Spas Seating Similar To The D1 Nautilus

[tsand]

Visited the local D1 and Marquis dealer last night.

Consumer Digest gave the Marquis a very good rating and thought I would sneak a peak.

With wife and children in tow we spoke to a very confused salesperson. Not sure what was up, but he seemed a bit "inebriated"?

We didn't wet test any tub, but dry tested (if that is a proper term). Sitting in the tub, while most likely not as valuable as wet testing, gave us some pretty good information.

Anyway the Marquis is a very nice spa. But what we discovered is that my wife does not like the lounge seating and very much likes the foot "volcano" jet. The salesperson told that Marquis didn't have anything resembling the Nautilus in seating and jets.

Therefore the D1 Nautilus was the #1 selection in the evening. We are off to a local Artic dealer tonight or tomorrow. And will soon visit the local HotSprings dealer as well.

My question is can anyone point us to any spa manufacturer that might have a similar jet and seating arrangement to the Nautilus? It is hard to tell what Spas have this from the internet pictures I reviewed last night

Thanks

Tsand

[pg_rider]

Sundance Optima has a similar foot dome. Which, by the way, is one of my favorite features and a must-have in my opinion.

[egbert]

Also the Sundance Chelsee

[D.P. Roberts]

I'd recommend, as others have, the Sundance Optima. Sundance is personally my favorite brand, as I owned one for many years and had no problems with it. My main question for you, though, is size - the Optima has similar dimensions to the Nautilus, but is several inches deeper and holds 100 gallons more water. If the Nautilus is the right size for you, you may not want to spend the additional $$ to heat and treat the extra water every month. The Chelsee will be almost the same size as the Nautilus. Another Sundance to consider would be the Majesta - it holds the same volume as the Nautilus, but is slightly shorter in length. It doesn't have 4 deep corner seats like the other models - one of the corners is a step, which is a great "cool off seat". Also, there are good calf jets in that corner seat. The Optima and the Majesta are in Sundance's higher-end 800 series, so they'll cost more than the Chelsee. However, they're known for having the best electronics in the industry, among other features.

I know more about Sundance than other brands, so I wrote more about them, but the following brands & models would also be great considerations (in no particular order):

Jacuzzi J-470 & 365

Caldera Niagara or Hawaiian

Artesian Piper Glen or Opal

Arctic Summit

Tiger River Caspian

I didn't mention Hot Spring, as none of their models have the foot dome feature. Models like the Grandee do have foot jets, and you may like them very much, so they're definitely worth considering.

As for non- "big box" brands:

I'm on my feet all day. I get very sore feet. My wife does too. We both get sore knees too. We've found some foot jets to be too weak - many brands put more "oomph" into back & neck jets. More than half of the reason I like hot tubs is to get therapy for my feet. Therefore, a wet test is essential. So, I personally would not buy a new tub without wet testing it.

Caveat to that: I am buying a used spa next week, which I was not able to wet test. However, it's the same brand, line, and vintage as my last tub, and it's one of the only 2-person tub I've found with 3 foot jets (between us, my wife and I happen to have four feet, so four foot jets would be ideal). However, I would never buy a NEW tub without wet testing.

[tsand]

Anyway, I'd recommend, as others have, the Sundance Optima. Sundance is personally my favorite brand, as I owned one for many years and had no problems with it. My main question for you, though, is size - the Optima has similar dimensions to the Nautilus, but is several inches deeper and holds 100 gallons more water. If the Nautilus is the right size for you, you may not want to spend the additional $$ to heat and treat the extra water every month. The Chelsee will be almost the same size as the Nautilus. Another Sundance to consider would be the Majesta - it holds the same volume as the Nautilus, but is slightly shorter in length. It doesn't have 4 deep corner seats like the other models - one of the corners is a step, which is a great "cool off seat". Also, there are good calf jets in that corner seat. The Optima and the Majesta are in Sundance's higher-end 800 series, so they'll cost more than the Chelsee. However, they're known for having the best electronics in the industry, among other features.

I know more about Sundance than other brands, so I wrote more about them, but the following brands & models would also be great considerations (in no particular order):

Jacuzzi J-470 & 365

Caldera Niagara or Hawaiian

Artesian Piper Glen or Opal

Arctic Summit

Tiger River Caspian

I didn't mention Hot Spring, as none of their models have the foot dome feature. Models like the Grandee do have foot jets, and you may like them very much, so they're definitely worth considering.

As for non- "big box" brands:

I'm on my feet all day. I get very sore feet. My wife does too. We both get sore knees too. We've found some foot jets to be too weak - many brands put more "oomph" into back & neck jets. More than half of the reason I like hot tubs is to get therapy for my feet. Therefore, a wet test is essential. So, I personally would not buy a new tub without wet testing it.

Caveat to that: I am buying a used spa next week, which I was not able to wet test. However, it's the same brand, line, and vintage as my last tub, and it's one of the only 2-person tub I've found with 3 foot jets (between us, my wife and I happen to have four feet, so four foot jets would be ideal). However, I would never buy a NEW tub without wet testing.

Thanks for the great post. This reply should be a "sticky" post for this forum so all can benefit.

If you don't mind sharing, what used tub are you looking to purchase?

Also, we have discovered that my wife likes the larger Volcano foot jet rather than several smaller foot jets.

Again, thanks for the information, it is helping immensely.

[bohms]

Our Artesian Piper Glen has the foot dome with a volcano jet....it's one of our favorite things about the tub!

[TravelingSpaGuy]

Anyway, I'd recommend, as others have, the Sundance Optima. Sundance is personally my favorite brand, as I owned one for many years and had no problems with it. My main question for you, though, is size - the Optima has similar dimensions to the Nautilus, but is several inches deeper and holds 100 gallons more water. If the Nautilus is the right size for you, you may not want to spend the additional $$ to heat and treat the extra water every month. The Chelsee will be almost the same size as the Nautilus. Another Sundance to consider would be the Majesta - it holds the same volume as the Nautilus, but is slightly shorter in length. It doesn't have 4 deep corner seats like the other models - one of the corners is a step, which is a great "cool off seat". Also, there are good calf jets in that corner seat. The Optima and the Majesta are in Sundance's higher-end 800 series, so they'll cost more than the Chelsee. However, they're known for having the best electronics in the industry, among other features.

Having sat in both Nautilus and Optima recently I would personally pick the Nautilus, I also rate D1 above Sundance in my personal opinion. Vita has a nice spa called the Nuage you may like, but I dont think any of those are better then the Nautilus.

[tsand]

Anyway, I'd recommend, as others have, the Sundance Optima. Sundance is personally my favorite brand, as I owned one for many years and had no problems with it. My main question for you, though, is size - the Optima has similar dimensions to the Nautilus, but is several inches deeper and holds 100 gallons more water. If the Nautilus is the right size for you, you may not want to spend the additional $$ to heat and treat the extra water every month. The Chelsee will be almost the same size as the Nautilus. Another Sundance to consider would be the Majesta - it holds the same volume as the Nautilus, but is slightly shorter in length. It doesn't have 4 deep corner seats like the other models - one of the corners is a step, which is a great "cool off seat". Also, there are good calf jets in that corner seat. The Optima and the Majesta are in Sundance's higher-end 800 series, so they'll cost more than the Chelsee. However, they're known for having the best electronics in the industry, among other features.

Having sat in both Nautilus and Optima recently I would personally pick the Nautilus, I also rate D1 above Sundance in my personal opinion. Vita has a nice spa called the Nuage you may like, but I dont think any of those are better then the Nautilus.

Thanks,

Can you give a few details about the difference between D1 and Sundance? Is your preference more aesthetics or mechanical?

The D1 dealer/sales person was a bit daft, but friendly. I like the colors of the Nautilus and the Nautilus shell in the spa wall seems "cool". And the seating lay out is very good.

I have only seen pictures of the Optima, and the lesser series Chelsee model.

Appreciate your assistance.

[D.P. Roberts]

Thanks for the great post. This reply should be a "sticky" post for this forum so all can benefit.

If you don't mind sharing, what used tub are you looking to purchase?

Also, we have discovered that my wife likes the larger Volcano foot jet rather than several smaller foot jets.

Again, thanks for the information, it is helping immensely.

Thanks for the kind words. Our new tub (due to be installed Monday! ) is a Sundance Tango, circa 1999 or so. The current model is the Metro. The older Tango was more of a dual-lounge model, rather than a "lounge + 2" like the Metro and most other 2/3 person spas. The downside to that is we can only fit 2 people. The upside is that we both get foot jets.

As to D1 vs. Sundance: I'll start this with the disclaimer that I personally know NOTHING about D1 spas. However, in reading about them over on Doc's site (rhtubsdotcom), John (n1oty) has stated that he believes that D1 has had some problems with shells cracking. I only bring it up because of all the people I've come across on all the hot tub forums, John seems to know his stuff better than anybody. He's an independent repair person in New England. If you're really serious about D1, you might want to surf over there and search for some of his posts on the subject. Specifically, a thread called "John: Order of Quality?" -written on March 16, 2007, if that helps - has one of the most thorough, in-depth evaluations of the spa market today.

[workerbee]

tsand, after wet testing several brands, my wife and I decided that we couldn't live without foot jets. We weren't interested in anything with a lounge, so we limited our testing to those with regular seating like the D1 Nautilus., which we ended up getting. I can give you some brief impressions of the tubs we tested:

Sundance Chelsee - first one we tested. I liked most of the seats, and the foot dome was very nice. The jet pressure was pretty good in that one, and it had one two speed (low/high) and one high speed pump. We decided against it because you couldn't reduce the pressure in the seats controlled by the high speed pump, and the pressure was too strong for my wife. Actually, it was a combination of the pressure and the type of jets (small/medium). We thought about testing the Optima, but they were quoting us 9000+ and that was way over budget for us.

HotSprings Grandee - we liked this one, but it was a little too big and deep. The Vangard was really more the size we wanted, but we couldn't wet test that one. The dual moto jet was OK, but not overly impressive for us, and the Vanguard has one seat with a single moto so we thought it may end up being a wasted seat. The foot jet was strong in the HS, but we couldn't reach it from all seats since its at the base of the seats. Pressure was good in all the jets, and you could adjust the pressure of each jet.

Tiger River Caspian - This was one of our favorites, and we almost bought one. All of the jets felt good, and they could be adjusted for pressure like the HS. In fact many of the jets are identical to the HS which also makes TigerRiver. This one also had some different kinds of seating, both open and contoured, which we liked. The foot jets were pretty nice in this one as well, but they were all small jets. I believe this one had two two-speed pumps as well. This one and the HS confirmed our liking for adjustable jets and foot jets.

Caldera Niagara - this one was so-so for us. We were more interested in the Hawaian, but couldn't wet test it. The configuration of the jets in the seats just didn't do it for us. This one did have a nice volcano jet, but we couldn't reach it all from one side of the tub, and it was placed awkwardly for the other seats. One thing I thought was a good idea was the little raised panel on the bottom of the tub that gave you something to brace against.

Jacuzzi 345 and 365 - These were decent too, but there just wasn't enough variation in the jets to keep our interest. The foot dome in this one was pretty nice, but I just don't seem to remember too much about these tubs.

D1 Nautilus - we almost didn't test this one because it was over our budget and we were leaning towards the Tiger River. Boy are we glad we did. The foot dome in this is amazing, as are at least three of the seats. The others are good as well, and it seems to offer a lot of variety with a combination of small, medium and large jets. The Neckflex pillows are actually very functional as well. My wife and I are somewhat short (I'm 5'7"), and we are comfortable in all of the seats, although the captains seat is quite deep. Before we sealed the deal we went back and tested the Tiger again just to be sure. The Nautilus was a little more money than we hoped to spend, but we haven't regretted it one bit, and we've been in it just about every day since before Labor day.

Please follow the advise of those on this forum with regards to wet testing before you buy anything. You will be shocked at how much different each brand and model feels. As we found out, some just don't fit well, and others just sing. Good luck in your search!

[D.P. Roberts]

Great post, workerbee! I totally agree about the importance of adjustable jets. Your post really showed how important it is to wet test before you buy.

[kateyc61]

Great post, workerbee! I totally agree about the importance of adjustable jets. Your post really showed how important it is to wet test before you buy.

We (the four of us, 2 adults 9 and 12 yo) adore our D1 Nautilus...had it for a year now, and always fight for the volcano foot jet.

I always win.

It's a fabulous therapy tub.