I'll have to be honest, as much as I want to believe in Aquatic after talking with their incredibly enthusiastic and helpful cust srvc rep,as well as the most impressive specs on the market, I visited a showroom yesterday to experience the real deal (Infinity VII) and found the dry test-drive a bit harsh on the bones, i.e., doesn't conform to body like I had hoped, a little too upright and not conforming to the reclining torso. That test drive, albeit a dry run, convinced me this was not the tub for me despite it looking ideal on paper. Granted I wasn't able to float in the tub with water, so this is slightly unfair to the mfr, but getting in and out of the deep vessel along with reclining in the tub without water was surprisingly uncomfortable, and bone-crunching. I'm a young man still, and felt like multiple grab-bars on the walls would be de rigeur. The only reason I post this is not to discourage you from buying Aquatic, but because shopping for a whirlpool/airbath combo has been one of the most difficult quests I've experienced in planning my bath addition, and on paper, this was the tub for me, in vitro, this was NOT the tub for me. Just keep in mind that you simply must seek out a showroom to sample any tub prior to making the huge investment - not just money for the tub, but permanent plumbing specific to that tub leaves little room for future change of heart! For this reason, I've been very careful in ensuring that I'd be completely happy with the fit, and felt it necessary to share my experience. This is a decision 3 years in the making due to lack of showrooms that simply don't offer the real test drive or tub variety that gives you an overall gestalt. Again, Aquatic might be for you, but test drive it, or your regrets will eat you up. Other tubs I've crossed off the list, right or wrong, were Bain Ultra cause I simply wanted the combo, however, they seem to have an unbeatable reputation in the strictly air-bath category. Sani-jet, I actually experienced with water, and the jets were simply too weak for me, but again all their specs looked good on paper. Neptune, I experienced in a hotel, and was extremely impressed, but when it came to owning one, the contour again wasn't something I'd want to recline in for an hour, and none of this years styles/profiles appeal to me. Americh, don't know. Maax.....two trades people gave me bad reviews saying they make the most comfortable, stylish tubs with the necessary whistles and bells, but technical issues required discontinuing their carrying the line....surprising, as Home Depot Expo was pushing this on me like you know what. What am I going with, well I did a dry test run on the Jason LX635 (6 foot) which meets my comfort criteria without water, looks great on paper, has been in the business for as long as Jacuzzi has been in business (Jason=son of Jacuzzi), and was carried by a local trusty high end fixture place with exceptional reputation and attentive to customer feedback. Again, I'm taking a risk without doing a 'wet' run, and their head pillow was so poorly placed, that I dissed the option, but overall, it met most of my criteria. Will keep you posted after install, etc. The most comfortable tub I've experienced was the Maax oval-shaped whirlpool-air combo (Pearl?), but again, I talked to two vendors who said they had issues with them which is highly unfortunate since comfort-wise and on paper it was the perfect tub, like sitting in a LazyBoy, but with water massage. I hope to seek something comparable in the Jason.

sturdy: The bubbles are nothing like carbonated soda bubbles. They have more force than that. They are larger, and turned all the way up feel like a body message to me. The water looks like a full raging boil. The force of individual water jets on other tubs is stronger but more localized. The Lasco tub I'm describing is strong enough for me that I turn it down. Shopping for this kind of stuff is crazy because I don't know of any place to try them all out in a row. One dealer talked down about bubble tub, another had no idea, another liked them. I love it. It is heaven to me with an adult beverage on the side.

We have the MTI caribe air tub. I LOVE it. It was similar in look to the Kohler Sok but less costly. The bubbles are really nice, and I added the in-tub radiant heat system and chromatherapy. The chromatherapy I pretty much never use. The radiant I do, but it takes a while to heat up so unless you remember to turn it on way before you take a bath, there's not really use to it. The air tub system is nice and the tub itself is comfortable. Let me know if you have other questions, I can answer them. Here is our MTI Caribe tub: This post was edited by beaglesdoitbetter on Sun, Dec 1, 13 at 11:44

Bill, thanks for the reply.. Attached is a photo of the exterior wall. The tub lip will be near the top edge of the lower piece of blue insulation. With the window, the additional furring around it, and the cross furring there is not that much rigid insulation. The plywood on the exterior wall was to take the place of furring strips to move the durarock out to fully overhang the tub. This would also give me more to screw the durarock to. As a byproduct, I hoped to gain a bit more insulation. Is the concern more the plywood (as opposed to furring strips which would allow more air movement), or is it the rigid insulation trapping moisture, or the combination? Would plywood be ok if there was no rigid insulation? From other posts, it was recommended that if using fiberglass with kraft facing, to cut the kraft paper face every foot. This would allow moisture to escape. Since the rigid insulation is not wider than a foot I thought it would allow sufficient moisture migration. As an alternative, I could just peel 1 inch of unfaced fiberglass insulation and place it on the exterior wall instead of the rigid insulation. I did this in the paneled basement that has a similar exterior wall (and it helped). Or if the concern is more the plywood, I could put furring strips in. Yes the existing furring strips were not very level. I replaced 2 (both sides of window), and added another just above the tub lip (for screws). Then with the plywood, shims and screws planned to make the surface more level for the durarock. From your post, I interpret that you may also be suggesting durarock directly on the existing furring strips (with vapor barrier). Thus no plywood or additional furring strips to move the durarock out farther and fully over the tub lip. Floating the wall might be easier, but I have my experience with thinset and tile so hoped to stick with that. For the 1.5 2 inches on the ends, I was going to again use plywood to furr the wall out. I planned to split the difference and make up some of the gap on each end. However, based on your suggestion I now plan to sister the 2x4 on the back wall and put most of the 1.5-2 inches there. Attached is a photo of the floor for completeness. I added another joist (2nd out from wall) between a steel I-beam and a wall that sits on a concrete floor below. The new joist was cross braced to the existing joist along the exterior wall. It was placed to sit under the left set of feet on the tub. The position of the tub feet are marked with white paper in the photo. I then used joist hangers to support the joist to be cut (3rd out from wall). I placed the cross support to sit almost under the right front tub foot. I then cross braced to support the tub left back foot. So all the tub feet will sit directly over a structural member. The tub feet are referenced from someone sitting in the tub facing the drain.