Mind the Credibility Gap!

Seen a great Specification? check its real

We've seen a great many spas advertised on the internet with unbelievable specs that are exactly that - un-believable.  Despite what the web sites say, the cheapest spas are not the best - they are often of poor quality Chinese manufacture, and grossly misrepresented. You are not grabbing a bargain - it may have a flashing lights, DVD, and even a TV etc, but all the Coronation Street in the world won't dull your senses enough to make a rubbish spa seem any better . Cheep spas are built down to a very low price, quite often dangerous, and often sold at huge mark-ups.

Now check the real price you'll be paying

We've done our homework and we know we offer amongst the lowest prices in Europe for Wellis built products - particularly for UK based purchases. We don't expect you to take our word for it, so you will Google the product names and yes you will see lower euro equivalent headline prices. But whether your considering a Wellis or any other brand,  before you jump in, make sure you are aware of the following traps awaiting the unwary UK personal importer.

1. Few other countries include the vat in the headline price

2. You will pay a foreign business you know nothing about on just a promise they will dispatch

3. The make and model you think they will dispatch

4. At a date they promise will really happen - honest

5. So if it doesn't - you can stop reading here.

6. They will say they won't charge you vat - but UK customs will at point of UK entry.

7. Many Euro countries have vat rates of up to 27.5% - this is what you will pay

8. You may also be charged duty at the discretion of UK Customs

9. Customs may impound, delay, confiscate, or open consignments as they wish

10. You're responsible for any damage they, or their K9's may cause - and neither use screwdrivers

11. In the case of delays you collect the consignment from customs - the courier gone home

12. If all's not present & correct,  send it back - of course you can - Doh! - they've got your money

13. Delivery (if it happens) will be strictly Kerb-side

14. That means you will be expected to unload the spa from the truck manually

15. Which means you need a lot of strong friends

16. Who will then have to heave it around the house

17. And then you get to repair the damage

18. Whilst doing that you can work out how to commission the techie bits

19. Which also means setting it up for UK single phase (much of the continent is 3 phase)

20. Work out what chemicals you need to rush out and buy

21. Learn how to use them correctly (if you love your family...)

22. Hope it all works fine as you have no warranty what-so-ever

23. Understand the instructions that are beautifully written in foreign

24. And don't expect sympathy from any local spa tech who's shoulder you find to sob on.

We have a full time office to deal with all this - its all costed into our prices - and still we provide the lowest OVERALL prices, staged payments, all the bits and bobs to make it a painless turn-key experience, delivery and commissioning options tailored to your needs, a showroom you can visit, all the tea you can drink, free telephone native English support, a delivery time-line guarantee, a proper warranty,  and we still stay sane(ish).

So ask yourself - Do you feel lucky - well do you?????

Jet Count

If you see an advertisement claiming a high jet count - why not just count them, because would you believe many vendors count each nozzle as a jet and even waterfalls, drain outlets and in fact anything that needs a hole in the shell to work!  (we recently saw a spa advertised on ebay with 197 jets from just 3 std pumps! – my how we laughed, a dripping tap would massage better).

Too many jets simply dilute the pump pressure so highly jetted tubs utilise masses of tiny  "needle" jets. This makes the spec look good but are very uncomfortable when used in large groups.  Typically around 20 to 30 full sized jet nozzles per pump are about right  but of course this also depends on the pump's performance - and here lies another can of worms...

Pump sizes

Huge jet counts are no good without huge pump power to supply them so another common way to mislead the "punter" is to quote the pump motor's horsepower in what is quaintly known in the trade as "marketing HP" or "Peak HP" or even BHP. All the above are utter twaddle intended to mislead you into thinking the spa you're considering is something special rather than a complete lemon. Basically these terms mean the absolute maximum power the pump motor would consume if you rammed a crowbar into it and stalled it - hardly a useful statistic for enjoying your hot tub.

"Duty" or "continuous" hp is the honest hp rating to quote as this is the power rating of the motor when it is running correctly. This is a lower number though so doesn't look good in the advertising spec. An even better measurement is the KW rating of the motor as this relates to its electrical consumption (just like other domestic appliances are rated), but only a few, mainly European manufactures use this. If your dream tub is quoted with  HP bigger than 3, they are telling porkies. A typical Hot Tub pump size is 2hp/1.5kw or 2.5hp/1.9kw and the absolute maximum is 3hp.

The larger the pump the more efficient it is and therefore moves more water per unit of electricity. The largest pump motors that can be run on a 240v domestic single phase electricity supply is 3hp or 2.3kw. The advantage of these large pumps is that for example three 3hp pumps will produce more total flow rate than four 2.5hp pumps yet consume less electricity overall. Our Samoa and Bahama Spas use multiple 3hp pumps.

Turbo Pumps

Plumbing

How important can plumbing be? Very! Many "internet" spas use cheep undersized plumbing made from recycled plastics which become brittle over time and literally break down.

A spa's plumbing can have several hundred joints and how these joints are made and supported will affect how reliable and leak free the spa remains over the many years you should expect to be enjoying it. A cheap plumbing system will cost you dearly in service call outs over the years.

Structure

You probably intend to use your new spa over several years. A decent spa should easily last for 15 years or so but only if the structure is built to a good standard originally. Timber will rot, Foam will break down and absorb moisture (accelerating the rot), whilst some materials will give off significant quantities of hazardous gasses over time. A completely non-organic construction throughout with high recyclable content is therefore the best specification.

The spa base

The most important part of a spas structure because it is the foundation that supports everything else. There are three types of spa base used by manufactures:

1. r   No base at all! The cheap Chinese solution where the spa sits on legs and the base is open - don't even think about it!

2. r   Wooden base - painted black or covered in thin black vinyl to fool you that its plastic - many supposedly top end  manufacturers still try and con you with this. Even if they try to hide it behind corex or vinyl, it will still rot within a few short years and destroy your tub.

3. ü  ABS  - contains recycled plastics and is a much better alternative to wood as it is rot and damp proof. it is By far the best method as it is extremely strong, does not distort, does not split and is completely rot and damp proof.  It has a much higher insulation "R" value than wet plywood! We specify this type of base on all our spas.

Construction

How the spa is constructed affects how long it lasts, how much service visits cost and running costs. There are 2 construction methods used by manufacturers:

1. r   Full foam support pad - This is where almost the entire cabinet space is shot full of Urethane foam. The resulting mass of foam sticks the whole assembly together and provides support for a weak shell. The problem is that over time the spa puts on weight as the foam cells break down and absorb water, rotting the spa from the inside out.

2. ü  Self supporting structure - Our triple layer laminate shell emits no Styrene's and is much stronger making it self supporting without the need for a soggy foam pad. We combine this with a welded steel perimeter frame to produce an extremely strong and stable unit construction. This method allows the free movement of air around the structure, allows optimum positioning of pumps and equipment for maximum performance and efficiency, and keeps service costs low as all the equipment is readily accessible to the service tech rather than buried in foam. Eventual disposal of the spa involves only a fraction of the environmentally hazardous waste compared with a Full-foam system.

Insulation

Its very important to keep running costs low and the insulation method used will make all the difference to your running costs and carbon footprint. There are 3 insulation methods used by manufacturers:

1. r   Full foam fill - Obviously having almost the entire cabinet shot full of foam makes for good insulation initially, but what about the heat from the pump motors. A pump motor generates about 40⁰ C of waste heat. With all that foam about the heat has to be vented outside into your garden. This is known as an "open" thermic system as energy is constantly being lost from the system - adding to running costs and environmental impact.

2. r   Light foam fill - A thick layer of foam is sprayed around the shell and cabinet inside leaving a void between the layers. The pumps heat the trapped air creating a "Thermic chamber" around the spa. Much better than full foam but it is inefficient because thermal transfer back to the water is poor whilst over time the cells in the thick foam break down and absorb moisture - and of course the spa still contains a large quantity of environmentally hazardous Urethane foam.

3. ü   DRTB (Dynamic reflective thermal barrier) insulation - In tests this system has been shown to be the most energy efficient of the three methods. A special polyurethane coating is applied to our already strong shell construction. This coating has the same insulating properties as urethane foam but is hazard free and extremely strong, increasing the strength of the shell further and providing industry leading insulation. Reflective foil covered insulation is then applied to the inside of the cabinet surfaces and literally bounces back any heat  into the spa shell. The pump's heat the trapped air, but  this time because of the light shell insulation, this thermic chamber actually heats the shell itself, keeps all the equipment warm and dry, and prevents any chance of deterioration as everything is kept perfectly dry. This is a "closed" thermic system as all the energy is kept inside the structure and waste heat is recycled back to the spa water. It costs more to build a spa this way but the benefits are substantial both to your wallet and the environment

Electronics

The electronics are what makes your spa tick. The control pack has a solid state motherboard similar to a computer which monitors several sensors in the plumbing equipment and provides easy finger tip controls of all the all the spas functions from the Spa side touch panel.

Made for us in the USA and fully safety certified, our  Balboa M7 control system is specially configured by us to shed power from the heater when all the pumps are running at full tilt. The heat recovery system then collects waste heat from the high speed pump motors to replace the heat energy from the heater, thus you get the best of all worlds with maximum performance and least energy consumption.

A foamed filled spa cannot effectively do this energy optimisation - hence it's important to check the build system to see if offers the reduced running cost advantages of our integrated total engineered solution.

Safety

European, American, and Canadian built spas can be pretty much relied upon to be safe to use because they all have to be designed and built to internationally recognised safety standards. Possibly the most important of these are the certifications that apply to Electrical safety. After all with your family all sitting in a hot tub and the water passing through the 240v heater and pumps beneath them, you would want to be sure everything was safely earthed, with all the components separated from each other.

You wouldn't want to know that a leaking 240v steel heater barrel was bolted to the same metal frame as a leaking pump that was spraying water over it, that there was no earths in sight and the frame was sitting directly on the ground in a puddle caused by the leaks - would you? Well this is a true situation our Techs came across recently at a call-out to fix a leak. We immediately disconnected the supply until the tub could be made safe, but this spa was less than 6 months old and it looked fantastic from the top. It even had a built-in TV and all the lights and toys etc, it looked very pretty even though it so nearly killed the family using it. Yes it was bought blind on the internet, and we immediately recognised it as of Chinese manufacture. This is not an isolated case, similar unsafe spas from unregulated manufactures are sold in their thousands each year by unscrupulous internet dealers.

The pitch

Just finished a development of 40 luxury apartments and we had 3 spas left over, we need the space so we're having to let them go for less than half price - sold two this morning - your lucky day Guv - cash only!