Choosing a Hot Tub Manufacturer
Choosing a Hot Tub Manufacturer
Buying a wood hot tub or a Japanese Ofuo Tub is no small expense. With so many options out there, it's a chore just deciding what style of spa to choose. One of the ways you can cut through the sheer volume of choices to narrow things down is by limiting the field to those hot tub manufacturers that have a good track record. Popularity is a good gauge of customer satisfaction when it comes to high-ticket items like hot tubs.
A good first step in the process of finding a great hot tub manufacturer is to do some quality online research. There are several websites devoted to consumer reviews, such as epinions.com and pricegrabber.com. These and many other review sites organize products in an easy-to-navigate, searchable database that includes customer feedback. This is a treasure trove when you're looking to pinpoint the best hot tub manufacturers!
Spend some time going through the reviews written by current and former hot tub owners and take note of the manufacturers that consistently get good marks, as well as those that get panned. It will take you a few hours, but perhaps nothing you do will be more helpful in creating a list of hot tub makers you can reasonably expect to sell you a terrific spa.
Another measure of the quality of a hot tub manufacturer is the warranty it offers on its products. They vary quite a lot. It may be advantageous to stick to those spa makers that offer at least a 10-year (and preferably a lifetime) warranty on tub shells and underlying structures. This indicates a manufacturer that is putting out a superior spa that has been built to last. Length of warranty tells you a lot about the manufacturer's commitment to high quality.
Last, but not least, price is certainly a major consideration when choosing a manufacturer. This too varies widely, and often depends on both the size and the extras you want in a hot tub. Engage in some good old-fashioned price comparison shopping and take notes. This part of the process will both go faster and provide you with many more options to compare if you conduct your research online.