There's a battle going on out there. It's between the spa dealers, spa owners and Costco. You only have to go to a Spa forum like www.poolspaforum.com to see this battle being waged. Any posts that mention Costco Spas or in particular the Costco Platinum Elite I, II or II which are manufactured by Hydro Spa quickly turn into a holy war. The problem seams to be that Costco is undermining what appears to be an almost 100% markup by the spa dealers. The reaction to this from many spa dealers is attacking the Costco product.

A $4,000 Spa can't be anything close to a $8,000 one... right?
This would seam to be a logical because you don't get anything for free. However it seams like the Spa industry is very much like the PC industry. Most of the components are standard and produced by a very small selection of manufacturers. So Spa's are very modular and a Spa manufacturer just selects from a catalog of components and assembles those to make up their particular spa. Kind of sounds like a bike.

So what does this mean?
My Costco Spa which was around $4,000 has the same features and is made from the same components as many other spas costing double or more from a spa dealer. The jets and plumbing manifolds are from Waterway Plastics. The same for the audio speakers. The pumps are Aqua-Flo and so on. So how can my spa be that different from the others?

It can't all be good.
Of course there are benefits to buying from a dealer. You can go to their showroom and actually try out the Spa's. They will often include delivery and installation (sub-contracted out). You will get help with service and parts later on if you have problems (also sub-contracted out). But don't expect to be able to price compare. Your unlikely to find 2 dealers locally selling the same spa.

The question you have to ask yourself is what is this worth? Are these benefits worth the 100% markup?

I spent $200 for delivery (same guy used by most of the local dealers) and $800 for an electrician to install the electrical supply which is 125 ft from the main electrical panel (most likely more than the standard included by a dealer).

P.S.
I also learned the correct use of the various words people use for Spas.

• Jacuzzi/Whirlpool - Brand names but generally used to refer to indoor bathroom jetted tubs.
• Hot Tub - Essentially just a big tub of hot water with no jets.
• Spa - Outdoors above or below ground with jets etc (what I'm talking about here).