Bradford Spas Hot Tub

This is a copy of a post over at the what's the best hot tub forum .
It's the story of the Bradford Spa Hot Tub at my father's house.

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I wanted to post and show the in-ground setup at my Father's house.
The pool and hot tub were installed back when I was a teenager and I've been responsible for it since then 20+ years.
The tub is run year round here in New England.

This is the original in ground set-up from the guys who built the pool.
Originally it was a Sweetwater Sophia that had external equipment pack about 30 feet from the tub operated by air buttons at the tub.
It had a single 2 speed pump, air blower, light, gas heater, light, and the filter cartridge was in the tub.

It was sunk flush into the bluestone pool deck with no access at all. Only the lip of the tub was above ground.

For years the system was good and we had one area with cracking around a jet that was easily sealed by epoxy.

And about 6 years ago it started to leak. We couldn't find the source anywhere.

No local spa service company was brave enough to look at it.

So we drained it one day and lifted it so the lip rested on 4x4s (which had been done several times in the past). The plan was to remove the tub and troubleshoot the leak above ground.

Well, lunch got in the way.  We ran out for 30 minutes and came back to find the top rim had collapsed.

D'oh!

The tub went dormant while we began the search for a replacement.

The search was tedious because my father wanted something to fit in the current hole.

None of the local spa companies we contacted (there were many) could offer a true "in-ground" hot tub, and they weren't willing to take responsibility for a standard tub being sunk in the ground.

Well that pissed me off to no end and sent me to the internet for a solution.

It was many hours learning that true in ground spas like what we had weren't really a popular option.

It was frustrating to find brand name tubs that would fit in the hole that I now had bad vibes about my local dealers.

Eventually I came across Bradford Products, and the Carolina which was close to our footprint.

The solution was perfect for our application in terms of form, fit, and function.

The people at Bradford were extremely helpful and basically got me to a point where everything was specced out and fed to their nearest local dealer to quote.  That dealer was 100 miles away  ::)

Well I wasn't jumping for joy over the price, but had to take a shot that I would get what I paid for.

So the new tub arrives.

I am really excited because this thing is the real deal. It's high quality and well constructed.

We had it installed just like the original tub, with just the lip above the patio.

We added a large cartridge filter system to the set-up and an electronic Jandy remote control system as part of the install.

We used the existing lines and had no problem with the original plumbing.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any pictures of that installation.

The patio had to be cut very slightly to fit the new spa and we wanted to add an access to get to the main pluming lines and light if required.

Well local cutting company that did it f-ed it up, going slightly outside the lines, after a long battle they refused to make good on the botched job.

So a year later my Father can't deal with looking at the 1/4" gap next to the tub and decides he's going to expand the patio and move the tub.

When we are discussing the design for the expansion the mason recommends raising the tub a foot for seating, different look, etc.

Sounds like a good idea, so we go ahead.

And that brings us to it's current state, in ground Bradford Carolina with remote equipment pack.

You can see where the original back wall was altered to provide a walk-through to the expansion where the tub now located.

6 years later and still very happy with the Bradford Carolina.
I would go through it all again.  The only difference would be to add air jets, which I was talked out of during the specifications phase.
One of these days I will get around to integrating a blower downstream of the heater, but since I don't live there and have my own tub it is pretty low on the priority list.

Given the choice and the funds I would go stainless every time. It has a far superior feel than any of the other tubs I have ever been in.
Amazingly it has a soft warm feel to it that you wouldn't necessarily expect.