HotSpring of Dayton — Local services in Sugarcreek Township

Hot Springs and their wonderful staff, Kathy Koebel, (which I refer to as my earthly angel) made such a difference in my life. In September of 2009, I suffered a Stroke, which would change my life as I knew it. I was a RN working full time M-F as an Investigative Agent for the County and part-time S-S for a Rehab Facility as their AM nurse. I had 4 teenage+ sons, and a wonderful husband with whom I did everything. We were active . Always going to ballgames, shopping, and antiquing. you name it we went. Then it came to a screeching halt. Stoke! My Right side was affected and I was bound to a wheelchair. I was in a Phyisical Rehabilitation Facility for two months. My husband and sons told me, “We aren’t going to sit around. We’ve always gone and did things, and we aren’t stopping now!” So, that’s what we did. But I needed more from me. My Physical Therapist suggested a hot tub, because it could be better controlled environment than a swimming pool. And warmer. We heard a family member had gone to Hot Springs. So we drove to Hot Springs and we were met at the door by the friendliest woman , introducing herself to us as, “Kathy Koebel.” In just a short conversation with Kathy, I found out she was an RN and was very familiar with what I was going thru. We spoke extensively about the Hot tubs, their benefits, and prices. She told me she would like for me to try it before making any decisions. So, we made an appointment for me to come back with appropriate swimware for me and for my husband, as there was no way I could do this alone in my post stroke condition. When I came back, I was a bit apprehensive, but knew I was in good hands. After all, my husband was 6’4 and weighed 285. He was use to carrying me now. What I wasn’t expecting was Kathy getting into the Hot tub with us. She had worked very closely with a family member of her own with a similar situation and she wanted to make sure I was: (1. Safe; 2.) comfortable; and 3.) she wanted to show me the exercises to do. Kathy, from the moment we walked in the door, treated me like family. I felt like she cared for me genuinely. I wasn’t just a “sale” to her. I was a someone she wanted to help. That was eight years ago now, that we walked into Hot Springs and met my Angel, Kathy Koebel. Because of her kindness and genuine concern to help me, my husband and I just upgraded our hot tub. I can honestly say that the water therapy was very beneficial in my treatment. Hot Springs is a wonderful company to work with because they care about the product and the customer. You can tell by the people they hire. Even the people they hire to service the units are the nicest folks. They probably get the least amount of praise but they really are great!! In closing, Hot springs made a difference in my life, and I just wanted to let you, the reader, know that. If you are contemplating a hot tub or Spa, look no further. You have found your store! You have found your new hot tub family! THANK YOU HOT SPRINGS! and THANK YOU...

My wife and I purchased a Jetsetter LX hot tub March of 23. We were beyond thrilled with what we landed on and with our salesperson, Sheli. She helped us find exactly what we needed. I have an extremely busy schedule and she was even able to get us all set up mostly through email.

One of the reasons we chose this location and Hot Spring is because of supposed trade-ins. We lease our cars on short terms because we like to upgrade more often than we probably should. My plan was to do the same thing with the hot tub, trade in every 2-3 years depending on new features and everything.

I haven’t found out if they’re all like this, but do not trade in your hot tub here. I’m a numbers guy. That’s pretty much all I do all day every day. After going to Sheli again this time around and getting a ton of quotes from her (and who I’m assuming is the sales manager), I started getting the feeling that whoever was working these numbers up either didn’t know what they were doing, thought they were going to just keep moving numbers around and confuse me, or this is always how trades are dealt with - it’s not something they want or are going to do something with but it sounds like a good idea on paper/sales pitch.

If you’re going to shop here, which has been a great place for the most part, see Sheli and don’t let her sales manager screw you. Sell your hot tub yourself.

——————————————————————————Response 10/26: I am very familiar with trade-ins. Cars instead of hot tubs, but I can only imagine they have similar depreciation and such. The only difference is, my customers have everything they need at their disposal to make sure they’re not getting screwed on a trade. I have gotten quotes from other stores as well as pricing on a new unit. Unfortunately, they are further away so I will have to transport myself when I am able assuming numbers don’t change drastically when that happens. Not on the one I wanted but one with the features I needed, well under my budget so I'll just upgrade to that one next time around.

In your words: “Those costs are considered in the trade in amount. Items such as transportation(bringing new one while picking up old one, minimal cost as we both know), refurbishing(lol, come on now) new filters(your cost, maybe $150-$200), new covers(I’d be surprised if you were putting a new cover on but even if you are, probably $300), sales costs(really?), etc”. So we’re talking, on the high end, $1,000.

I’ll leave it at this. The first quote this year I was shown a trade amount of $8,400. The last quote for the new one I received was for just under $19k with no trade shown - which would have put me under where I needed to be - and I couldn’t get an answer as to why, just that it was time to part as friends.

This tells me that numbers games are...

I love my tub and the ultimate outcome. They were very patient with me getting my site ready to place this tub. I asked many, many questions along the way and they were always delighted to help, both in-person and on the phone.

Here is the only rub: Because we are using the salt system, the tub really wanted to have soft water. They have softening 'bags' to place in the tub to absorb the hard ions, but way easier would have been to use soft water. Part of the predelivery instruction should have made it clear that this was the preferred choice. I could have run a hose from the water heater to the hot tub and voila. But no. Moreover, they know how hard Springboro water is and how much water this tub holds. The installer, nevertheless put a softening bag that, per the info on the bag, could not possibly have been adequate. This necessitated me going to the store to get more of these...costing me the trip and them the expense of this softener bag. The installer also rattled off the instructions about what to do to complete the setup at warp speed, and even having some understanding of the system AND a degree in chemistry, I found myself unclear on the steps. The instruction sheet was helpful, but the oral presentation was not at all helpful. This part COULD HAVE been done perfectly with a bit of pacing and letting me know well ahead to cobble a way to get soft water into the tub. Details....

The other thing they could have done better is with the electrical panel they provide. IF your current panel has extra spaces, this is irrelevant, but if it is already full, the options are different and require more effort to create the spaces (2) needed for the provided subpanel. In my case, the provided panel was suboptimal, and a different, larger one, would have been preferred because of how full the panel was to begin with. A brief conversation about that would have potentially improved that outcome.

But again, in the end, the tub is awesome, and I am happy to deal with the folks in Sugarcreek that represent...