Hot Tub selecting - what to look for

What should you be looking for when buying a Jacuzzi Hot Tub?
Should you simply be looking for the cheapest product that one can buy?

Or should you be looking for the compromise something that is a very well built product at a reasonable price and at the same time is economic to run and simple to use and maintain.

When it comes to purchasing real estate or property all the experts say that are only three points that one has to consider and it is that very saying that we have all heard before so many times LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

I take the same view with a Hot Tub Jacuzzi but then the three words are QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY.

I would simply say that you should not waste your time buying cheap inferior made junk no matter how well it appears to be packaged.

One of the common problems you hear with cheaper less well designed and engineered spas is that they cannot run on say 16 amp electricity. Another is that they are much more expensive to run as they vent cold air into the Tub as opposed to re-using the heat of the motors and pumps.

If one does not go for quality and purchases a cheaper produced product then you will not be surprised if it becomes in-operative or as kids on the block would say - brown bread, or should I say dead, and thereby expired before its time.

With a Jacuzzi style Hot Tub as with most things in life it is often a case of pay up now or in the future and in some ways that reminds me of when I first started working more years ago than I care to remember. One of the partners for whom I enjoyed working and learnt a great deal used to say that one can usually gain experience in one or two ways it simply either takes a very long time or vast sums of money. I have to say, with hindsight, that he knew very well what he was talking about.

There is also the well known phrase that buying cheap usually means that one ends up buying twice.

In some ways this could be compared with a motor car.

One can buy an older car for relatively cheap money but then incur a lot of expense continually repairing it and keeping it safe on the road.

Alternatively one could buy a more expensive car for considerable more money but of course then you would then not have to repair it so often. But probably overall it would cost more or less the same in terms of monetary cost.

But more often than not the very cheap alternative would actually cost a lot more in true terms as there would be many times when the car was off the road waiting for spare parts or what ever.

This is very similar, in many ways. to purchasing a Hot Tub as there is very little point is there in buying a cheap false bargain if it then packs up and it then can not be used for some time. That is why you should always buy a Hot Tub with controls that are made by leading manufacturers such as Balboa (American) or Gecko (Canadian) that way you know that one can always get spare parts for them.

But you have to remember that when it comes to purchasing a Hot Tub it is of course nothing as simple as buying a new motor car, simply as modern motor cars have advanced so much that all one has to do is that simple regular check on the coolant and oil. More often than not that can be done from the drivers seat when you insert the key. All that is often required in terms of service for many miles is to simply change the filter and oil.

But you must remember that a Hot Tub is much more complicated.

Whilst a hot tub and a spa have many moving parts and electronics the crucial difference of course is that a Hot Tub is laden full of water and that water is being pumped around the pipes and plumbing under great pressure from the motors and pumps.

Whilst a well made Hot Tub will require minimal maintenance one has to maintain the water quality.

If one does not take care of the quality of the water the sensors may become clogged with calcium or calcified and then problems may occur.

Obviously a cheap poorly constructed hot tub is a sure fire recipe for a disaster. You can usually tell the poorly constructed ones quite easily. They often have a steel frame as the construction of the shell is unable to take the weight of people and water with out reinforcement, this is very much an outdated from of construction. The use of a non branded acrylic such as Lucite of Aristech both leading makers of Acrylic.

If they do not use a quality acrylic like Lucite or Aristech you need to ask yourself the question why they do not? The answer is dead simple as these branded materials costs 4 times as much as inferior materials.

As the worlds leading spas are made using these branded materials so if it does not have a shell made from these materials then I think one needs to question how well the is the spa constructed internally.

Just because it may be nicely packaged or have nice wrapping paper it does not mean that the contents which are out of sight are any good.

A car has been designed and engineered for many years since Henry Ford introduced the model T and in many ways has advanced to a certain state of perfection and it is probably true that car could run for many years with, more or less, minimal maintenance except the odd oil filter, a change of oil and a battery every so often.

The same is true if you buy a Hot Tub from a major manufacturer who has been designing them for many years as you will get a first class product which will require little maintenance.

So, my firm advice, is that one should only purchase a product that is well made by an American or European internationally recognized producer of Hot Tubs and then there is every chance that the product will last and last and give years of faultless performance.

Do not buy one simply because it appears to be American or European please check it out and go underneath the wrapping and packaging.

The reasoning is simple in that an internationally recognized producer does back his products with a real guarantee so in the unlikely event that there is a fault it rests with the manufacturer not the consumer.

These manufacturers have had many decades of experience and they build them, from the ground up, with the proper parts and components so it will not break down and so for that simple reason and that reason alone that they are prepared to provide a proper guarantee.



About the Author
The author Jacuzzi John (JJ) supplies premium quality American & European Hot Tubs from Estepona & Sotogrande on the Costa Del Sol in Spain and his web site is at http://www.spas4you.com email info@spas4you.com