Dawill Posted July 4, 2010 Report Share Posted July 4, 2010 Well, first off I would like to thank all the regular posters on this forum as it definately helped me what to look for and value when I was buying a hot tub. I have decided to go ahead and buy a 2010 Artesian Grand Bahama 61 jet w/ dual foot blaster & 3 pumps. The artesians seem to be fairly customizable and I added pillow fall, waterfall, stainless jets, led lights,ozonator, & ionizer. It comes standard with a cover, steps delivery, and startup chemicals. I also added a cover lifter. It came out to $8050, which based on what I was seeing from the other dealers is a steal. The same dealer also carried sundance and I wet tested the cameo but was not impressed at all. The grand bahama blew it away and was significantly cheaper. I also went to the clear water/bullfrog dealer and thought the bullfrogs had no water pressure at all, felt about the same as a shower head, and the clearwater st. andrew was decent, but was smaller and more expensive than the artesian models. I also checked out the d1/maxx dealer but all they had for wet test was an amore bay which was way out of my price range and the rest of the inventory didn't impress me as much as the artesians. Not only did the artesian model feel more therapeutic than the others I wet tested, the dealer also seemed to be more knowledgable, friendly, and experienced. He wasn't really pushy at all and even recommended I go check out the other dealers around town and gave me a few pointers on what to look for. It was actually a fairly pleasant experience and I'm glad I brought my bathing suit as I would have had no idea just based on looks which would have been best. I plan on finishing up the purchase on tuesday and got my electrician booked to come wire me up. Hoping to have everything up and running within a month. Artesian dealer even said they could create a shim for the hot tub as needed since I have some uneven flagstone on my patio and it wouldn't void warranty and would only cost me for materials. Just curious if anybody else has any comments on Artesian? I haven't seen to many posts on the forums about them, but they seem much better priced than the competition and the dealer was going in depth on how well built they are. I know he is probably somewhat biased but it definately sounded less salesman like than the clearwater dealer. Also I noticed the clearwaters are perimeter insulation but they vent them so you don't get thermal creep from the motors in our hot climate. Thought that kind of defeated the purpose of the insulation in colder weather, but what do I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE SPA GUY Posted July 6, 2010 Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 Dawill, congratulations on your spa purchase, is it nice to see how you came about to your purchase, Artesian is a good brand, if you are comfortable with then you did well that is what counts, i am curious on your shopping, when you looked at the other brands, and wetested , did they not have the similiar comparisons on there showrooms to see if they would fill to try out, like the D1 were they had the Amore Bay, and the Maax brands, or did they not have the comparables to see? but again enjoy your spa, have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawill Posted July 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2010 Dawill, congratulations on your spa purchase, is it nice to see how you came about to your purchase, Artesian is a good brand, if you are comfortable with then you did well that is what counts, i am curious on your shopping, when you looked at the other brands, and wetested , did they not have the similiar comparisons on there showrooms to see if they would fill to try out, like the D1 were they had the Amore Bay, and the Maax brands, or did they not have the comparables to see? but again enjoy your spa, have fun They didn't have anything to wet test. All their tubs were dry except for the amore bay. Also it was a big sales plays that does pools,spas, gamerooms, etc and I couldn't get anybody to help me so I just gave up and walked out after 20min. They had stacks of D1 spas on pallets and a bunch of maxx spas inside and some outside under a tent that screamed sale. Just felt more like a push through as many hot tubs as possible kind of place. The other 2 places were just hot tubs, and maybe saunas. I was easily able to get help/support. At the Artesian dealer I was speaking to the owner himself, and the clearwater I'm not sure as he could have easily been but it didn't come up in conversation. I'm an engineer so I like to know just about everything about each spa. Spent a good 2hrs at the artesian and over an hour at the clearwater dealer. I live in Austin, and we also have a hotsprings, and a jacuzzi dealer along with some other minor brands, but nothing from the hot springs line up excited me, and the jacuzzi dealer has only been there for a couple years so I didn't bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spa God Posted July 8, 2010 Report Share Posted July 8, 2010 Congrats mate!!! welcome to spadom enjoy your newest toy!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawill Posted July 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2010 One last question I do have on my hot tub is do I have them add a circ pump? Its like $150 upgrade which isn't much but the dealer is strongly recommending me not to do it because here in texas the heat from the circ pump will keep your spa well above 100 during the summer and said it will be unusable. He suggests I just run the main pumps for a few hours a day on low and that should do fine. With say 100F ambient during the day and the circ pump running would my spa be too hot come evening? The artesians give an option to have a circ or not while I noticed most the other brands its standard. Given the dealer has 40yrs experience I don't want to doubt his advice too much but I figured why not get a second opinion since its a cheap upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatech (the unreal one) Posted July 8, 2010 Report Share Posted July 8, 2010 One last question I do have on my hot tub is do I have them add a circ pump? Its like $150 upgrade which isn't much but the dealer is strongly recommending me not to do it because here in texas the heat from the circ pump will keep your spa well above 100 during the summer and said it will be unusable. He suggests I just run the main pumps for a few hours a day on low and that should do fine. With say 100F ambient during the day and the circ pump running would my spa be too hot come evening? The artesians give an option to have a circ or not while I noticed most the other brands its standard. Given the dealer has 40yrs experience I don't want to doubt his advice too much but I figured why not get a second opinion since its a cheap upgrade. Some spas with circ pumps have the option run them 24/7 at some times and less at othes so for the 2 months or so where the heat is oppressive you can lessen it to run somehing like 7pm to 7am. Ask him if the circ pump is controllable and if not then maybe follow his advice if he has found it to be an issue in his area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE SPA GUY Posted July 8, 2010 Report Share Posted July 8, 2010 Dawill, i would go with the 24 hour circ, you won't hear your main pump run in the middle of the night, up in our neck of the woods, during the summer we will hit the high 90's and even 100's for the next 2 months, my personla tub has a 24/7 circ, and i have never had a hi limit or thermal creep, also usually have a summer mode. but congrats on your purchase, enjoy your hot tub.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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