How Our Haven Spas Compare

Practical Engineering

We have found so many companies trying to come up with the magical gimmick to make their spas stand out so they can sell more spas. Here is how I determine if the device is something worth considering: 1/ Does it increase or enhance the spas therapy or comfort? 2/ Does it have sound engineering behind it? 3/ Does it make the spa safer? 4/ Does is make the overall operating or repair cost less?
I believe that is a very concise way to evaluate spas, spa engineering and manufacturing.

We have found that gimmicks, like pillows with jets on pipes, dry massage pillows, ice buckets, clicking and clacking jets, diverter valves, silly jet patterns, large spas with tiny foot wells, lots of water jets under people's legs in loungers, hoses that go up and down, huge jet faces on small jets, tiny 24 hour circulation pumps, large humps in the middle of the foot well, loose filter lids, silly techno jargon words to describe simple devices, fully foamed in cabinets, using techno jargon words to describe really poor engineering, using an ozonator with a tiny circ pump, using words to imply "only our spas are safe" (when I have looked a thousands of spas and have not seen any reputable brand that isn't somewhat safe )

I have seen incredibly stupid designed spas described as the end all to spa manufacturing. Because the spa buyer is extremely vulnerable to spa sales people, I keep writing articles like this.

I am not against innovation, just stupidity and greed combined.

Ice Buckets: When I first saw spas with a built in ice buckets, I thought it was a good idea. I have even worked at a store that sold spas with them. Although a minor defect in spa design, they turn out to be a nuisance for the spa owner, and they take up valuable space. Every owner has told me that they get full of spa water, and they are hard to clean. The owners have told me how they wish they had bought a spa with out one. It winds up becoming a dirty bucket in the spa. If you like an ice bucket, get a spa with a large flat area to sit a portable ice bucket. This is much a much more reasonable design. In general, our spas have large flat areas, that work like serving tables.

Loose filter lids: This sort of goes along with the ice bucket concept. Having a loose filter housing lid that comes off the top of the filter causes two problems. 1/ Spa owners often wind up using it for a seat or support and break it. 2/ People often get hurt by them. When it breaks; it cuts. The loose fitting lid without a strong backing is the worst. This design is sort of a traditional concept that came from swimming pools.

I learned this when I worked in a store that sold a spa with a trapezoidal filter lid. One time an older lady customer was wet testing one of the spas. She leaned over to reach for her towel, put her knee on the edge of the filter lid and BANG! It slipped out and her knee hit the base of the filter weir door. She hobbled out of the store. The next time I saw her, she was on crutches and had a cast on her knee. To this day I do not know why she bought the spa or why she didn't sue the manufacturer or the store. I believe, she was from the old school and took responsibility for "not looking what she was doing". I learned a lesson that day that told me a loose filter lid is really not so good. The last brand of spas we had did have a loose filter lid on one model, but it had pretty close to the best design I could find at that time. Now that we have the opportunity to choose our own designs, we have spas with out a dangerous filter lids. Most of our spas have a strong upper shell structure, instead of a filter lid, or a safer flexible lid.

Click clack jets: This modern innovation is so annoying. The sound of these jets is something I only wish on obnoxious people. It is sort of like finger nails on a chalkboard. These jets are usually mounted in the wall and have a slit the water comes out of in a back and forth fashion. The therapy is just OK, not much to write home about. When they get stuck, they become a silent "clack" stuck spraying water in one direction.

Rotational jets are not only better therapy, they run silent. We use lots of rotating jets. The fully adjustable cyclone jets are the best massage I have felt. Most spa companies with any common sense, are using the rotating jets.

The "hose in the wall": This innovation is now about 16+ years old, and it hasn't gotten any better with age. Originally the company designed this and has an "exclusive" and wanted something that others didn't have. There hasn't been another company anywhere that has tried to copy it, because it isn't worth it. When people copy things they are doing it for a reason. There have been many rotating and adjusting jets that have evolved from several jet companies. The hose in the wall is troublesome and expensive to repair. The therapy is funny because the hose sort of slices up and down your spine, instead of on the muscles. I often ask owners of these spas about that. "Don't you have to move over from side to side to get any massage?" I have not received a no answer to that question.

After about five to seven years, the hose stretches out and gets stuck in the wall and no longer goes up and down. I wrote about this in my book "How Spas Are Made". It really is sort of funny when our customers, who read my book, tell me stories about friends of theirs who have one of those hoses stuck in one position inside the wall. It is not funny when they receive the bill for repairing one of those.
The tiny, 24 hour, 3 to 7 gallon per minute, circulation pump: This is the worst engineering piece of equipment I have ever come across in a spa. I talk about it in detail in my book "How Spas Are Made" and in the "Spa Buyers Questions and Answers". If any device approaches consumer fraud, this is. It leads to dirty water, and complicated water maintenance. Lots of extra chemicals and scum digesters with this thing. It breaks down very easily and causes other parts of the spa to burn out. I don't think this thing is going to be around much longer as I educate buyers one at a time. I get letters from spa repair people from far away that praise my efforts to rid the spa world of this really stupid device.

Full foamed in spa cabinets: Read my book "How Spas Are Made" or go to The "Spa Buyers Questions and Answers"

I have found that retailers who have been selling and making their living from selling these old fashioned foam filled spas are sort of displeased with me. Their defense of this design keeps getting more and more silly each and every year. This design is now antique. It was originally used on flimsy tubs made from Rovel starting in 1977 and was totally and completely used for making a foam structure under the flimsy tub shell. They are actually telling customers that the foam is primarily for insulation and it is the best for cold climates. Funny thing! The spa was developed in Southern Coastal California where it never gets cold.

Huge jet faces on small jets: This is a sort of illusion. It looks like the jet is big, but it really is a normal size or small jet. When the jet is taken out of the spa, it looks the same as the old smaller faced jet, and it is. We have noticed spa companies using large faces on small jets and the number of jets going down, but the illusion is that there are more jets. This is plain marketing garbage. All this is to pull the wool over you eyes.

Dry massage pillows in a water spa!: : o ) Is there anything more goofy than that? We already have enough trouble with normal head cushions. Why would any one even want to think about such a waste of money?

The jets under the pillow, that are adjustable up and down: Gimmick, Gimmick, Gimmick! If this is a good idea, then I got some swamp land in Florida I want to sell you. These things have no therapy value when compared to our spas. The intelligence behind this idea, shows a creative desperation for sales.

If you want some real neck therapy, come sit in the neck jet seat in our spas. We have powerful penetrating focused neck jets that take all the tension out of your neck! I really would like for someone to explain how these pillow jets got started. Can you imagine how much it costs to get parts for them when some of the regular pillows cost about $200 for a set. The pillows usually last about three years.

I prefer to have something a bit more practical, with better therapy. You have to come and try our jets. The Springville is one of the most therapeutic spas anywhere. Every one who has tried the collar hot seat, has just raved about it! The Emerald Cygnus 3005 is also great.

Large spas with tiny foot wells: OK. Where are the feet going to go? How friendly are you with your friends? The spa says it seats six, but only two or three can use the foot well. Think about it.

Silly Jet Patterns: There are really only a few very important ideas in jet placement that are primary to jet usages. 1/ The neck muscles are small. Unless you are a competition body builder, small jets work best for the neck. 2/ The muscles are on the sides of the spine. Jet patterns that spread the massage around to the muscles and not just the spine make more sense. Rotator jets work well for moving the water from side to side. 3/ Putting heavy pressure on the kidney area is not good. 4/ Too much pressure from small jets is not good. 5/ The sacrum area at the base of the spine seems to love a large jet.

Lots of water jets spraying upward in a lounge seat: Having a couple of upward leg jets is OK, but more than that forces the occupant to fly out of the seat. Air jets work very well in the leg area of a lounge and in the back area. I saw a spa once that claimed to be the "best spa made". I noticed that it had a really funny louge seat with a water jet in what appeared to be the rectum jet area. I know of some prople who might like that jet, but it seemed sort of funny to me. The spa was fully foamed, had a tiny circ pump, three filters, and a vented cabinet. All terrivly poor design features. The "butt jet" was the finishing touch.

Techno jargon words used on ridiculous engineering: an example "Massage Control Intelihandles with Pure Water Technology" (put a TM after it and it somehow becomes important). That phrase means absolutely nothing, just like most of those phrases. Whenever I hear or read the word "Purification" used in conjunction with tiny circ pumps is get a chuckle. The two cannot be used in the same sentence much less in the same phrase. If you hear the words something like "Puro-Clean" system use in conjunction with a tiny circ pump, please don't fall victim to this hype.

Using an ozonator with a tiny 24 hour circ pump: If the water molecules are not contacted with the ozone, there is no "purification". The tiny pumps do not move the water enough to make having an ozonator a worth while expenditure. In other words if you want good ozonation use a 40 to 50 gallons per minute pump and move the ozone quickly into contact with the water. That is what our spas do.

I saw a recent brochure that dedicated and entire page to describing an ozone system used with a tiny circ pump. To a non spa educated person it might sound like it works, but it is pure B.S. They use made up techno jargon words that sound like they have a real meaning, but are pure fantasy words. The company that sells this system has had several problems with each generation of their so called ozone system. The first system had severe leak problems when the plumbing literally burned and fell apart. They keep coming back with more and more B.S. Their spas are so cheaply made that they are an embarrassment to the spa industry.

In their quest for the magical gimmick, they keep burning their own customers. This company by all rights should just give up or start making a real spa.

Diverter valves: go to "The Spa Buyer's Questions and Answers" Read my book "How Spas are Made" These water flow control valves are a real expensive nuisance.

Some spa companies are using an unrelated event to make it sound like their brand is safer that the rest. This is nonsense!

They put some sort of device that supposedly turns of the power if someone gets sucked into a water inlet. First of all, it is absolutely impossible to get caught on a modern portable spa made to NSPI standards. Secondly, the death they are referring to happened in a badly made commercial concrete spa and has nothing to do with a modern acrylic spa made to NSPI standards. It's a desperate marketing tactic.

However, some things I require on our spas to make them as safe as possible: 1. a stouter cover, more difficult for children to get into; 2. no slippery weak filter lid that can break or slip out if someone tries to use it for support 3. hand rails to hold on to while moving about or in or out of the spa and 4. good illumination in the spa at night. We make the strongest heavy duty steps so people are safe getting into or exiting the spa.

Large humps in the middle of the foot well: The first time is ever tried a spa with a foot jet mound in the middle of the foot well, I fell down. I noticed that the water hides the mound very well when the jets are on. I noticed that every person who tried the spa either stumbled on it or almost fell and had to grab the wall. When a person stands up, the area to walk in is really awkward. If you are good at walking "like a duck" with your feet in a wide "V" as you go around the mound, you may be just fine with this "innovation".