It’s one thing to research swim spas and learn how they can help your family improve physical fitness, train for sports, rehabilitate injuries, ease symptoms of health conditions, and relax. It’s even better to read about a family’s personal swim spa feedback.
Carl and Shari Keener from Woodbine, Maryland have been proud SwimEx owners since 2007. They shared their swim spa feedback: highlights about their pool, what made them choose SwimEx, the cost of buying their swim spa, and everything in between.
What made you consider buying a swim spa?
In 2005, my wife blew out her ACL while skiing. We met with the doctor and looked at our options. With two small children at the time, surgery was not an option. So our doctor fitted her with a knee brace and recommended swimming as the best exercise to strengthen her knee.
At that point, we looked into joining a health club and the membership fees for a family plan ran about $300 to $400 each month. Then we thought about what it would take to get to the gym every other day. Between working full-time and covering the kids after school activities, there were not enough hours in a day to fit in swimming. So we started looking into at-home options: that’s when we found swim spas.
Why did you choose SwimEx?
We did a lot of homework and research on the internet. When we came across SwimEx, we discovered it was designed specifically for rehabilitation activities but you could also do so much more. The paddlewheel design was impressive and the unit as a whole looked extremely solid and reliable. Also, the fact that many professional athletes use SwimEx pools to rehab from their injuries pretty much made SwimEx the best choice for us.
- Find out more about the SwimEx paddlewheel design.
What about swim spa costs?
All the swim spas we looked at had a similar price range; they were between 10k to 50k. Basically the cost of a decent new car. So, that is how we decided to pay for it. We set up a $400 monthly payment using a home equity loan amortized over 5 years. And since it was a home equity loan, the interest was tax deductible.
Making the purchase – what were your expectations?
I would describe it initially as cautiously optimistic, but after talking with the company I could tell, even over the phone, that they knew they had a good product and it would get done right.The actual purchase was simple: select the pool and options you want, make the payment, then wait for SwimEx to give you a delivery date.
The SwimEx team spent a lot of time on the phone with us from the very beginning down to explaining what we would need to get the spa off the truck and placed properly. They also provided a list of installers that work exclusively with SwimEx. After we chose our installer Chris, he contacted SwimEx and worked with them to make sure everything arrived on time. The only thing we had to do was find a local electrician to wire the swim spa.
How much does your family use the SwimEx?
Over the past 7 years, the pool has probably been used by someone in our household about every other day. At first, it was my wife doing her rehab. Then when the kids were little (5 and 7), they played in the pool year-round. We often had pool parties in the middle of winter.
A cute side story about that: when my daughter was 13 she was upset because she was the shortest person on her basketball team. So I told her, if she swam 20 minutes each day, by the end of basketball season she would not be the shortest player on the team. And sure enough, with the aid of the SwimEx and mother nature she grew 6 inches that year. She was hooked.
Most recently, I wanted to learn how to scuba dive, but I was not a good swimmer. I sink like a stone. So, my wife finally got me into the SwimEx and the entire family got open water certified last summer.
~ Authored by Liz Lecomte
