Arctic Spa Or The Young Upstart H2ospas? Advice Please...

[great white]

I think you got a good deal is what I'm saying.

Ah, gotcha.

[hottubdan]

"...Been reading some not so good stuff about them going into receivership and being taken over by watkins with subsequent waranty and customer service problems"

What have you been reading? Hotsprings is in receivership?!?!? this is news to me (but then again, I'm not in the industry, or actively seek out the finacials of companies). Do you have a reference or link? Watkins owns HS and as long as I've know, warranty issues were always handled via Watkins.

Can you be specific?

update: Duh. got my wires crossed for a minute... Artic is receivership and talks that hotsprings make take them over? Really?

Hmm, seems it's "hot springs - UK division" I was reading about:

http://www.hottubbuyer.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1

http://www.vantisplc.com/Vantis/News/HotSp...inistration.htm

A quick reread reveals most of the "warranty not honored" threads were also in the UK.

Ownership info:

Hot Spring spas are made by Watkins Manufacturing, a leader in hot tubs and a company known for its strong ethics and integrity. Watkins is a division of Masco Corporation, a Fortune 500 company whose quality products include such trusted brands as Delta® faucets, KraftMaid® cabinets, Behr® paints, and many more.

This information is about a dealer/distributor in UK using the Hot Spring name. Has nothing to do with the financial health of Watkins Mfg. a division of Masco Corp., a US firm.

[Pathfinder]

Great White, Im curious as to how you arrived at the Grandee since its much bigger & has no lounger like the Radium. Did you test it against the H20 Canyon model which would be a proper comparison.

[great white]

Great White, Im curious as to how you arrived at the Grandee since its much bigger & has no lounger like the Radium. Did you test it against the H20 Canyon model which would be a proper comparison.

We went into the HS dealer to look at the Sovergn and the Vanguard. They had a Grandee filled in the back of the show room. The Sovergn was out, didn't like the captains chair and the lounger just wasn't right either. *Disclaimer* we didn't wet test the sovergn.

The Vanguard was nice, and had the moto massage jets. But with the wife and I both in the Vanguard (in the seats we each liked the most) we were bumping and rubbing toes and shins. We didn't wet test the Vanguard in the showroom, but a friend of ours has a 2008 Vanguard, and we've been in it before. Same deal, bumping shins (wife has very long legs) and we didn't like the single moto massage jets right on the spine in the single motomassage seat (wife is slim/athletic and doesn't have a lot of "meat" over the back).

Then we wet tested the Grandee, very nice! Lots of room, slick finish and two motomassage dual jet seats so no competing for the single seat like in the vanguard (we both prefered the dual moto massage seat). Th eability to control the jets nd output in so many ways and with such small incriments was a plus.

The LED lighting was miles better than anything we saw in the H2o show room on any model. So was the waterfall feature. Important options? Well.....no. But we're looking for something we would be happy with for the next 10-15 years. I know the wife and I, we'd be looking at the waterfall, LED's and assorted other items and thinking for only "X" dollars more we could have had the other one. Not something I want to be saying for 10 or more years....

The Canyon didn't do much for us in fit, finish, features or dry testing. It just seemed to big and featureless. Seemed to be more of a "party tub" (get as many people in as you can) or "get it big for all the kids" tub than what we were looking for. Although in all fairness, we didn't wet test the Canyon either....

[InHotH20]

Hi Great White,

Sounds like you did get a good deal, especially in Canada. Nice! What color combination did you get?

[great white]

Hi Great White,

Sounds like you did get a good deal, especially in Canada. Nice! What color combination did you get?

Pearl tub, expresso skirting.

The pearl reflected the lighting very nicely (the spas was in an area that could be darkened) but wasn't a s "blinding" in the full daylight as the sterling.

The wife didn't like the coast gray skirting, they didn't have a redwood one to look at (everyone has redwood anyways) so that left expresso. We both liked it, so the choice became easy after that.

[Roger]

Not personaly one of my top 3 because of some other issues like proprietary parts and over priced but a great tub with a long standing reputation for reliability and longevity. And backed by the strongest manufacturer in the world of hot tubs.

So, Roger, if I may ask - what are your top 3?

DP, you give me yours in PM and I'll give you mine. Lets do it in PM, my favorites will do no one here any good except me.

[nitrous]

Great White,

I thought those tubs were around $15k Canadian.......does anyone else know for sure ?

[great white]

Great White,

I thought those tubs were around $15k Canadian.......does anyone else know for sure ?

The price that was on the tub in the show room was 12995.00 before taxes and without the couple extras (steps, lifter, etc) we had thrown in.

My wife is a "shrewd' negotiator when it comes to purchase price. That combined with me being able to point out construction and features knowledge (dealers eyes got pretty wide when I asked her if we'd be getting a phase I or Phase II model, you could tell she knew what it was but didn't get asked that very often) made the dealer more willing to "wheel and deal".

The value of the Canadian dollar is also making goods from the states a bit more affordable right now. My dealer was able to get a better canadian price (so she said) for this reason.

So we got a "deal" at 10400 Cdn for the tub with steps, lifter and accessories included. As I mentioned earlier, 11600 taxes in delivered and set up to the pad in my back yard.