Earlier, I told you how we decided on ThermoSpas for our very first hot tub.
Now, I’ll share a little bit of inside scoop about the ThermoSpa hot tub delivery process. It wasn’t exactly as we thought it would be. That doesn’t mean it was a ‘bad’ experience — just different than we initially thought.
The good news is, we’re thrilled with our ThermoSpa hot tub and we’ve used it every day since we got it (…except for a few days when we were out of town).
This is what our backyard looked like — before the ThermoSpas hot tub… and after.
The Delivery Process
The first thing the ThermoSpas delivery guy asked me when I opened the door was: “Um, is your husband here?”
Which was my clue that he needed another person (stronger than me) to help get the spa off of the long-bed trailer that he towed behind his pickup truck.
Actually, we needed more like two additional men for that job, if you ask me — and Jim! So thank goodness John, the GC for our log home (…that we still haven’t broken ground on) happened to be at our home at the same time. He was installing the GFCI circuit breaker for the hot tub. I’m not sure we could’ve even gotten the boxed-up spa off the trailer with just Jim and the delivery guy. So we were quite thankful that John was there, too.
Regarding that GFCI breaker… ThermoSpas hot tubs require a direct, hard-wire connection to electricity. And they recommend that this electrical work be done after the hot tub has been delivered. (I’m guessing that’s because they want to make sure you know exactly where the hot tub will go.) There must be a “disconnect switch” located more than 5 feet, but not more than 50 feet from the hot tub itself. In effect, your home’s circuit box acts as the disconnect switch for your hot tub.
To top it off, the temperatures were in the 90s on this particular day, and the sun was blaring hot, with no breeze to be found. These 3 guys worked hard for about an hour — first getting the hot tub off the trailer and into our side yard. Then, getting it through the gate for our backyard fence. And finally getting the hot tub un-boxed and situated “just so” on the patio.
Fortunately, the delivery guy brought a heavy-duty dolly with him. (This obviously wasn’t his first rodeo! He actually runs a pool & hot tub repair service, so he knows these spas inside & out.) Still, it was tricky trying to maneuver a 900 lb. hot tub through our 5-foot gate!
The process of positioning the hot tub included leaving 18 inches of clearance space around all sides of the hot tub (which was perfect for where we wanted to place it on our patio) and shimming one side of the spa (since the patio had a gradual slope to it, making one side of the hot tub slope downward about a quarter-inch). Actually, the delivery guy is not required (or “allowed”) to participate in the shimming of the hot tub — so John and Jim did that themselves while the delivery guy went over all of the paperwork with me, and I signed on the dotted line.
For the record, when we move into our new log home, we will be placing this hot tub in a recessed deck (meaning, a deck that has many “levels” to it… with at least one of the levels being lower than the others). They said that we’ll need a minimum of 100 lbs. per square foot load rating. (This is actually the case for ground-level spas, as well.) This particular hot tub (the Concord II Platinum) is 7’x7′ and holds 330 gallons of water. Allowing for 4 bodies, that means our deck needs to accommodate somewhere between 4,500-5,000 lbs. for our hot tub.
The Nitty Gritty Details
After all that was done, the second hour of the delivery guy’s time was spent going step-by-step through all of the main parts of the spa and how they work. First he had to remove 2 of the hot tub’s outer side panels. Then, he cut through the heat-reflective insulating liner, and then through the styrofoam panels.
His overview included a run-down of what all of the hot tub’s parts “do” — both underneath the spa’s cabinet, and in the tub of the spa itself. Plus he briefly covered how to check the “chemistry” of the water, so you’ll know when to add more of “this chemical” or “that chemical” to keep the water clean and clear 24/7.
Keep in mind, power had not been hooked up to the hot tub yet — nor was there any water in the hot tub at this point — so it was next to impossible to make sense of everything he was saying and keep it all straight. While most of what he was saying is printed in the manuals which accompany your ThermoSpas hot tub, it’s still hard to grasp all of the great tips & pointers he’s suggesting until you actually go through the motions yourself — after water had been put in the hot tub and the power turned on. So that part was kind of frustrating.
And while they clearly state in the promotional materials that “delivery does not include filling spa with water, chemical adjustments, or electirical hook-up”… Jim and I wish that weren’t the case because things would have made much more sense with the hot tub running.
They also clearly state: “ThermoSpas will deliver, uncrate, and position a fully-assembled spa at the customer’s home”. (Which they did.) And that “delivery includes 2 men and requires that the customer must supply all additional help necessary for larger units and difficult installations”. (But we only had one delivery guy.)
I’m thinking the paperwork we signed on the day we purchased this ThermoSpas hot tub covered their butt on this minor technicality (in the event that a hot tub was going to be delivered by only one guy). It said:
Customer will supply ___ [2 was written on the blank line] people to assist in the delivery of spa. Customer also acknowledges that such assistance involves heavy lifting and maneuvering which could result in serious personal physical injury. Customer assumes all such risks of personal physical injury in connection with such delivery. ThermoSpas also makes available crane service at a discounted rate.”
Such is life. Overall, everything went fine on the day our ThermoSpa hot tub was delivered. And now we’re loving every minute of spa therapy we’re getting on a daily basis!
Ahhh… This Is The Life!
It took about an hour to fill up the hot tub (with approximately 300 gallons of water), test the ph levels real quick… then, Jim couldn’t wait to get in!
Straight out of the garden hose, with hardly any time for the hot tub’s heater to work its magic, that water was COLD. But, in the end, worth it. Especially since it was well into the 90s and there was a fair amount of “sweat equity” involved in getting that hot tub installed.
Stay tuned for “the view from each seat” in our hot tub, and other fun things we’ve learned along the way!
There’s a lot to be said about the spa therapy experience you can get on a daily basis when you own a hot tub. Like I said, we’ve been in ours every single day since we got it — and sometimes twice a day.
