"We believe that our customers appreciate being given a choice of therapy intensity. Not everyone wants full strength therapy and they don't want to be blasted out of their seats! So the jets and power are fully adjustable. Everyone can have the soothing therapy that they desire. Our customers deserve this. The customer can adjust the zones of therapy to their liking by turning the diverter valves."....
Reality:
The salesman will make you believe diverter valves are worth their weight in gold.
Diverter valves do indeed divide the spa into "zones". There are either 2 or 3 diverter valves on the top of the spa. The user is required to manipulate these 2 or 3 valves to get water flowing to the jets in any particular seat. Let's say there are two seats on one side of the spa. The diverter when turned one way, will send the water to seat A. Turn it the other way, and water goes to seat B. Same goes for the other side of the spa. A diverter valve there lets you choose between seat C or seat D. Adding a third diverter valve really makes it confusing. For example, turning diverter valve #3 will turn off the middle seat and provide jets to the lounge leg area. Got that? See the diagram at the bottom of this page.
There are three facts about diverter valves that the spa shopper should understand. First, the diverter valve adds a major water flow restriction to the spa plumbing. The first thing that the water runs into after leaving the spa pump is a restrictive valve that forces the water to make a sharp 90 degree turn. This resistance reduces the water pressure that goes to the jets. Secondly, the spa shopper often doesn't realize that all of the jets in the spa can't be run at the same time. That is, until they get the hot tub home. Bathers must wait or take turns to sit in seats with good water pressure. Thirdly, the only reason that diverter valves are there in the first place is because the pumps are only strong enough to supply any real therapy power to only one seat at a time. The manufacturers save money and increase profits by using lower power/cheaper pumps in the spa.
Efficient Spa Design:
Haven Spas are designed intentionally without diverter valves in order to reduce restrictions/resistance to water flow. Less resistance means more pump power reaching the jets. All the seats may be run at full power at the same time if desired. No bather needs to wait for a turn to get the hydrotherapy benefit of a hot tub. The jets in each seat of a Haven Spa are fully adjustable from light to strong or can be turned off individually as desired. No diverter valve changes are required. Haven Spa's design truly gives the user a full choice of control. The Haven design is much more user friendly because it is so simple to use.
How many diverter valves do you see on these Spas?
Of course, there are none. The 2 small valve handles are air controls. Those blank spaces are where the diverter valves would have gone.
Below is a diagram of a spa with diverter valves. Diverter valves make the day to day operation of the spa overly complex. Do you understand this diagram?
