The way to avoid that is to make sure that the shell of the Hot Tub is made of a branded American Acrylic such as Lucite or Quarite. Not just that it is simply Lucite inspired or based on a Lucite design. Get the dealer to show you his colours chips marked Quarite and Lucite as appropriate.

If it is not made of these materials then one has to ask one self why not, as these two makers of Acrylic are acknowledged as making some of the best acrylic for Hot Tub Jacuzzi Spas in the world.

If the shell is made out of these materials it is of course your very own assurance that your choice of a Hot Tub Jacuzzi Spa will give you many years of beauty, pleasure, and satisfaction.

I always suggest that you should try the lipstick test and simply apply lipstick on the shell and see if it just wipes off with a tissue as it should? If it does not, then that simply shows that the surface is slightly porous and therefore will provide a home for germs and bacteria.

When these materials are not used then it is usually a clear sign that that cheaper materials are being used (quite often at 25% of the cost of ABS backed acrylic) in the shell, then to provide support to this weaker material the manufacturer blasts the cabinet full of structural foam.

If you have a leak, good luck finding it and the job of ripping out the foam will take hours. Once the spa is out of warranty, you can pay the engineer 5 hours labour to source and repair the leak. Usually it also means that where sprayed foam has been used as structural support, the maker cannot cannot pull the spa shells very deep, since the shell material is thin and cheap to begin with.

One particular maker claims that they fully foam the shell so as to keep the noise from the pipes down and all I can say is that is must be a badly designed Hot Tub if they have to do that

If you can feel under the shell of the Hot Tub do so and try and feel its strength or possible weakness, if it feels damp to the touch or perhaps slightly crumbly this gives one a clue that the shell is not properly cured. I personally would not buy a Hot Tub if the shell felt like that and I have seen many that fit that description usually cheap eastern imports.

It always pays to probe beneath the surface and just do not listen to the patter of some zombie like sales man or woman just repeating a script.

Another good idea is that you should always buy a Hot Tub with Balboa Controls a company from California, which is undoubtedly one of the worlds leading manufacturers and very well known for reliability and accessibility of spares.

It is best to buy a spa which is made by a leading American or Western manufacturer preferably one with decades of years of experience and therefore they will have had the time and experience to be able to design and construct models where the components naturally work well together.

Leading Western manufacturers have developed their technically advanced systems so as to be able to maximize the performance from the pumps, heaters and blowers to give you the very best water flow to provide an excellent Hydro Massage.

In the latest designs, Water Jets are placed scientifically so as to maximize the flow of water to your body's pressure points, while allowing one to be able to control the intensity of the flow and pressure as required.

It speaks for its self that a well-engineered and designed product will lead to an outstanding hydrotherapy massage where perhaps one is able to enjoy a vigorous or perhaps soothing massage. It is great to have the ability to be able to customize and modify your massage experience to suit your mood.

In summary buy, the best spa you can afford but make sure that you do not buy a cheap eastern import or one that looks like a dog dish hot tub.

One should look for Balboa controls and proper branded acrylic and aim for a manufacturer who has been making spas for many years. A very good test is to see if your dealer is on first name terms with the owners and directors of the manufacturers obviously that is much harder if they based are in China!!!!