Well, the spa has been in for a week now and the family is loving it.  There is nothing quite as relaxing as sinking into 104 degrees of chemically treated water and letting your cares melt away.  Getting to this point was less than easy though.  The hot tub purchase was plagued with frustration right from the get-go.  In my previous post, I mentioned the missing 'Standard Features' that had been removed as part of the promotion.  Well, I talked to the people at the pool store and they ordered me an ozone injector at no charge.  This is great because the injector is easy to install and the hot tub is pre-wired and pre-plumbed for it.  The installation should be a breeze.  That's not all though, they are also throwing in two terrycloth bath robes for my troubles.  I must be fair to the pool store by stating that they have worked hard to make up for every blunder that was created.

All told, they have given us a considerable amount of 'free' stuff to compensate for the issues.  The list includes:

• Free shipping
• A full case of Peroxysan Chemicals (as opposed to the standard 1/2 case)
• An extra filter cartridge
• A filter cartridge soaking canister
• Matching front steps
• A bottle of cleaning solution (to clean the plumbing out since rainwater got into the spa before delivery)
• $100 off the price of the cover lifter
• An ozone injector (yet to be delivered)
• Two terrycloth bathrobes (yet to be delivered)

I'm happy that they have gone out of their way to correct the mistakes, they could have easily taken the 'we have your money so go away' attitude.  I'm not as impressed with HydroPool as a company.  Don't get confused, HydroPool is not the pool store, M.P. Paradise Pools is.  HydroPool is simply the manufacturer.  So let's start with the props.  The hot tub is very nice and functions as expected.  It's easy to operate and easy to maintain.  The self cleaning feature simply rocks and the improved plumbing/pumping system is the best I have seen yet.

Now for the downsides...  The company is virtually unreachable.  There telephone system is awful and it seems to take days to get someone to return your call.  The automated phone system gives you the option to press 3 for technical support, then gives you a list of employees and extensions.  How hard would it be to have to go to a call centre?  Certainly do not try to reach them on a Friday afternoon after 3pm, nobody will be there.  When the electrician was trying to wire the tub, we discovered that there is no entry port for the wiring into the cabinet.  A call to the pool store (after no answers from HydroPool) revealed that this is by design.  They claim the spa is 'critter proof', therefore you must make your own hole.  I found that to be a little absurd.  It makes sense to provide a conduit for the wiring.  The only way to get it in was to use a hole saw on the cabinet and feed it through.  I think my electrician did an excellent job though.  You can see it in the pictures below.  The last issue I want to bring to light is the fact that one of the jets wasn't working at all once it was up and running.  I took it apart and found what appeared to be scraps and leftovers of plastic from the installation clogging the jet.  This is after the company advised me that they wet test the spas for quality assurance purposes.

All in all I am very happy with the spa and the purchase, regardless of the mishaps and blunders.  I'm looking forwards to the years of enjoyment that it's going to bring.