PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE FOR THIS GUIDE. It has been viewed over 6000 times but so few people have thanked me! - Where else will you get a guide like this including running costs. ( Some people sell the running costs on EBAY - Why pay?) PLEASE PLEASE vote to keep this guide at the top of your ( google) search. - Thanks Chris.............

Bought Lay Z Spa from Stack-m-High in June 2007.
Easy to set up. Inflated and ready to fill in about 15 minutes. Takes 1 hour to fill using garden hose. and Overnight ( 14 hours) to heat to 40 degrees.
After 2 weeks the Heater failed and would not heat the water. Bestway Uk help line sent replacement very swiftly. This second unit seems a lot better and so far has worked perfectly.
I bought a chemical kit with Chlorine - PH+ PH- Test Strips and anti foam for £45 delivered. This is a large kit (CLEARWATER brand) - this lasted all last summer ( 2007) and still has half left.
We used the spa most days and its really nice. The water is lovely and hot and the bubbles are very powerful and relaxing.
The spa water quality needs some maintenance by using a test strip every few days or after every use and then adding the right amount of chemicals to keep the water in safe condition - but this is fairly easy to do as the instructions with the kit I bought are very easy to follow.
After a month or so depending on use the water will need draining and replacing but you get an attachment to do this which again attaches to a gardens hose - it takes a little longer to drain though at about 2-3 hours. it is possible to use a pump - like a pond pump and a general water pump to empty it faster

We have ours under a gazebo with side panels and low voltage lighting making it very private. Someone we know who also have one of these dug a hole in the garden and lowered into into the ground so you step down into it - Nice Idea - if you like digging holes!

All in all - despite the stories you might hear of reliability issues - its well worth it and a nice purchase that brings a lot of fun for the money in our opinion.

If you read about anyone having numerous pumps replaced it might suggest they ahvn't followed the operating instructions regarding bleeding the air valve each time BEFORE using the heater button - which according to another user I have spoken to resulted in 3 broken pumps - SO be carefull!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE JUNE 2008.

I packed the lay-z-spa away at the end of last summer , carefully drying it down and taking care to get all the "nooks and crannies" well dried out. I then wiped it over with an antibacterial spray. This is worth while as if you don't do this you are likely to get mildew that would need cleaning off after you unpack it from its winter storage ( or you may choose to keep it set up in the winter and not have this problem !).

When packing mine up and deflating it I had been careless and managed to puncture the top sidewall on a small sharp stone. When I set it back up I used one of he clear repair patches supplied with the lay-z-spa - and it worked perfectly being air tight and still working perfectly well. Equally the Heater is still going strong 1 month after I set it back up from last year - not like all the other horror stories you will have read about! - either I'm just lucky or you only hear on Ebay if its gone wrong! Mine still works well........so it looks like another summer in the garden for me...... :)

UPDATE Early October 2008

After a faultless Summer with lots of days in the lazy SPA & despite the 2 damaged gazebos due to high winds, it has been another great summer with family and friends in the warm and relaxing water.

Currently I'm deciding if to keep it running for a bit longer. The manual says not to have it set up in temperatures under 5 degrees C ( 40 F) which most nights are now but I would really like to try and run it a bit longer for those cold nights where a HOT SPA would be really nice. I'll keep the update going as I can't seem to find anyone else who has information on what the LAY-Z-SPA is like in colder ( uk) Autumn even winter ( if i'm brave enough ) weather...........I'll keep U posted !

Update Spring 2009 - ******running costs*******

Someone who read this guide said it would be useful to get an idea of running costs. So heres my guide.

My electricity supplier charges me just short of 5p a unit ( a kilowatt hour) . The heater is a 2kw heater. So roughly every hour of heating costs 10p!

Your initial heat up from filling it ( presuming you use cold water and not straight from your hot water tank) will take overnight, roughly 12 hours. so that about £1.20.

If you use it every day / night it will depend on the outside temperature and how much the water temp drops but i found if i used it on an evenning by the middle of the next afternoon it may have dropped approx 10 degrees , so it would need a 5 hour heat up to get it back to full temperature....so thats roughly a £50p . So if you use it EVERY day ( you might at first but won't after a while) it would cost a 50p a day in electricity. But in reality you won't heat it every day.

The two other main costs would be Filters & chemicals. Both will depend on useage but a £45 chemical kit lasted me 2 years, with me just needing to buy more chlorine and test strips which cost about £5. Filters need changing every week with heavy use or every other week with standard use. if you buy in bulk you are looking at £2.50 each.

UPDATE.......

September 2010

I have had another full summer of use from my lazy spa! Still on the heater that was replaced after 2 weeks and still all original liner and cover. I am amazed it has lasted this long.........the top cover has perished a little however it is still effective . It had pciked up anothe puncture when i packed it away last year, but i managed to find it and repair it with the repair patches supplied when new.

Top value, when you consider I paid £300 new and have had 4 summers out of it, and all being well next year as well.

Some people think this is expensive, but running a lay-z- spa is as cheap or cheaper than running a "proper" hot tub and you havn't paid as much in the first place to buy the thing! - Go on buy a lay-z-spa !!!!!!!!