Love my new Acrylic Kohler Archer tub! We did our bathroom about 6 months ago, so it's had plenty of use to really compare it to our Cast Iron upstairs. I love long tubs with a good book. First thing I love that was noticeable right away: With my cast iron, I need to fill the tub before getting in, other wise my back absolutely freezes when I lie down and my skin hits the cast iron. With acrylic, it doesn't feel cold to the touch, the way cast iron does. Also, the Kohler archer has a special drain that allows you to get a really deep soak with a higher drain, which I love! No regrets with the acrylic, and no issues at all keeping it clean, either. Even with use daily, sometime multiple times.

I would not give it up at this point. Ask the plumber to get his wholesaler into it again - they likely have more pull than a single person buying a single tub. They were willing to replace the entire tub for him, at the very least they should be willing to do what they said they'd do before. I would question the wholesaler as to whether or not this tub was actually brand new and not a return. The first thing I thought of when you said there were spider cracks around the drain is that someone had overtightened the drain (my shower base manufacturer warned me that if you get a "gorilla" for a plumber this can sometimes happen). If you're sure your plumber didn't inflict the damage, I would suspect that the tub had been installed somewhere before. Alternately the tub could have been damaged somewhere in transit - again this should be an issue the wholesaler should be able to take up with their shipper. I'm half wondering if the wholesaler didn't even take it up with kohler but rather was going to do the swap for you just like that because it's easier. Ultimately you will decide how much effort you want to want to expend to get whoever is responsible to pay for the fix. It could be the wholesaler, it could be the shipper, it could be a manufacturing defect. Everyone is going to want to pass the buck on it too, but I'd keep after the plumber and wholesaler because I think it is more likely damage than a defect. At the same time you might want to tell Kohler that you want someone out there to SEE the defect (be careful not to say the word "damage") and actually make a determination about whether it is a defect or not - because surely they can't do that over the phone. Ask to speak to a supervisor if necessary. It sucks that you are dealing with this with your brand new tub though :(.

Yes, a cast iron tub is a lifetime tub. We are remodeling our upstairs bath and keeping the tub. Its 30 yrs old, because it still looks new, and its white, which is what we are going for anyway. Cast iron is made to last. When we first put the tub in 30 yrs ago, we were in our late 20's so we, with the help of a friend, hauled that tub up a flight of stairs and into place. No way could we lift that now. We could, and probably will order another cast iron when the time comes and have it put in place. Right now we are in the middle of our DIY upstairs bath renovation, so I haven't hit my DH with the idea of remodeling the other bathroom, I can imagine the reaction I will get. All in good time...............

Yup. I would get it out of there and start with new. Hammer it to bits and get it out. And this is coming from someone who loves all things old. We had ours reglazed, but could do it easily b/c we were restoring the whole house down to the studs. They came in and sandblasted it and painted it while there was nothing else in the house. Then it had months to cure before anyone used it. These were ideal conditions, but I don't think I would have done it otherwise.