Reviews
Coast Spas Brand Review
Coast Spas are well-made spas with good quality components and a decently strong shell. Coast Spas focuses in the right area - making good quality hot tubs!
The only real downside when it comes to a Coast Spa is that they are not great for muscle massage since a Coast Spa has primarily low-flow, high-pressure jets which means cheaper prices at the expense of massage quality.
Shell
The shell of a Coast Spa is one of the strongest in the industry. It gets top scores in our shell strength calculator and for good reason - hand rolled fiberglass and lots of it. That means the shell will likely outlast all other components is the hot tub, which is the way it should be. Too many companies make good hot tubs filled with great components but then put all those components in a weak shell but Coast Spas does it differently. They make a super strong shell that will last for years with no dangers of cracking or de-laminating. So many manufacturers could take a page from the playbook of Coast Spas on making shells, it would make this industry so much easier to navigate for buyers!
Components
There are some manufacturers who make a great shell but then fill the hot tub with lousy components (or proprietary parts that they can lock in a ton of money from you in years to come) but Coast Spas actually puts good components in their spas. What a concept! The one downside, though, is that these components are lacking in some ways. You will find 4 and 5 HP pumps in a Coast Spa compared to 6HP in the top end brands (brake HP ratings) which would be too light for the larger high-flow jets and is likely why you don’t find many of the high-flow jets in a Coast Spa. The power of the pumps is sufficient for the jet package but the combination of lower power pumps and mostly low-flow, high-pressure jets means that a Coast Spa will be much less effective for quality muscle massage than some other brands. This does allow them to reduce costs and they are honest enough to use those savings to give you, the customer lower prices.
Construction
When it comes to construction of a spa, there is a simple method of making great spas - make a strong shell, fill it with great components, connect it all properly and then insulate it with full foam. Coast Spas does pretty much all of that and does it well. As noted above, the shell is one of the strongest in the industry and Coast Spas uses great components (although somewhat lower end on the specification side of things) and then they properly clamp all the plumbing joints and fill it with good insulation. The importance of clamping the plumbing lines cannot be overstated. For every jet in a hot tub, there are two connection points to worry about the line going to that jet and the only way to avoid dozens of potential leak points is to clamp the line at each end and Coast Spas does that. We take them down a small notch for the lower spec’d components but these are well built spas.
Efficiency
What can we say about efficiency other than full foam is king? Full foam (open cell foam so it doesn’t harden making repairs much easier) is far superior to the “revolutionary” perimeter systems or “space-age” blankets that many other manufacturers use. Full foam provides better insulation and is healthier for the equipment because the pumps and pack are not held in an extreme high-heat environment. Coast Spas uses proper, open-cell foam to make the hot tub as efficient as it can possibly be.
Overall
Overall, Coast is a very good budget choice for a hot tub provided you don't have a need for high-end muscle massage and assuming the dealer is pricing the hot tubs at a fair price. While they are great tubs, many dealers do over-price them so beware of pricing!
If someone were to ask me the best way to make a budget brand hot tub, I would send them to the Coast Spas factory. While Coast Spas can’t compete with the top-tier brands for muscle massage therapy, they usually compete quite handily when it comes to price. If massage quality is not important to you or therapy is low on your list of priorities, you will simply not go wrong purchasing a Coast Spa.
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