Review of Royal Spa Hot Tubs
Royal Spa Outdoes the Competition for Making a Great Overall Hot Tub
Royal Spa is a company based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. It was the brainchild of two engineering students, Bob Dapper and Rick Bartlett, who began making the tubs in 1981 while they were still in college. Since their start, the company has morphed into the best manufacture of high-quality hot tubs in the world.
Royal Spas are superior for many reasons. The first is build quality. Build quality is very important for a tub that is going to last the owner for a long time. Royal Spas have a strong acrylic shell that the company warranties for 40 years against structural defects. Surrounding the tub is either a wood or polymer cabinet (your choice). The wood is a solid cedar or redwood and the polymer is actually a solid polymer, so both are very strong and resistant to weather. The best part of the cabinet is that it actually has a top rail that surrounds the tub. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the top rail seals out any flying insects from nesting underneath the shell. One of the best features of the tub is rarely seen and is located underneath the hot tub. All Royal Spa hot tubs sit on a fiberglass bottom that is actually joined to the cabinet structure and makes it more rigid. This same fiberglass piece seals the bottom of the cabinet off so that rodents may not nest underneath your hot tub and cause damage to the electrical components.
A good hot tub must also be well-insulated, especially if it is outdoors. A great deal of tubs have what is called "full foam insulation." Full foam insulation is just blown insulation that most people put in their attics. While it is very energy efficient, if anything goes wrong with the hot tub, this type of insulation has to be chipped out, the problem fixed, and more insulation blown in to replace it. Not only is this expensive, but time consuming. Royal Spa has insulation pillows around inside perimeter of hot tub cabinet. These pillows are very energy efficient but if a repair needs done the pillows are simply lifted out of tub and put back in once the work is finished. This saves tons of time and labor cost.
Circulation and energy efficiency are probably the most important points to consider when buying your hot tub. Royal Spas use an extremely energy efficient circulation pump that runs 24-hours a day. Do not buy a tub that only circulates your water some of the time! No one wants to sit in stagnant water. Any pump that does not circulation 24-hours a day will not be up to a good standard of cleanliness. While Royal Spas are on the higher-end of the price scale, this cost is justified when you calculate all the savings on your electric bill from just a few years of operation.
Coupled with an excellent warranty and customer service, Royal Spas have a great deal of choices in design and colors to choose from. My favorite design and the hot tub I purchased is the "Empress" model that is one of the only hot tubs I've ever found that has two lounge seats but isn't huge tub. The company also makes another really cool model call the King Ultra that accommodates larger people comfortably and has become one of their most popular styles. However, which ever tub you select from Royal Spa, I am positive it will be a relaxing experience. Happy hot tubbing!
Published by Lisa Davis
Lisa Davis has lived all over the United States before deciding that home is where the heart is. When she's not writing, she passes the time playing cards and trying out new recipes. Contact Lisa at: lisao... View profile
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11 Comments
Post a Commentjust need to follow up and talk to other dealers are dealer networks are one of the finest networks and are here to take care of are customers.
I have had a Royal Spa for 3 years now, My parents have had theirs for 10. I am extremely happy with my spa and so Is my mom and dad. I have had nothing but a great experience dealing with Royal Spa. I am a customer for life.
I have been very happy with my Royal Spa for 5+ years, virtually no maitenance needed. I am now getting around to a simple inspection to see if there is any parts that need to be replaced and it has taken me over a week of calling and writing emails to Royal Spa, and still no response. Great Tubs, horrible service.
We bought a Royal Spa a little over a month ago (a new model that isn't even in the sales brochures yet) and we are VERY happy with it. The engineering and design are more efficient, advanced and most importantly more serviceable than any other brand of spa made. Whether they want to admit it or not, few people have a great knowledge of proper spa care, and therefore create most of their own problems. Just like if you go buy a new car and then crash it into a tree because you didn't know which pedal was the brake, problems caused by ignorance should NEVER be covered under warranty. I would like to personally thank our salesperson, Rick Staples, for helping me through every step of the purchase and installation process. My parents also own a Royal Spa that is now about 2 years old and have had zero problems. I would recommend Royal Spas to anyone interested in a very high quality, low maintenance, economical spa.
I am the owner of Royal Spa and I want to commend the author of the article. The design of my hot tub is based on common sense. When my compettitors write bogus complaints on these sights it hurts our industry. I am at work every day with a working phone. None of these people with complaint say that they talked to me, so they never tried. I sell spas while others sell chemicals, specialized filters and services. Why wouldn't they bad mouth me when my way makes you not need them.
I would really like to know where all of you purchased a Royal Spa. I am one of (if not) the biggest Royal Spa dealers in the US. You cant blame Royal Spa the Company directly because a dealer is putting you through hoops. I have sold many Royals over the past 10 years and have never had customer serivce issues. I service every hot tub under the sun, if you feel Royal Spa is hard to deal with I would advise you dont get another hot tub. Save $8,000 join a club with a hot tub and go on a vaction. If your Royal is 18months old its covered. Gas isnt free people so yes there will most likely be a trip charge.
We have owened a Royal spa for 18 months. During the first 18 months it has run quite well, very dependable service. Thiss evening the jets stopped working, it seems to have a bad switch. I pulled the information I have and it only shows a 40-6-6 warranty. I can find no printed warranty with any of the material I have or online. Any thoughts at to what the warranty is?
I have a Royal Spa that The frame (a 2 x 4) cracked. The crack is in the front where the pumps are located so it is very obvious. First my dealer said that it was covered and he had to order "parts". No action. Later he said that it was covered and they would fix it. No action. Then the local dealer went out of business. Wonder why?? I also had a leak caused by... Chemical damage, my fault for following the directions. I wouldn't buy anything from these folks.
I have had a Royal Spa for 3 years. I have had a couple of jets go bad, but usually because kids twist them too hard. Royal Spa has given me replacements (at no cost) several times. I haven't had any other problems.
I purchased a Royal Spa in August of 2004. We were sold the extended three year Warranty at additional cost. We have had one service caal during this period and for the most part have been pleased with the spas performance. We recently had problems with the jets coming out and made an appointment for service. We were told by the dispatcher that the parts and labor would be covered under the extended warranty but there would be a trip fee of $65.00. The techician after a cursory review of thetub told my wife that are problems were realted to over use of chemicals and customer neglignece. service charge of