Our Story | The Hot Tub Store

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Our Story | The Hot Tub Store

Our Story

EACH DAY BEGINS & ENDS WITH A MORE RELAXED YOU

A hot tub is more than just warm water and jets. It is a great way to spend time together, unwind and relieve tension. Hot tubbing is a lifestyle choice. An escape from the aches and pains and the day-to-day grind.

OUR STORY

The Hot Tub Store has been bringing the joys of hot tubbing to Northern California homes for over 50 years—longer than any other hot tub company.

It all started back in 1970, when Bob Wismer and his family moved from the L.A. area to Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. He’d learned about this fascinating new thing called the ‘hot tub’ from reading Sunset Magazine. At that time, hot tubs were simply large redwood barrels filled with hot water. He found there was no way to buy one and, being a handy guy, Bob and his friend Rick acquired the components and built a redwood hot tub. They started making hot tubs in the garage on the weekends, thinking it was going to be a fad for a year or two.

Realizing that hot tubbing was more than a passing fad, Bob opened a store in downtown Santa Rosa in 1973. That first store was on 4th Street in what is now known as Old Railroad Square. There was a fully functional redwood hot tub on display, plus three or four in stock and ready to be assembled and installed on people’s properties.

As business picked up, Bob soon partnered with Danny Matula in 1976. Danny worked building hot tubs on the weekends while teaching school during the week.

The old barrel design began to evolve. The simple redwood barrels were custom-built onsite, and holes were drilled for jets to be installed. External plumbing was installed to jet pumps and gas heaters, and the first hydrotherapy hot tubs were born in Sonoma County! The Hot Tub Store was on the leading edge of relaxation technology.

In 1977, Danny opened a second hot tub store location in the town of Sonoma.

In 1979, the two stores were consolidated to one larger complex in North Santa Rosa consisting of an old farm house and a large yard area for hot tub fabrication. More hands were needed to keep up with the growing demand, so kids helped their dads with the building of hot tubs and delivery to people’s backyards. Some of those kids are adult members of the present-day Hot Tub Store team.

The industry was catching on to this “fad” in the early 1980s and realizing that these ‘hot tubs’ were actually popular and desirable. Soon there were several companies starting to manufacture custom plastic molded spas in various shapes and sizes. These prefabricated molded plastic spas came in different colors and could have jetting and heaters installed, like their redwood counterparts.

The original ‘hot tub’ was made of wood, so these new plastic tubs were referred to as ‘spas.’ Today, the terms are interchangeable and refer to all manufactured plastic molded hot tubs. The original wooden hot tub has now mostly been replaced because the gas heaters are extremely energy inefficient compared with their high-tech electric counterparts. There are still some companies building cedar hot tubs, but these aren’t recommended for daily hot tub enjoyment nowadays.

In the early days, hot tubs and spas were custom-made, but over the course of time, we ended up selling many manufacturers’ brands. The Hot Tub Store at the old farmhouse in North Santa Rosa is the place where, in 1979, we sold our first Hot Spring® brand spa—a rather unusual looking, dog dish that ran on 110 volts. It was definitely different looking (maybe even a bit on the ugly side), but it worked! It was the first self-contained, fully insulated unit that had all the equipment built into the cabinet.

Standing the test of time, Hot Spring® spas always stood out above the rest—even in their early designs. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) did a test of several major hot tubs manufactured at that time and found the only hot tub that was at all energy efficient was the Hot Spring® spa model. It was found to cost about $12 per month, and it held its temperature for four days! In comparison, redwood and other plastic shell models typically lost temperature overnight. The Hot Spring® spa models of today are still designed and built with energy efficiency as one of the most important features so they can be used and enjoyed daily.

In the late 1980s, The Hot Tub Store also began selling swim spas as a versatile and cost-effective alternative to traditional swimming pools. We learned through experience that a certain brand stands head and shoulders above the rest. Today, we are proud to offer the Endless Pools® line of amazing aquatic fitness system swim spas. These swim spas offer the most unique and smoothest current to swim against and for aquatic exercise.

Over the decades, The Hot Tub Store grew from being based in one family’s garage in Santa Rosa into a much larger business with 12 stores throughout Northern California, representing different spa brands. Danny’s wife, Ellen Friedman, joined the family business, and provided leadership for more than twenty years as the President of the company. Danny continued teaching public school and running the construction arm of the business, while Bob focused on the bookkeeping side of things. The Hot Tub Store team grew to include several other families who helped it become the successful hot tub dealership we are today.

Some of the key players over the years included Ellen’s brother, Dan Friedman, who joined the business and helped with sales and marketing. Steve Lindsay joined the business and helped with service and technology. Jeremy Haydock joined the business and led the logistics and operations side of things. The business continued to grow and support more than 30,000 happy hot tub customers.

During the great recession in 2008, the hot tub business, like so many others, struggled to make ends meet. We kept all our employees in place and adjusted our operations. The business was consolidated in a decision to specialize and represent only the highest quality brand, Hot Spring® spas. Ellen led The Hot Tub Store team to a place of success until her premature loss against a battle with Cancer in 2013.

Danny and Ellen’s son, Sky Matula, stepped in as President of The Hot Tub Store in 2013. Our passion is bringing wellness and relaxation to all of Northern California. Our sales team, service team, delivery team and office team are all treasures. It is the team of amazing people who work in our company who provide exceptional experiences for our valued customers. We continue to win numerous customer service awards each year, including the prestigious Locksin Thompson award for the world’s top dealer of Hot Spring® spas.

One of the reasons that The Hot Tub Store continues to serve so many valued hot tub customers is that our team members truly take pride in being a part of this organization. All of our hard working people strive to provide our family of customers with the best hot tub ownership experience possible. We are hot tubbers ourselves and we understand how hot tubbing improves people’s lives. When hot tubbing becomes a part of the daily routine, it actually becomes one of the best parts of your life. Hot tubbing allows you to relax and let go of stress, and connect with the people who are most important to you.

It has been shown over the years that hot tubs are actually a device that helps us to defy age. Hot tubs are a wellness appliance. Soaking in hot water helps to relieve stress, helps our blood to flow better and allows oxygen to get to where our bodies need it, allows our muscles to relax and lengthen, and helps us to sleep more soundly and better at night. The health benefits of hot tubbing are many and a daily soak in the hot tub has become routine for most of our valued customers.

Another important aspect of our business is the ways we give back to our community. We donate hot tubs to those who need the wellness benefits, but who can not afford the purchase. We donate over $100,000.00 annually to local non profit organizations that serve the communities where we do business. Giving back to our communities is important to us.

We encourage you to visit our showrooms and meet our amazing team of hot tub experts. You are part of our valued family of hot tubbers.

Today we operate several showrooms in Northern California. Along with Hot Spring® Spas we now carry Caldera® Spas, Freeflow® Spas and saunas. We have a customer service department with factory certified technicians and more than 10 vans on road. We have two distribution warehouses where we deliver products out of. We are poised to be here to support our valued hot tubbers for the many years they own their hot tubs.

Please visit us so we can help improve your life with the incredible wellness benefits of a hot tub.

Everyone Deserves a Hot Tub from our team of world class experts at The Hot Tub Store!