INTEX 28451EP PureSpa Greystone Deluxe Spa Set: Includes Energy Efficient Spa Cover and Wireless Control Panel – Spa Control App – Built-in FastFill Inflation System – 6 Person Capacity – 77" x 28"

First, this review is based on the square, energy-efficiency, salt water, 4 person Intex Purespa version but some comments could apply to similar versions. This was 714$ when I purchased but I noticed when I came back to leave this review they were not as common.TL/DR (Too Long/Didn't Read)- Great hottub certainly worth the price.Setting up:Read the instructions! I am normally one to skip the instructions but if you follow them you will setup in the correct order and it will save you so much time and headaches. It will first have you inflate the bladder. It is much harder to inflate this in a later step. Everything inflates either passively or by the machine so there is no need to blow up anything with your mouth or any non included machine. Truly a great aspect. It is very easy to setup, took less than 1hr and most of it was filling the hot tub with water.What to purchase before or at the same time:SALT- if you have the salt water version make sure to purchase salt. It will not come with the hottub and you can not use table salt. Any pool/hottub salt will do. You will need 5 lbs just to start, most come in 40lb bagsThermal pad- If you plan to use this in the winter or in a cold climate. I strongly suggest doing anything to save your monthly electricity bill including this pad. You could get a pad, or a carpet, anything to help insulate your hot tub from the cold ground. It comes with a thin bubble sheet but the more insulation the better.Skimmer- even after 1 use your tub will have hair, dirt, leaves, etc inside and cleaning it by hand will be difficult to impossibleTest Strips- it will come with a pack of 20 but most of those will be used in the first few weeks when you develop a cleaning habitPros:Energy-efficient version- I STRONGLY suggest this if it is available. I got mine for 714$ but came back to write this review and saw they were already harder to come by. It has a cover that goes all the way down to the ground filled with thermal foam and comes with the air bladder to put in the hot tub between the water and the cover. I can only imagine how much money I will save because of this.Thick strong plastic- The hot tub itself and the cover are "hard" thick plastic. It will certainly last a long time and hold up to most things. It seems more durable than bouncy house material. You could easily sit on the hot tub walls and it would support you, though I would not recommend this.Salt-water System- I will update after 2 months but so far this has been amazing. Just added salt and the system breaks it into sodium and chlorine. Seems other hottubs can be converted to salt water with many aftermarket parts that would cost you the same as the entire inflatable hottub. **2 month update, the salt water has been amazing literally just add salt every week or 2, no other chemicals bought, even stopped using the strips**Control Panel- It is portable and can be brought into your house or you can hold it in your hand while in the hot tub to either see the current temperature or make adjustments. The charge lasts a long time and easily charges by placing it on the control base. 3hrs to fully charge it.The APP!- if you are looking at hottubs without an app, stop. This is easily worth almost any extra expense. It will allow you to setup schedules and control the hot tub from anywhere in the world.Lights/ 2 Headrests- The lights and headrests are pretty cool extra item that if you wanted them and they were not provided, in the case of some other hottub purchase, it would cost you 30-60$ for both. So factor that in when looking a prices.Inflation- The control base inflates all pieces of the hot tub. Only the cover is not inflated by the control base and that is because it passively inflates. No need for another inflating machine or using your lungs like with some other hottubs.Bubbles!- The bubbles are much better than I could have ever expected. Are they jets that target parts of your body of course not. This isn't a $5-20k hottub. They give a great ambiance and push the water 6 inches above the normal water line. I can't compare them to other inflatable hottubs but they certainly impressed me.Sanitation Schedule- Certainly a must for a saltwater based hottub. You can make it so your hottub essentially cleans itself without constantly thinking about it. **2 month update, I just have it run 3 hours every night and the water has always stayed perfectly clear and clean**Warranty- **4 month update. It is 1 full year and covers EVERYTHING. It is very easy to use, I called up Intex and spoke to someone within 3mins. Pretty much no questions asked and arrived within 3 days. Had to have electrode splitter replaced and cover started to rip and Intex replaced both with almost no hassle.Cons:Size- This applies to all inflatable hot tubs. If you regularly have 2 people getting in...get a 4 person. 4 people...get at least a 6 person. Square shape seemed better to give people their "own" corners.Heating Up- It takes a LONG time to heat up. Do NOT expect to get in it the first day it arrives. Depending on the temperature it truly heats up at 1 or 2 degrees F per hour. If you put 60 degree water from a hose to fill the hot tub...it will take at a minimum of 24 hours to get to 95+Errors- Once the system gets an error it will stop heating until the error is cleared. To clear the error you must unplug the hottub. This is to obviously prevent damage, but can be a pain if you don't check the control panel or the AMAZING APP and are about to get in the hottub sadly finding it at 85 degrees.Tips and Tricks/FAQ-Answers I learned:Electric Cost- If you have made it this far here is the answer everyone wants to know. After 4 months of use in the CO winter which saw -18F and months of night lows below freezing, the cost of electricity was an average of 1$ per day. This is at a rate of $0.09222 kWh so adjust for your region. This is also with the temperature set at 102F. I can only imagine how much less it will cost in the Spring.Salt- Get the salt before it arrives.Error Codes- Unplug the hottub to clear error codes and get the heat going againGround Padding- Get a thermal pad to insulate the hottub from the ground.First time filling- Fill it with hot water and not your hose to save money on heating and time for the first fill. I suggest filling it with your hose 1/3 of the way then directly attach the hose to the hot water spiket by a sink or washing machine. This prevents shooting 120 degree or higher water directly on the hottub.Sanitize- Schedule sanitize cycles everyday to reduce bacteria growth unless you use it less than twice a week. Then find something that works best for you. This is the only way chlorine is created.When can it be used/minimum outdoor temperature?- You can use it all year round. You can use it below the 40 degrees it says. If you use it in cold climates, be smart. If you live in Minnesota and it is going to be negative 20 degrees for a few nights, you might want use it in a garage or take it down entirely. Every degree below freezing is a greater strain and risk. 95 degrees inside of the hottub and -20 degrees outside would put a large strain on any product. I live in CO and I plan to move it in the garage when it starts to snow/ the worst of the winter. To protect my hottub and because of the electric bill I would fear.Water Temperature- after lots of research and my own experiences...it is entirely up to you. Some days 100 is enough for me, others I want 104. But what is clear is that it takes a long time to heat up and a linear temperature increase is a exponential electric bill increase. Start low. Increase until you are satisfied. Can not confirm yet, but many say the difference between 100 and 104 is 10-40% in savings.****All of the above is after 1 week and 4 month update of use. Large purchases are important and I tried to answer all the things I wanted to know when choosing between products or getting an inflatable hottub at all.****

My wife purchased this for me after back surgery. Once the incision had healed, hydrotherapy was recommended by my physician to aid in the recovery process. Unfortunately as many medical facilities were shuttered due to Covid restrictions and have not yet reopened due to the nursing shortage, we looked into Hot tubs and spas. This unit was much more affordable than permanent fixtures with higher voltage heaters and such.Don't get me wrong. I love this thing when I can use it! It is basic and doesn't have the seating that a more expensive fixed model would have, on the occasion that it throws an error code, multiple resets are needed to clear them. but at a fraction of the cost, these are things I can live with.... The only issue that I wasn't able to live with lies with the inflatable top. Stitching around the handles combined with the force required to break the surface tension of such a large area of water (6 ft * 6ft) eventually cause tearing in an inflatable overlay that helps the heater warm the water and keep the water warm. Tears cause leaks, deflation removes the insulative properties that make this work... etc.. etc..First, it would be nice if these part numbers were available in the store through either this site or Intex directly for replacement. I could imagine scenarios where bladders could be misused as pool floats, or otherwise damaged from misuse. I wound up calling Intex directly as I could not find a replacement part (for anyone looking: SPA CEC COVER INFLATABLE BLADDER FOR SQUARE 6 PERSON part # 13151).The initial interaction was great. I was told it would be covered under warranty and shipped out. I just had to cut out a 6x6in patch of material from the bladder and cut out the inflation valve and upload photos when that was done. Not thrilled with the idea of rendering my spa cover useless while i waited for the shipment (US smartpost is probably the slowest shipping option available). The replacement came about 3 weeks later. As I had been recovering from spinal fusion and the weather in Chicago is freezing at this time of year, it was a week or two until I could clean the tub, hose it off, and set it back up again in the basement.This was not the first time I had to drain and refill the tub as we had been following the recommended maintenance of the unit since receiving it in August. Had the standard issues... E90 low pressure error does not like to clear from the unit once detected. E91 low salt error is common when salt is added to cold water that hasn't circulated for a while. So I scrubbed down the tub during a traditional spring day here (about 40 degrees F) - the first in 2 weeks where rinse water would not have frozen. After much scrubbing and swearing, moved the unit back inside and filled it.After adding water ($$$) and salt ($) to the unit, I inflated the bladder and re-re-re-re-reset the unit to clear error codes. Finally the heater was circulating, the bladder was in place, and I went to bed. The next morning, the new bladder was limp. I refilled it again and placed it over the tub... a tiny hissing noise turned to bubbling when lowered into contact with the water.This is the fun part. I hadn't been able to use the tub for a month... I was able to get a hold of someone. I explained the problem, referenced the replacement order that i had received the prior week. I was told it was not a problem. I just had to butcher the new bladder (which was kinda working, but as it was new needed to be replaced) and MAIL them the pieces, not upload images, but mail the actual pieces in before they would approve the replacement. So, after being unable to use the hot tub, I would have to render it useless, wait for them to receive the pieces (3 weeks) and then wait for approval (1-2 weeks) and receive the replacement (Basically totaling 3 months of the year that I could not use a device that I was using therapeutically.)Waiting 3 months to use anything that has been purchased due to a warranty issue is unacceptable. If this were a car, Lemon Laws would require that I be compensated for the inconvenience and supplied with a new vehicle. All I am asking is let me pay for the damn bladder that is not available anywhere. then refund me when I send you the defective one back! And express shipping at this point is mandatory!Again, to clarify... I like the product. But I do not think anyone should spend several hundred dollars ( I even think it was listed at over a thousand from a reseller on here at the time i purchased) without having proper expectations. The above is the warranty policy. The parts are not readily available online. The variety of parts for different units are not interchangeable. Basically, overall support could be better. If you are considering a portable unit, this is a great one to consider! If you are looking at price for something to use year round in a cold climate outside, invest 7,000-10,000 on a 220v unit that is insulated. We got this one as we were considering a permanent unit... which we will probably be getting when we can afford it...