Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: aduvall on January 08, 2009, 10:32:06 pm
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Hi everyone. As you can see 'Im a newbie and have loads of questions that I hope someone can answer for me.
I'm located in southeastern Michigan
1. I bought a Hotsprings 2008 Soverign Floor model $7100 plus tax & 7500 total with one light out under pillow. -Is this a good price?
2. Anyone with any information on the Baqua Spa Chemicals? Are they worth the price?
3. Does any one have a HotSprings that may know approximatly what the average monthly cost is for summer and winter at lets say 5 times (a hr each time) per week here in michigan?
4. $650 a good price for installation? He pulls all the permits and Hot Springs supplies the electrical panel.
5. Should I wait until spring to have it installed? or do it now in mid winter? Does it really matter?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Angie
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All reports to me say that is a good tub, I don't keep track of prices, but you definitely didn't get taken ;) Lots of Baqua experts here that will follow up. This is the greatest time of the year for tubbing, so if you have access to a hose go for it. I'm just a little south of you so our weather is similar, but I don't get the same amount of snow. If would take about 45-60 minutes to fill that tub with a single hose.
Welcome to the forum.
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Hi Angie,
I recently bought a tub and the installation costs for the electric was @ $1,200 (and it is immediately outside the house) so your quote on the electric sounds pretty darn good. I am in your general area as well and my regular electrician said that price for the install was pretty good (the dealer did it).
Hope you enjoy your tub. I haven't tried summer tubbing yet, but it feels awesome to be out on a cold day in a hot tub. I think all those winter aficionados are right!
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I presume you bought from Lifestyles. Great dealer. They have probably 1000's of customers using BaquaSpa, as do we in CA.
They should be good to work with regarding any chemical questions. You can PM me if you like.
You got a good price. Did you get a lift and/or steps with the spa?
You are gonna love it. ;)
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Thanks for all input from all of you.
Yes, I bought it from lifesysles, real nice people to work with, and they gave me so much information. It does come with a lift, but no steps, I had to buy them seperatly. And, I really didn't hagle with the price they gave me.
I just can't wait to have it installed!
Thanks again for the advice.
Angie :)
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Congrats on the new spa! The Sovereign is a great tub. I agree, $650 sounds like a great price for the electrical work. As far a operating costs go, we are up in the U.P. and with our HotSpring Aria, which is used daily for 30-45 minutes a day, our bill is up about $35/month in the winter and pennies in the summer (we don't notice an increase). You've got a great spa, enjoy it!
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Congrats on the new spa! The Sovereign is a great tub. I agree, $650 sounds like a great price for the electrical work. As far a operating costs go, we are up in the U.P. and with our HotSpring Aria, which is used daily for 30-45 minutes a day, our bill is up about $35/month in the winter and pennies in the summer (we don't notice an increase). You've got a great spa, enjoy it!
Thank you. You don't know how good it feels knowing this information. I have had so many people telling me.. Why would you want to spend so much money for something you will end up never using, and that will cost you an arm and leg in electric bills. (old times, I guess)
THNAK YOU
I know my husband and I will use this tub for a long time and will have so much enjoyment out of it!
Thanks again for you input. ;D
This forum has been a bundle of information! For the last week I have been going through these pages to learn all I can. I'm on 210 out of the 500+ pages. GREAT PEOPLE, GREAT ADVICE!!! ;D ;D ;D
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FTR, expect your first months electric bill to be really high simply because you are going to use the snot out of this puppy. Mine was over $100 higher than normal, but I am using the tub 2X daily typically and then you have associated drying costs on top of that. I am sure it will stabilize a lot lower over time, but the honeymoon period is apparently almost like it's namesake.
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Im curious about what the dealer is telling you about the pillow light. I just bought a 2008 h/s jetsetter that has the same problem plus my dealer tells me that 2 other tubs that came to him on the same shipment as my tub have this problem. Even though i realize this light itself is not a huge deal i am still a little concerned about the repair procedure my dealer has described to me. He tells me they will have to pry a panel off & dig through the foam isulation to fix it. As i have stated on a previous post it does not appear the factory had to good of a inspection proscess for a time period base on mine & your experiance.
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FTR, expect your first months electric bill to be really high simply because you are going to use the snot out of this puppy. Mine was over $100 higher than normal, but I am using the tub 2X daily typically and then you have associated drying costs on top of that. I am sure it will stabilize a lot lower over time, but the honeymoon period is apparently almost like it's namesake.
Yeah, I thought so....->the first bill will be higher than the rest. Thats okay though... Like you said it's all worth it during the honeymoon period!
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Im curious about what the dealer is telling you about the pillow light. I just bought a 2008 h/s jetsetter that has the same problem plus my dealer tells me that 2 other tubs that came to him on the same shipment as my tub have this problem. Even though i realize this light itself is not a huge deal i am still a little concerned about the repair procedure my dealer has described to me. He tells me they will have to pry a panel off & dig through the foam isulation to fix it. As i have stated on a previous post it does not appear the factory had to good of a inspection proscess for a time period base on mine & your experiance.
Yeah I have also heard that HS has problems with thier pillow lights.
When my dealer called me he told me that he could offer me a floor model but the pillow light was out in it and that it would not be fixed. And being that he offered it to me at $1000 off so I thought that was a good deal.
- The floor model will still come with the same gaurentee as a brand new unit.
As for fixing the light... From my observance in looking underneath these tubs I can see that tearing off the foam and re-spaying the foam shouldn't be too much of a problem to just repair these light problems (IM0). But, maybe it is???
[glow]--- He told that because each pillow had two lights, that I probaly wouldn't even notice the one light out. Hopefully he is right????[/glow]
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I live in Indianapolis and have a Hotspring Vanguard which is 400 gallons. The soverign holds 355 gallons so just slightly smaller.
I use our tub 2-3 times per week year in the winter for probably 30-45 mins each time. When not in the tub I turn the temp down to 95 degrees. Then an hour or so before I want to use the tub I bump the temp up to 100-102 depending on what the outside temp is. The other night I was in when it was 10 degrees outside and I actually got too hot with the water set at 102.
My electric bills in the winter are around $15-$20 higher than they were before we had the hottub. In the summer the hottub doesn't cost hardly anything to run but the electric bill stays about the same since we are running the A/C.
Another thing you can do to offset the electric costs is to change out every lightbulb in your house with CFL's. I have done this and it does save a lot of electricity.
You got a great deal on the electric install. I paid around $1000 for electric install which included a run of 60ft of wire.
Another savings is realize that the brand of chemicals doesn't really matter. It's all marketing, just like generic drugs what matters is the active ingredients. I use the Dupont pool chemicals from Lowes. Even though they say Pool on them if you look at the active ingredients they are exactly the same as the Baqua Spa or Leisure Time products. I bought a 25lb container of Diclor at Lowes for $83.00 http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=232445-23132-10039&lpage=none 25lb of diclor is going to last me probably 2-3 years. Once you get the hang of balancing your water you'll only need to use a capful of Chlorine after every use. If the tub is not used I only add chlorine every 3 days to make sure I keep the chlorine at the 1-3ppm level.
Enjoy your hottub! You made a great choice in choosing Hotspring!
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I live in Indianapolis and have a Hotspring Vanguard which is 400 gallons. The soverign holds 355 gallons so just slightly smaller.
I use our tub 2-3 times per week year in the winter for probably 30-45 mins each time. When not in the tub I turn the temp down to 95 degrees. Then an hour or so before I want to use the tub I bump the temp up to 100-102 depending on what the outside temp is. The other night I was in when it was 10 degrees outside and I actually got too hot with the water set at 102.
My electric bills in the winter are around $15-$20 higher than they were before we had the hottub. In the summer the hottub doesn't cost hardly anything to run but the electric bill stays about the same since we are running the A/C.
Another thing you can do to offset the electric costs is to change out every lightbulb in your house with CFL's. I have done this and it does save a lot of electricity.
You got a great deal on the electric install. I paid around $1000 for electric install which included a run of 60ft of wire.
Another savings is realize that the brand of chemicals doesn't really matter. It's all marketing, just like generic drugs what matters is the active ingredients. I use the Dupont pool chemicals from Lowes. Even though they say Pool on them if you look at the active ingredients they are exactly the same as the Baqua Spa or Leisure Time products. I bought a 25lb container of Diclor at Lowes for $83.00 http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=232445-23132-10039&lpage=none 25lb of diclor is going to last me probably 2-3 years. Once you get the hang of balancing your water you'll only need to use a capful of Chlorine after every use. If the tub is not used I only add chlorine every 3 days to make sure I keep the chlorine at the 1-3ppm level.
Enjoy your hottub! You made a great choice in choosing Hotspring!
Wow! It's so nice to hear from someone so close with so much information. Makes me want to have mine NOW! The next chance I get, I'm calling for a delivery date.
As for chemicals, I did not know that you can use the Chlorine from Lowes. I'll have to go out and read up on this. I totally agree with you on the active ingrediants.
Thanks so much for the information and the insight on your experiance.
:) :)[glow]You have truly been quite a inspiration!!!! [/glow]:) :)
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You're welcome.