What "Certified Used" Actually Involves Before a Spa Hits Our Floor

Certified used is a phrase the spa industry uses loosely. Here is exactly what it means when we say it, so you can hold other sellers to the same standard.

What happens before a tub goes on our floor

It comes in and it gets stripped. Cabinet panels off, equipment bay opened, plumbing inspected end to end.

Every pump gets run and checked for bearing noise and seal weep. The heater gets tested for element condition and whether it holds temperature rather than just reaching it. The control pack gets powered and every function exercised. Every jet gets checked individually for pressure and for bearing wear, because a jet that spins roughly today is a jet that seizes in a year.

Worn parts get replaced, not cleaned. Then the shell gets inspected in good light for stress cracking around seat transitions and the footwell, which is where fatigue shows first. The cabinet base gets checked for rot, because that is where water sits.

Then it gets filled, heated and run on our floor for long enough that anything intermittent has a chance to show itself here rather than at your house.

Why buy used at all

Because the parts that matter do not depreciate at the rate the sticker does.

Jets, therapy seat geometry, shell construction and insulation are the same on day one thousand as on day one, assuming the tub was cared for and anything worn has been replaced. The price, meanwhile, falls off a cliff the moment a spa leaves a showroom.

Put a certified premium spa next to a brand new entry-level one at the same money and the used one wins on therapy every time. It is not close. Our PDC Bali with 143 jets is $9,488 against a $15,800 MSRP. For that money, new buys you a considerably more basic tub.

Display models are the lowest risk version of this

A display model lived on our floor. It was filled, powered, run continuously and sat in by people trying it out. Then it was drained, flushed and cleaned. That is the entire history of it, and we watched all of it.

That is arguably better provenance than a brand new unit that has sat crated in a warehouse since spring, because manufacturing faults show up early and a display unit had somewhere safe to show them.

What to ask any seller

Can I see it running, full and hot, right now. What specifically was replaced. How old is the unit. What happens if something fails in the first month.

If a seller cannot answer those four questions, the discount is not a discount, it is a gamble priced like one.

The parts people forget to budget

The pad, if you do not have a proper one. A dedicated circuit and a licensed electrician. Gate access, measured before delivery is booked. And a decent cover, which does more for your running cost and for whether you actually use the tub than almost any feature on the spec sheet.

See one on the floor

We are at 3289 TX-101 in Bridgeport with Bullfrog, HotSpring, Jacuzzi, PDC Spas, Master Spas, Cal Spas, L.A. Spas and Endless Pools, certified used from around $6,488. In-house financing, and we ship nationwide.

Call 936.333.0770 or email sales@txspaguy.com. Ask us to open a cabinet and show you the equipment bay. We will.

Related: Certified-used units on the floor · Book a showing