As Good As it Gets...and then some
Written: Jun 03 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: comfortable; easy to set up & use; no plumbing involved; excellent physical therapy; delicious!
Cons: not cheap - but less than others; I can't be in it all the time!
The Bottom Line: I recommend this product very, very highly. Go for it - you will feel and look better!
|
|
|
| cathyb53's Full Review: Softub T-300+ Spa |
As a person who suffers from Fibromyalgia as well as other chronic pain syndromes, I had always known that soaking in a hot tub would be exactly what my aching, cramped body needed. Apart from the fact that the more conventional hot tubs were incredibly expensive and a pain in the neck to install & maintain, the hot tubs I had been in were, well, just plain too hard for me to sit in comfortably. In addition (don't laugh!), the hard jets were too strong for me; they actually hurt me! Ridiculous, I know, but welcome to my world... Besides, we had just not considered ourselves to be "hot tub people", so the notion of being able to soak in an always-available huge warm tub of water to ease my pain seemed out of reach. It was one of those "maybe someday" kind of dreams.
But then one day my physical therapist said that a hot tub was really the only way she could think of for me to get both the comfort I needed and a way to do any kind of regular physical exercise,without aggravating the pain situation. She said it could be justified as a medical need in my case, and even offered to write a letter to that effect so that the purchase of a hot tub could be included as a medical expense for tax purposes. Her business partner, who also has Fibromyalgia, had recently purchased a Softub, and she highly recommended that I give one a try. This recommendation (and neither she nor I have any affiliation with the Softub company) carried sufficient weight with my husband that we decided to see if we could make it happen.
We first rented one from a local dealer, so we could check it out without a major commitment. He came to set it up & answer any questions we might have about maintenance, etc. We were sold the minute I stepped in and sank down to my neck in blessedly warm, gently bubbling water. The Softub is truly everything I could have hoped for, and more!
What does it look like? If you've never seen a Softub, it's basically just a big, round tub made of some soft-but-strong modern foam & covered on the outside with what looks like Naugahyde. You plop it down on your deck, floor, flat ground, whatever. Inside or outside. Some people even put them in their bedrooms. I can't imagine that there wouldn't be some amount of splashing & dripping involved, so you'd have to think carefully about that if you were putting it inside. Because they are free-standing, with only a small unit for the motor and the controls, and because they are independent of your plumbing, all you need is a flat surface (be sure it can support the weight of 300 gallons of water however-many people you will have in it), a garden hose long enough to reach your water tap, and a water source. You can go here: http://www.softub.com/softub_com/www/300.htm to check out the specs & other details. We actually filled ours using water pumped from an above-ground pool we no longer use.
Here's the beauty part: the heater runs by recovering its own heat. From the brochure:
"The HydroMate II heater/pump unit heats your
Softub’s water using only the heat recovered from
the pump motor! This eliminates faulty heaters and
dramatically reduces hot tub operating costs…"
Very cool, huh?
How easy is it to set up and run? Extremely! There is no complicated business involving plumbers, plumbing, pipes, or any of that stuff. Our dealer just rolled it off his truck, unpacked it, and set it up on our back porch/covered deck. Think of setting up a good-quality, non-inflatable kiddie wading pool: it's almost that straightforward. I admit that I didn't pay that much attention to the details of filling it, but basically you just fill it from a garden hose. Our guy added about a tankful of hot water (maybe 30 gallons?), and then just ran the outside hose to fill it. It takes about 300 gallons; it did tax our country-living well, so when we filled the one we purchased we learned to fill it with the hose on a timer over a period of a couple of days, which kept our water from getting silty. The chlorine and a water clarifier are easy to add, and it comes with a starter kit that has everything you need. (My hubby also takes care of this, so he's the expert, but it is all very simple & straightforward.)
Once the water is in, it takes a while to come up to temperature (I think it was about 36 hrs. in our case). With the Softub 300, you can adjust the water temp very easily with a simple up-down touch control, and the temp is clearly displayed in LED. For me, about 102 - 104 degrees has felt the best, but it is as easy as can be to adjust.
One of the things I like about the Softub is that the jets are much gentler than in the other hot tubs I've been in - even at the highest setting (easily adjusted by a lever-like control),more like a stream of bubbles than like an assault by a firehose. I like to have the jets off most of the time. The one thing you can't control is that, because the heat comes from the motor itself, they will come on (at the lowest setting) to maintain the heat of the water if it drops below the temperature you've set. Not a problem - just something to be aware of. The jets are well-placed, with 2 at your lower back if you're on the built-in soft seat, and the others at various spots around the pool. Perfect for me - I can get my back & my feet directly in the jets at the same time!
There's also an underwater LED light you can turn on, with various settings & colors. Ooooh, Baby, Baby! We chose a dark green exterior with a light blue interior, and it looks really cool at night with the light on. The seat is very comfy, even for me - and I'm incredibly sensitive about seating! Large, soft, the right height - what more could you want? A pillow, you say? We got 2 pillows from our dealer, contoured to the curve of the tub; they are supposed to stay in place by a counterweight that hangs over the outside of the tub, but we don't use them much, because the edge itself is so comfy to lean against. We also bought a contoured step that fits around a section of the outside, since I'm pretty short and often limited in how much I can lift my leg; these work fine, and are a good addition to the general set-up.
How has my life changed in the two months since we bought it? I can't express how glad I am that we took the plunge & bought the Softub 300+! I use it every day, sometimes two or three times a day. I hobble out to it first thing in the morning, when I'm so stiff I can barely make it to the bathroom, and I come out of it moving freely, with much less pain and feeling like I might be able to actually do something useful. I hop in it after I've been gardening for hours, sore and not even able to stand up straight, and I emerge restored and soothed. I am able to exercise in the warm water, not only stretching out the kinks but doing active water exercise like I used to do in my water aerobics classes; I am getting toned and, hopefully, strengthened, and I have much less muscle and joint tenderness than I used to. I am able to move more freely, and for a longer time. I get in it at night with my husband after work - sweet! (No more details...)
But most of all, I am absolutely in love with the experience of sitting in my hot tub, absolutely comfortable and supported by the warm water, looking over our beautiful countryside and listening to my dear birds, smelling the fresh-mown grass or the sweet flower smells of the air. I love it during a rainstorm, as I watch the rain dash down while I sit warm & cozy in my tub on the deck. I haven't used it in the winter months yet, but I have been out there in some pretty chilly weather, down to about 38 degrees, and it is just as pleasurable as on a bright warm, sunny day. I feel better overall, I have much less pain, and I enjoy everything in my life more. What more could I possibly want? Life is sweet!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
cathyb53
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Cathy B.
Location: beautiful Ithaca NY
Reviews written: 133
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"...Bob Dylan
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.