Softub

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On the road somewhere in America are at least two motor homes with hot tubs.

They are made from polyolefin foam and include vinyl covers, a plug-in heater and three bubble jets.

Yes, they can be disassembled and put together again.

No, the owners cannot soak while the RVs are moving.

“Because these spas break into pieces, you can set them up in places where you otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” said Richard Mayne, vice president of sales and marketing for Chatsworth-based Softub Inc., which is marketing the product.

The new, break-apart tubs are Softub’s lightest and most portable yet, and provide a potential new market for the 12-year-old company.

Indeed, outdoor spa sales have been flat for several years, according to Suzanne Stearns, spokeswoman for the National Spa and Pool Institute, a trade group in Alexendria, Va.

In 1993, the last year for which figures are available, about 380,000 spas were sold, and anecdotal evidence suggests the figure has not risen much since then, she said.

Despite their image as the province of gold-chain-wearing swinging singles, the majority of hot tubs these days are purchased by families, Stearns said.

“Sales are fueled by people looking for stress reduction and a place to strengthen relationships with their families,” she said. “The image has changed over the past 20 years.”

The Softub products are part of that transformation. Since being introduced in September, 1,300 of the break-apart tubs have been sold (with a list price of $1,795). The two newest models will be sold by Softub’s wholly owned subsidiary, Variel Health International.

In June, the new spas will be featured in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog.

Todd Thornbury, owner of American Hot Tub Co. in Montrose, has sold four of the break-apart spas including one to the owner of a bed-and-breakfast who liked the idea of a hot tub in an attic room but couldn’t move one up a ladder.

Then there are the two RV owners who wanted the tubs boxed up in their vehicles in the event they desire a spa session during their travels.

Thornbury said the tubs take about 20 minutes to assemble, then must be filled with water and plugged in to power their heater and jets.

Another advantage to the new tub is that the whole thing can be packed into three boxes.

“Some people have a cabin way off in Timbuktu where they don’t want to haul a spa or can’t have it delivered,” he said. “With this, they can just have it shipped.”

Mayne said it took about five years to develop the break-apart tubs, with one of the biggest design problems being how to make them easy to assemble.

Softub’s regular line appeals mainly to people who don’t want to spend what is usually a minimum of $4,000 on an acrylic spa, said Steve Lerner, manager of the Torrance-based South Bay Spas, which sells Softub products as well as acrylic tubs.

He said customers also want Softub products because they fit in places like apartment balconies, which don’t have the space or the support structure to accommodate an acrylic spa.

Softub product inventor Roc Fleishman made the first “soft tub” in 1985, reasoning that foam could be used to make a spa that is less expensive, more easily movable and requires less space than the usual spas made from acrylic.

Softub is a privately held company owned by Fleishman and one other partner. The company does not release sales figures, but Mayne said it sold 9,200 tubs in 1997 compared to 7,500 units in 1992.

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