Love the spa. The Love Muffin and I live in Maine. Cold days, colder nights. We are the 3rd owners of this tub. The 2nd owners we know and bought the tub from them. They were gifted a newer Soverign 2001. They liked the older tub better because it had the roto jet on one of the seats and the back massage on the lounger. Their newer tub does not. I have replaced one item in my tub. The stainless steel cover for the heater coil had developed a small leak at the weld seam. Cost me $97 bucks to replaced it...well worth it. I found that after a while of using it, you kinda get the feel for the chemical balance you should have. We change the water every 4 months and I check the water with the strips about every other time we use it. We use sometimes 2 times a day. I really love sitting in it while its snowing. I put a wool watch cap on and hop in. I keep a battery operated radio nearby to use for sporting events or 80's night. Battery operated radio is key around the tub for safety sakes. I have my tub on the ground and leveled patio blocks. I made a step for the tub, so climbing in is much easier. I also used pressure treated decking and made a deck all around the tub which I covered with indoor/outdoor carpet. Much easier on the feet. I made a custom cover holder that allows one person to flip open the cover, get in the tub, then slide the folded cover off the edge to expose the whole tub. When your done tubbing, you simply get out, push the folded cover back to the middle then flip it closed to enclose it again. I should include a photo of this cover holder. It was easy to make and cheap too. It's my own design and I don't mind anyone copying it or modifying it to their tubs specs.
We were thinking about getting a newer tub, but we just love this Soverign 1990 classic. Happy tubbing.