Hi All
I shop this stuff to death-My wifes is freakin- out -she wants a tub!!! After lookin at everything!! I am thinkin a Limelight Pulse made by Hot Springs or a Arctic Kodiak. Both seem well made and have nice components. Any advice to sway me towards one. This is my second tub and I WANT A REALLY DEEP JET ACTION!!
Thanks John

I'm partial to the HotSpring brand. (I'm a HotSpring Tech). They have excellent operating costs, excellent warranty, and have been around since 1977.
Again I am partial, but I think if you look at failure rates the HotSpring can't be beat.

Pete
http://www.makesmeshutter.com
http://www.floridahotspring.com

I am an Arctic spa owner. I've had lots of trouble. Leaks, cover, pumps, jets, siding, blower, etc. I would not recommend them. I've spent over $1000.00 in service charges etc. even though its still under warranty. Seems excessive.

I realize I'm one person that's had a bad experience and I'm sure they must have happy customers also, but I guess why I'm passionate about letting people know about my experience is because the service has been really disappointing. You would think after being out to my house 8 times for the same problem since Oct. 2008, the factory would get a little more involved.

The whole experience dealing with the dealer and factory has been frustrating to say the least. The tub nay be well made and I just happen to get a lemon, but they are lousy at customer service. Make sure your dealer is there and willing to take care of you. Read the warranty carefully, you may pay a lot in trip charges if you have bad luck.

Wierd, I'm close to pulling the trigger too and have it narrowed down to a Limelight Flair or Arctic Cub.
The Cub appears to be a great spa and actually cheaper...... but i've read quite a few negatives on this site about the Arctic Spas.

I've said it once and I'll say it again. Read the warranty carefully. I've spent over $1500.00 on warranty repairs.
Arctic Spa's local dealer has replaced both pumps, neither of which are fastened to the base of the tub after replacement. The dealer has been out 10 times for warranty service. Many different problems, and several of the same. I've never been more disappointed after buying something this expensive. I would buy something different no matter what the cost.

Arctic owners who experience service issues can contact me, tom at goarctic dot com, giving the serial number of the spa and the name of the dealer. I'm no longer an official corporate spokesman but I will still do my best to help.

Tom

Funny you should mention about your replaced pumps not being fastened to the cabinet base. We had our pumps replaced too. After having (another) serious leak this past winter/spring, when we drained the tub and emptied all the water from underneath inside the base, that's when we noticed a bunch of square rubber feet with round holes in them, floating around in the water, and some bolts, washers, etc. just sitting loose in the base. These were taken from the old pumps, but just tossed on the floor of the cabinet when the new pumps were put in. The new pumps are currently just sitting there, not fastened to anything.

Either the new pumps do not need to be secured, or the service people are taking shortcuts to make their jobs easier/faster. Just like you, wetnwild, I have not been completely satisfied with the calibre of service that I have received, nor the constant failure of components.

Regardless of warranty, components should not repeatedly fail. Perhaps there are thousands of happy Arctic Spa customers out there, who have never had any major complaints, and therefore you never hear from them or about them. I'm certainly willing to accept the fact there are only a few rare cases where it seems like the tub is a lemon (in my case it was a floor model that had been in use prior to us taking delivery). But when cases like this arise, I would expect the Company to bend over backwards to make things right and to have a happy customer. One thing after another going wrong (whether under warranty or not), and the same component being defective over and over again, does not make a happy customer. What would it take to make me sing the praises of Arctic Spa and their service? A new spa. Period.

Take my advice, RUN, DO NOT WALK away from and ARCTIC SPA. Everyone who say's they have leaking problems are right, jet problems, no problem, they have them, bad pumps, no problem, they have bad jets, and to top it all off when you call ARCTIC, they are only taking responsibility for the tub, all the other problems are the vendors problems, inferior parts. THEY ARE IN DENIAL!!! They will not respond and if you bug them enough all you get is it is a faulty this and a faulty that. I have had over 20 warranty claims 6 for leaking and 8 for jets, there response is we admit we have a jet problem so what, we replace them so what. IT's a FREAKIN HOT TUB, JETS is a main feature should'nt they work?? Just buy something else, you really do not want to buy anything from Blue Falls MFG, aka Arctic spa's. Warranty no response person is Beau Boisvert, 780-789-2626 AB Canada.

Well Chris, I'm so glad I'm not alone.

I hope your post can stay up. Everything you say is true.
I posted something very similar to what you're saying, and I got an angry phone call from my local store, saying that my comments were unfair and are costing him business. So I modified my post to keep the dealer happy. After all, I still have some parts under warranty, and he's the only dealer around.

The general concept and design of Arctic Spas is very good; where things went terribly wrong is when they sourced out the individual components, and many of these components were sub-standard.

To the credit of the individual dealers: Some are good and some are terrible. It really depends on each individual store owner, and how well their technicians are trained, and how good their customer service is. Unfortunately most of the warranty claims and complaints end up going to Head Office in Alberta, and are handled by Mr. Boisvert. The head office will stall and stall, making excuses and replacing defective parts with more of the same defective parts, instead of truly fixing the problem. The dealer cannot help it if these are the only parts that they are being supplied with. The tragic thing about this is that all of this stalling and swapping parts is just playing a game until your warranty runs out, and then you're SOL.

I'm not saying that Arctic Spas are the worst. Maybe all spa manufacturers are the same? I would have no way of knowing, since this is the only brand I have experience with. Too bad my experience has been less than pleasant. I think if the Company and Mr. Beau Boisvert did a little bit of damage control and made the few angry customers happy, they wouldn't be getting these poor reviews; instead they would have people spreading the word about what a great product it is. I guess they just don't see the big picture, and are afraid to spend a few dollars to make a few people happy; they don't get it that happy customers will bring in more business.

I have had an arctic tub since june.It has an onzen system that has not worked since i bought it. The UK office is disgraceful in returing calls and responding to your issues.DONT BUY ONE. annoyingly, many of the forums are monitored by Arctic people and lots of the threads get deleted- so this probably wont be printed!