The importance of engineering in hot tubs.

	The Importance of Engineering in Hot Tubs and Spas. Continuing Articles on Hot Tubs and Spas for Consumers. Copyright HavenMade Inc 2009
Back to index Home	"You can buy a bad spa (hot tub) for less money and you can buy a poor quality money pit, spa for more money, becasue you have no clue what you are buying."

Most of my life has been consumed with science, mathematics, and in particular functional science like physics, electronics, and mechanical engineering. When I got into the spa industry it was because of my appreciation of hot tubs. I like hot tubs, for the benefits I have received over the years. I consider them to be a necessity for anyone over the age of 45, as a means to better health in a stressful world. I got into the spa industy in the repair end of the industry. That is how I learned that spa comapnies really have no clue how to make a spa last and I decided to produce spas that last and cost less to own. I gave the world the best of the best, and only Haven Spa owners really understand what I am talking about.

I wanted to work at a job that I could enjoy. I think all of us would like that and after 14 years of working with spas, my opinions of the spa industry and the engineering of spas has gotten worse instead of better. I am finding that sales pitches and presenting the "idea and fake images of quality" in a product is far more lucrative than actual quality, but it does not perpetuate itself. It destroys itself as is the case with hot tub companies today. It is a sad statement on the hot tub and spa industry and the ignorance of consumers on the subject of hot tubs. What they say and what they produce are two different things. This has had ill effects on all hot tub stores across the country, because "the word is out" on hot tubs. Most are junk, in my opinion, from repairing them and hearing all the bad stories about spas sitting in people's back yards not running for years, because of the high cost to repair them. No wonder most people don't want a hot tub, with the terrible reputation this industry, (and well deservred reputation) has. I quit all associations with any hot tub orgainization, for ethical reasons. All they do is promote the worst hot tubs in the industry anyway.

Well, after 12 years of Haven Hot Tubs (14 years of selling quality), we are still the company with spas that just work. You put them in your back yard, set them up, follow instructions for using them, then use them as much as you want and they run for 10 years with less cost to own than any other spa. After 10 or 12 years, you may need a new pump, or a new circuit board. Haven Spas keep on running with only minor repairs, and the cost to own, historically is about 25% of most any other spa, because of energy efficiency, better water quality with less chemicals, low cost to maintain, and extremely few break downs nd extreme longevity. How is this possible? It is called "following standard engineering principles" and then build in "over kill" as much as you can, within the parameters of the limitations of price. This is why our Provence models have less jets but don't break down. If you want longevity and usefulness for over 20 years, you can't short cut the foundational engineering in order to put in lots of cheap jets so the catalog has a high number of jets and a cheap price. Here is a clue: a spa with 20 good jets and extremely strong "healthy" use of equipment will give you three times the useful life of a cheap spa sold at high prices with 50 jets and poor plumbing, junk shells, weak cheap plastic control boxes, diverter valves that break down, and poor insulation that cause over stress on all the equipment. You would be better off just getting a horse trough and fill it with hot water, in my humble opinion. The horse trough would give you better service and less stress. READ

Why would anyone buy a hot tub from some huge corporation with no ethics at all?

If you look on Craig's list and ebay, you will find lots of hot tubs being dumped on the world for cheap prices. Some only a few years old. This is because the owners do not have the ability to keep up with the cost to own them, as they continually break down and waste energy. All of those spas that tout energy savings are mostly energy hogs, because they do not follow even basic use of engineering. Thermodynamics is really quite easy to understand, (at least it is for me) and it is not that difficult to make a thermally sealed spa, but you have to be able to take into account all the interactions going on with all the equipment so that no part is overheated or over stressed. I really do not understand how other people can't figure this out, because it really just takes dedication, understanding of physics and testing the design. If the owner of the company is an engineer, and the products are not sold by a large corporation, you can do things like not allow "bean counters" to tell you how to design the products. Why would anyone buy a hot tub from some huge corporation with no ethics at all? The only thing that matters is money, selling these things on "ideas and fake images of quality" and getting the spas past the warranty, so the spa companies don't have to pay for repairs when they break down. These companies are teaching the new generation that crap is quality. This is degrading the hot tub industry, because these companies do not have any ability to see the big picture of what they are doing to themselves and the entire industry has a terrible reputation for crap and "money pits".

We don't share that reputation. Instead we are scorned by these people and I am hated for trying to make the industry better. There are entire websites created by some really disgusting people, dedicated to destroying my good name an the good name and near perfect reputation of Haven Spas. That is what you get for trying to force quality into an industry of mediocre junk that barely functions for 5 years without burdening the spa owners with huge costs for repairs.

I had a fellow just the other day tell me his leaking "dog dish" spa was going to cost him $3000 to fix a leak. This is because it is held together with extremely dense foam and to find and fix leaks in a spa that uses the cheapest manufacturing you can "get away with"; full structural foam, makes it a throw-away item. The cost in labor is immense to fix a full foam spa. But they are sold as the "best spas on earth" to really unfortunate victims; victims of their own ignorance on hot tubs. These people are "ethically, morally challenged" who make this junk. It is just how sad the condition of our country has become. We recently had a customer with a leaking shell on a spa made with crap ABS/Acrylic and some spray resin on the back. It was five years old. We traded him out for a 1999, 10 year old Haven Springville spa. The ten year old Haven will out last most of the new spas made today. I asked a customer the other day, why she thought anybody would buy some other brand. She said: "Because they are stupid." I cannot disagree.

Now that the hot tub industry is in the toilet, and I am waiting for the "big flush" and all the hot tubs will be coming from foreign contries, china or Indonesia and will most likely be better quality than most American made hot tubs, because American made, corporation spas, are not good any more. All of the hot tub companies who have gone out of business as far as I can tell make far better products than the "big names" remaining. That is a sad statement on the ignorance of consumers and how they fall for sales pitches. If you are looking for a spa you need to support the beter hot tubs out there, and not the big names who are almost criminals, just underneath the limits of the law.

I have better designs for hot tubs using solar that will take the spa off the grid for over 97- 99% of the time it operates. I have come up with a method to use solar in a "hybrid" fashion, using both solar direct heated hot water, and photo voltaic in a combination that makes sense and uses far less cost to buy. If you have an existing energy hog, and you live in a place with decent solar, I can save you the entire cost of purchase in less than five years and the solar system is designed to last 25 years and is transferable to a new hot tub. In other words all of your hot tub energy problems are solved by this system and it pays for itself. It is an obvious solution to this problem and if you live in Colorado, New Mexico, or any high solar area, it costs you less than other places.

The engineering in Haven Hot Tubs has proven itself beyond all doubts and it needs no further improvments, becasue there are none. If you want a really fine hot tub, you don't really have any other choice. If you don't buy a Haven pretty soon, you may not ever have a chance to own this level of quality, because I am moving on to green products and things that actually support my efforts of engineering. ( I also like to play guitar music) Once Haven is gone, then all fine quailty hot tubs are gone from the planet. You think about it? We designed in no obsolescence. Our 12 year old spas outperform all the new spas from any spa factory. Our 12 year customers don't need to upgrade for another 12 years when the spas starts to have problems. Haven Spas are designed with no exclusive parts. That is out of mercy for consumers. Why would you want to own a spa, such that, when it breaks you are forced to pay three times what the part is worth? Why are hot tub consumers so stupid? My answer is because "they are". It makes no sense to me, because if you look on Google/yahoo (or any search engine) for "quality hot tubs" we show up everytime. If you know how to read, and you read all the information which is pretty clear to literate people, you would have either, 1/ to have not read it or you are 2/ just illiterate and stupid. We do not have any stupid people who own Haven Hot tubs. If you want to be in the club of intelligence and people who understand quaity, you can, buy a Haven Spa.
If you want to be in the club of stupid hot tub owners, be my guest. We are the only company who put the product before anything else.

We don't pay for advertising, and yet our site is looked at by 500 to 800 people every day. Most don't go deep enough, because all they are looking for is price as if price is a main determining factor in hot tub decisions. You can buy a crap spa for less money and you can buy a crap spa for more money, becasue you have no clue what you are buying.

The Importance of Engineering in Hot Tubs and Spas.