Brand Specific Forums > Hot Spring Spas

Mistake on a Grandee scale.

(1/17) > >>

NZArtist:
What a disaster...
In February of 2013 I purchased a Hotspring Grandee spa. I decided on Hotspring because they're supposed to be high quality (ha!).  I decided on the Grandee because friends like to visit.  And I decided on the Ace saltwater chlorination system because the sales-person convinced me it would take my maintenance time down. In New Zealand this is $25,950 worth of spa (USD$22,000)

On a positive note... The spa was delivered on time, and the man with the Hiab truck who had to hoist the spa over the roof of the house was magnificent.  He placed it in exactly the right spot.
We filled and balanced the spa.  And then I discovered the first problem.  A 1200W heater is *way* under powered for this behemoth.  It took two days to get to temperature. Seriously, the kettle in my kitchen is 2200 Watts - almost twice as powerful as this spa.  If you have a spa in winter you'll be shivering in the water after an hour.  Sooner with more people or if you run the jets.
A few days after the spa was installed we had a wind storm, and I discovered the next problem with this spa.  The latches on the cover straps are useless, and the cover straps are very weak and can tear easily.  At 3:00am in the wind and rain I had to strap the spa cover down with nylon webbing ratchet tie-downs because it had unlatched from two corners, and torn off the other two straps when the cover lifter slid the cover back.  I've since replaced those crappy straps with nylon webbing straps, and better latches.
The next problem is the Ace salt water cells.  I've had *two* fail in 18 months.  These cost $800 a piece. When this spa comes out of warranty the running costs are going to be prohibitive.  Of course the official Hotspring chemicals are also prohibitively expensive.  The service technician had the gall to suggest I wasn't maintaining the spa correctly. Both times I've run through the maintenance routine I have with him and neither time has be been able to say I've been neglecting anything.  This isn't the first spa I've owned.
In servicing the Ace cell we noticed that the plumbing for this spa is leaking in two places - looks like the same seal on each of the two pump motors is crap.  Apparently this is a common problem.

The Hotspring Grandee spa is a giant waste of money.  It was overpriced to start with, and the running costs are prohibitive.  And it's not even a very good spa!  The heater is *way* underpowered, the design with all the jets and 'water features' is silly - no-one ever uses them anyway.  I only bought this model because it was *big*.  The quality is terrible.  The Ace system is a joke.
Regretting wasting the money.
DONT BUY THIS SPA!

Chas:
The pump seals are covered under the five-year warranty.

Ask your dealer if he will 'trade in' your ACE for the Freshwater III ozone system. It is nowhere near as high tech, but it works just fine and will not cost as much.

I am not sure if the units I have here will work on your power - I'll check if you are interested, but I could send you an ozone for about a quarter of what you quoted for just an ACE cell.

BTW - I have had five or six Grandee tubs - never regretted one. I love that model, and all of mine have worked just right. I have SOLD dozens and dozens, people have loved them. Keep in mind, here our tubs have 4KW heaters. Some of the HS models have 6KW heaters here - depends on the size of the pump motors. I wish I had an answer for you on that 1000 watt heater.

HTH

 8)

wmccall:
I would say Welcome to the forum, but I fear your only here to bash the spa and move on. Oh, heck Welcome to the forum.  Dozens or so Grandee tub owners her would disagree with your generalization.  However, I do have to ask the group, or people in the know,  1.2kw heater? Could that be true? That would seem to be seriously under powered.

Isaac-1:
I too would like to say welcome, and it sounds as if your complaints are mainly regarding the Ace system and the under sized heater your spa was equiped with.  You are not the first to complain about the Ace system, it does seem to be a work in progress on the part of Hot Spring, but at least they seem to be trying to fix the problems, so hopefully by the time your warranty runs out they will have most of the bugs worked out.  As to the heater I do know Hot Spring  uses under sized heaters on some of their export models, this is done because houses in certain countries tend to have MUCH smaller electrical services than the U.S. standard domestic 150 or now 200 amp 120/240V service, in some places this may be as little as a 30 amp service for an entire house.  I suspect upgrading the size of your heater would solve many of your problems assuming your electrical service can support it.

Pers Onal:
What type of voltage and current supply do you have available at the main power supply service entrance?

A quick search indicates you have 230/240 volt AC for standard residential power but does not indicate common panel sizes.

What amp service do you have at the main and what do you have capability to get to the tub?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page