I was familiar with other brands up north (Cal Spa, LA Spa, Caldera), but have no first hand knowledge of the brands I can find down here. Anyone care to weigh in on the quality of these brands?

One of our local dealers carries Jacuzzi, Dimension 1, and HydroPool. They offered a nicely discounted HydroPool model that they wanted to get rid of, but I'm still not sold on that brand... Nice features, but just seems a little unknown... And while the floor drain seems cool, I can also see how it might be a service nightmare. That said, this dealer is small/family owned, has been around a while and services all brands. So I think I could trust them to take care of me if needed.

On the flip, the guy at HotSprings just didn't give me the feeling that he knew enough to trust. Just rattling off the basic info I could get in the pamphlet. So I'm not sure how great my service experience might be with those guys.

Any thoughts are much appreciated!

I see nobody has chimed in yet. I don't know much about the spas you listed. I have had great success with Hot Springs and Sundance. Both hold their resale value, have great warranties, and excellent customer service. Plenty of dealers and just about anybody that does spas can work on them. I have had only one repair that wasn't warranty.

D1, HotSpring or Sundance in that order. Anything else is second best. I used to do service work and have been to the factories for service training of D1 and Sundance. They use top quality parts and the quality control acually dose thier job. Remember you pay for what you get.