Texas Hot Tub Company — Local services in Forest Hill

I'll be as brief as possible. We built our new home just over a year ago. We had debated building a pool but decided to go with a hot tub. May 19, 2018 we purchased a top of the line Hot Springs Grande NXT Spa, Ace salt water system, and the Coolzone. It was the Coolzone that convinced us to go the spa route vs the cost of a pool.

BEEF #1 The salesman told us that there was a defect in the Ace salt water system in that if the temperature is below 95F it stops working. We were assured that Watkins was diligently working on a solution. So far, still kaput. It's been over a year now and I'm fairly certain that a fix isn't coming to me. My point is that if you buy a Coolzone and use the Ace Salt water system you'll be using chlorine instead. Perhaps they've fixed it on new machines but last time I asked the Sales guy said they had not.

BEEF #2 July 17, 2019 the Coolzone stopped cooling. I called Coleman Bright Ideas in Fort Worth and the service manager said it would be a week before anyone could come out. A week later two technicians showed up, did some trouble shooting, and declared that "their side" of the system was working fine. They said that I would have to find someone to work on the AC side this. I asked, "no turnkey on this?" and they said no. "We're not licensed to work on ac systems." The service manager finally gave me the name of someone they currently use to install the AC side of the Coolzones. I thought I had an appointment with him the morning of July 29th. That morning I received a text from him saying that he couldn't make it and didn't know when he'd be able to make it if ever.

Can you believe it?

I contacted the Service manager again at Colemans looking for some support. Once again they politely informed me that I was on my own and to go asking AC repair companies if they worked on mini split units. I actually found a solid company that did and their technician came out and quickly discerned that there wasn't much if any refrigerant in the system. Subsequent troubleshooting revealed a fitting that had a bad braise. This fitting was actually inside the spa connecting into the Coolzone heat exchanger.

I sent this information to the GM and Service manager at Colemans looking for some financial relief. The cost of the AC service visit, diagnosis, repair, pressure testing, evacuation, and refrigerant recharge was $670.00. I'm not happy that I had to bear the full burden of this repair over a defective part that was installed inside the SPA from the very beginning. The response got was, "it's out of warranty you can call Watkins if you want to, here's their number". Once again no support really, you're on your own.

We really like the SPA it's our second HotSprings spa and the Coolzone is very nice in the Texas heat. If you go this route just be prepared to deal with the AC side of things yourself. I don't know if any of the other SPA stores that offer the Coolzone behaves this way with support but BUYER BEWARE and purchase understanding how things may go.

8/13/2019 I had a long discussion with James Bryant yesterday. I was able to voice my concerns and suggestions for better outcomes. James did reach out to Watkins rep and they offered some concessions that satisfied me. I walked away thinking that they were going to seriously look at securing support for the CoolZones. Not in-house support but an active list of HVAC providers that will and do work on them. In closing the spa and coolzone are the bomb and you can't find a better product pair. The CZ simply turns the hot tub into a year round pleasure. Thanks to James and Hotsprings (Watkins).

I am amending my rating on this to 5 stars. It was never about the fact that it broke. All things eventually break. It was about the path to resolution that...

THTC was featured on the front showroom area at the new Costco in Georgetown in November 2024. As huge fans of Costco and who they partner with, we felt confident purchasing from THTC in November 2024 and received delivery last week.

We ordered the Flair HotSpring Limelight with the lounge seat model, and the salt water filter. It came with stairs in the package, and we added the hot tub cover shelf for easy open and close -- and the salt water system filter.

Ross was the salesman on the floor; and we followed up with Amie on the delivery process after about 7-9 weeks -- both who were quite responsive and professional.

** Some things we wish we had known: the build/delivery took closer to 3 months (12 weeks vs an 8-week expectation).

There was no owner's manual, when we took our initial water to the local store (14106 N Interstate Hwy 35, Austin, TX 78728), we had requested one -- but they could only email it as they had no hard copies. We have referred to this owner's manual often -- so we recommend you request one upon hot tub delivery.

For any 220v model, you will need to hire an electrician to wire the hot tub to your home. Your electrician will ask about the control panel is, on the Flair it is in the front, which we verified on YouTube -- the service staff at the local store had originally thought it was on the side, but we had them confirm it was on the front via the manual and our review of YouTube videos.

The first day, our electrician plugged one of the hot wires into the "1" plug, instead of the "2" so the heater did not work. The 2 hots, neutral, and ground are pretty normal as it relates to the main panel and the sub panel, however, from the sub panel to the hot tub that are 4 hots, 2 neutrals, and 2 ground which plug into the 30v and 20v of the subpanel -- which was the first time we've seen a setup like this.

After a few emails and calls with THTC, they were able to identify the heater issue was because the electrician plugged in one of the hot wires in the wrong plug. Matt and Chris were very helpful in having us send pictures to them and reviewing the control panel.

THTC service staff was also able to point out that some of the jets did not work because you needed to actually turn the actual jet knob by hand (in addition to the diverters on top of the hot tub). Our last hot tub was controlled by the diverts only, so for the jets to have actual turning options was neat. The main diverter is louder than we are used to and will spin 360 -- I am told this is normal.

We haven't been able to keep the HotSpring logo green for more than a day -- so now that we have the salt status in check, we are playing with the bromine, chlorine, and phosphate levels to determine the root cause.

However, I am confident with THTC's service staff -- that they will help us with the water balance issues -- and help us get the logo back to a green light (which is another neat feature about...

I don't yet have my hot tub, but I thought I'd make a post to describe just how dedicated, informative, and kind everyone at the Texas Hot Tub Company has been.

I purchased my hotsprings tub from Ross Underwood, during a Costco special event roadshow in Austin, Texas. So even though I'm not in DFW I've gotten to communicate with the whole DFW team along the way.

Ross is very knowledgeable and a really easy person to talk to. He answered all my questions and followed up with more information over email and text. He was very responsive and honest. He didn't push me to get expensive extras that I didn't need, and he did a great job of explaining the technical and structural differences of the various hotsprings models.

I, however, made a mistake. I underestimated just how much hot tub I would need and I ordered one that ended up being too small for our family of six. Once I visited the Austin retail office and saw the model tub I had ordered - I realized my mistake and new that the Grandee was actually the right tub for us. Ross and Aimee and James from the DFW office did everything in their power to help me change the order. It's complicated as the order was placed through Costco.

The Vice President of the company, Jim, called me personally to ensure me that he would work with Costco and help find a solution to get me into the hot tub of my dreams. I don't know the details, but I believe this will include Jim traveling to Austin to personally meet with me at Costco and handle the revision to the order. It means so much that Jim and his team are willing to go the extra mile to help me!! They are currently slogging it out to set up the meeting. I will update this review once I have my Hotsprings Grandee.

This is a huge purchase for me and I have been waiting a long time to take the "plunge" and invest in a really great hot tub. Jim and his team (special shout out to Tony at the Austin office) really understood how big a deal this is to me and have been willing to go the extra mile to help me not have buyers remorse. They explained that because hotsprings is such a good brand, I'll have this hot tub in my backyard for the next 15-20 years - so it is really important to do it right!

If you are thinking of getting a tub, go see the nice folks at Texas Hot Tub Company - bring your family and actually sit in the tubs they have on display.

I also want to put in a plug for the kind folks at the Austin location who have also done everything in their power to help me. If you are in Austin and thinking of buying a tub, you can't go wrong with the Texas Hot...