Ask 'Dr. Spa' Q & A Message Board

Hello everyone:

I thought I share my experience so far with this Costco purchased spa. I ordered online from Costco in mid April 2008 and received my spa on May 29 2008. I ended up purchasing this item from Costco because basically they gave me unlimited warranty (as long as I return my spa to any Costco store), the manufacture provided me the warranty described on the Costco web page. Also the price and options provided with this spa were thousands cheaper than what I could purchase from a local dealer (Total cost shipped to the house taxes and everything was 7500 Cnd. However, I did have to go through some planning and prep work for all this to happen. First of all I had to lay a cement pad to accommediate the spa. The manufacturer recommended cemment pad over using large cement tiles (which I planned on using). After that cement pad was complete (which ended up being bigger (14x22'by 5 to 6 inches thick) to allow us to have a sitting area around the pad off the end of the wooden deck. The next step was to arrange delivery into the back yard since the delivery company did not offer white glove delivery. Two things I learned from this, first the delivery people when they show up will deliver it to the backyard (Mackie trucking company for 200 dollars) and second do not rely on this since they only have a pump truck. If you do not have a wide enough gate to accomediate the pump truck (48 inchs plus) or a clean access to your backyard forget it they will not be able to do it. Get a local dealer to do it (I had Bull Frog Spas come in and do it for 300 bucks and they had the right equipment). And I guess another item it will take 4 people to move this monster spa around not just two ( 2 Bull Frog dudes and the two truckers (from Mackie)). Also its a good thing the spa people took all the cardboard and packaging with them when they left and also they placed my spa on the pad where I wanted it and checked it over for me. They commented it was a nice spa for the price. The advantage of hooking up with a local dealer is they will provide spa school (how to run your spa), test your spa water and provide professional advice and water chemicals. The next big item is to wire the spa up (6/3 at about 100 feet of wire and breakers in the house, GFI breaker outside etc). Thank god we have a cousin who is an electrican. He told me that to hook this spa up would cost over a grand (one day job for a couple of electrians). My cousin did have 70 feet of wire to help, so my material cost from Home Depot and GFI breaker from Costo came to about 400 bucks (250 in wire and parts from Costco and 150 bucks GFI). With extra wire provided by electrian for free (15 bucks X 22 (metres)) you could add another 330 bucks to the 400 above so material cost alone would be well over 700 bucks then you get someone to put it in (hired electrian) and yah this would cost you easily an extra grand to install the wiring on top of the purchase of the spa.

I did take all the pannels off and inspect the spa as the manufacturer recommended. The spa has foam on the pannels and foil insulation around the outside of the spa and a blown insulated tub (that is equipped with a everlast floor, that Bull Frog told me was excellent to have on your spa). The spa has 5 pumps (3 X 2 horse power pumps, 1 X horse circulating pump and a blower pump or determined horse power). All the plumbing is exposed to show all the valves and hookups for easy maintence.

I have not started my spa yet (I will do that this weekend). However, further expenses do encure such as chemicals and electricity to run your spa. The electricity aspect I was aware and understand this particular spa will cost me anywhere from 25 bucks to 35 bucks a month to run depending on weather and use. However, the chemicals I beginning to understand could cost in excess of 500 bucks a year. I still have not confirmed this since I have no experience yet with chemicals, but do take this into consideration when you purchase a spa (I over looked this aspect).

We ordered our gazebo (Cedar 10x12' from Cedarview Manufacturing) to place over the spa so my work is not complete ,. I will get back to this forum shortly with further information and my experience.

James