind of led us to that model. I understand the Tundra is computer designed and has won several awards. It looks like it has four great captains chairs; the Summit has two with a third that sits higher up with OK jets and the fourth is kind of three seats together with so-so jets. We love it since it is just the two of us 95% of the time and we didn't want to pay anymore than we did which was $11,000 U.S. before taxes. I have read people in the neighborhood of $15,000 for the Tundra. We don't really care for the Therapy Air as it is noisy and cools the water slightly...maybe we will like it better in the summer. Our Summit has Onzen which I have grown to love for ease of use. It has a little bit of a learning curve but is so much easier and cleaner than other folks I have heard about their difficulties maintaining chemicals and cleanliness.

[Urbane Lion]

I have been to my Arctic dealer to check out the Tundra and Summit. I am very interested in one of them. However my dealer has none of them in stock. He is more than willing to get one shipped in for me to wet test with no obligation to buy. The problem is that he would like to get only ONE of the two in to wet test and I can't decide what I should request. I know ideally I should wet test them both then decide but as of now that's not the deal.

What are your thoughts on each particular model. I have read the brochures/website extensively. Gone over the jet location and placement, seat arrangement....and so on and so on...

I'm still not sure!

I'm looking for any insite from anyone who has tried these out or has any experience with these. Dealers included.

All opinions welcome.

Buyers, did you try both? What was your conclusions and why.

Dealers, What was the main reasons the customer went with one and not the other.

Any insight would be helpfull.

Thanks,

Tom

PS, don't want to change the subject but is the Therapy Air worth it to get. Also, for those who purchased the Arctics would you mind passing on what you paid, model and level of options. thanks again.

I went for the Tundra and have absolutely no regrets. I like the fact the the seats are varied in depth and that even my 10 year old son has a favorite seat. Although I do have Therapy Air, we rarely use it. We only took it because they already had a spa with all our "must haves" in Edmonton and it had Therapy Air. Paid around $ 15000 for the Tundra Legend Extreme with the salt water option. This is the loaded model and only thing missing is Wet Tunes/Aquatremor. I already have Dry Tunes....

[Glid]

I lounge in my Tundra, for sure! I stretch right out over the smaller seats with my leg, or sprawl out on the floor in front of the Monsoon Jet. My wife and I were talking the other night about how happy we went with the Tundra. We use all the seats in the Tundra even if it's just the two of us. The higher seats are great for my wife to cool off a bit because she is heat sensitive. Summit was our second choice because you could cozy up in the corner seat. I prefer to cozy up on the raised floor because there's more room.

Either way, I doubt you'll be dissapointed.

[Tomab]

Thanks for input the guys. Thats what I'm looking for. Specifics on why everyone went with the model they bought.

I was wondering about the Onzen. My local Arctic dealer doesn't recommend it at this point. He feels it is too new and the (bugs) aren't worked out yet. With all the posts on this forum (most of them about difficulties... but not all) I can't argue with his reasoning. Still it is very interesting to me.

Hopefully I can get some more feedback on all of this.

[UK Arctic Dealer]

Thanks for input the guys. Thats what I'm looking for. Specifics on why everyone went with the model they bought.

I was wondering about the Onzen. My local Arctic dealer doesn't recommend it at this point. He feels it is too new and the (bugs) aren't worked out yet. With all the posts on this forum (most of them about difficulties... but not all) I can't argue with his reasoning. Still it is very interesting to me.

Hopefully I can get some more feedback on all of this.

I have both tubs on wet display and my Tundra has Onzen. This is only my personal opinion and i am not speaking on behalf of Arctic Spas but i prefer the Summit. I have nearly every model on display and if i am gonna jump in a tub after work it's always the Summit. I just feel its a very comfortable spa and has a bit more room to spread out. The Tundra is a 7 seater though compared to the Summit which seats 6 so how many seats do you need? I also think the Therapy Air (TA) is well worth having.If you have never used it the best way i can describe it is it sort of tickles your skin instead of a powerful massage the water jets give you. Its also good to put fragrances into the TA. I would always go with TA given the choice.

Just a quick note on Onzen while you mentioned it.We have sold a few spas with Onzen and we have had no problems and customers love it. I do understand initially there where a few issues but i think this has all been sorted now.

Best advice as always would be to wet test both models before you buy.

Hope this helps.

[Urbane Lion]

My dealer doesn't even offer Onzen. He prefers to retrofit a salt water system (think it's called Genesis). All I can say is that we just love that system. It has been very low maintenance so far (2 months).

[Glid]

The Onzen was part of the Legend SE package. I have no regrets with this, either. The dealer set it up, I leave it alone, everything has maintained a perfect level for my usage. If I even open the panel and look at it...It might never be the same. That is why I don't go near it.

[Tomab]

Thanks Everyone. Sorry I took so long to reply back.

I didn't make it back to the dealer yet to discuss things further.

I appreciate all your responses.

I know there are a few more dealers and customers out there on these forums that have more experience with these two than I do. What are the customers saying about each one? I would really like to know. In the mean time I will try and wet test both....somehow.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

[Tomab]

Well here it is over 2 months later. I am glad to say my wife and I have an Arctic Tundra LE on order. No Onzen. It should be here very soon. Here are some details of the testing if anyone may be interested.

We ended up finding a dealer that was about 2 hours away who had a Tundra wet and also one dry. They also had a Summit dry as well. I really liked that they had a Tundra and Summit dry in order to test out the seating positions on an equal playing field (both dry).

First up was the Summit(dry). My wife and I both loved the seating positions which seems slightly reclined. I think you could really sit back and injoy a relaxing soak. However....for me I did like the slightly reclined position but pretty much all the seats seemed a little to small for me. I felt a little cramped especially in the hip area. (note, I am 6'2" about 240lbs, I wish I could say of solid muscle mass but I'd be lying . I was also concerned about the deepness of the seats. I really wanted to be sure I would easily be able to have my shoulders beneath the waterline without slouching down. Those two things really raised a question in my mind.

Next onto the Tundra(dry). Immediately I felt like the Tundra had so much more room. To be honest I didn't like the upright seating position as well as what the Summit offered but I by no means felt cramped. Even the leg room seemed like there was so much more space.

After evaluating every thing dry my wife and I compared notes. She had in her mind her favorite of the two. Of course it was the opposite of what I chose. But after discussing it we did agree that so far the Tudra was the one a growing family should chose.

Next came the Tundra wet test. This seems like a HUGE tub. Lots of room for legs, and different body types(I guess this is what Arctic engineers had in mind). The tub in the showroom was way overfilled so it was plenty deep enough. My wife had to struggle to keep her head up. My kids....forget about it, luckily they can swim. Even with a correct water level I would be fine with shoulders being submerged. All in all we liked the Tundra. Jets seemed strong enough and well placed.

The dealer where we wet tested said they would service the tub if we bought from them but we we're not to sure being 2 hours away.

Shortly after we went back to my closer dealer (1 hour away) and worked out a price and It should be here in a week or two.

Really excited to get this installed to catch some snowflakes while in the tub.

Thanks for all who gave their thoughts and experience earlier in the post.

Sincerely,

Tomab

[Calv1n]

Hope you enjoy the Tundra. I liked it a lot more then the Summit myself and I'm not a fan of TA so that was the only option (and now Onzen but that wasn't an option at the time of purchase) I'm missing.

Cheers