The whole point of a hot tub is to feel comfortable and relaxed.  Cheap models can be uncomfortable, with badly-contoured seats, thoughtlessly-placed jets, confusing controls and annoying features. Poorly designed tubs don’t usually take into consideration different body-types.  Some tubs are cramped for tall people or too deep for children and short people.  Large people sometimes feel squeezed by aggressively contoured seating.

The hot tub industry knows that people are more likely to buy a spa that feels comfortable on the showroom floor.   Sometimes features like foam padding, detailed ergonomic sculpting, and “lean back seating” are introduced to give the spa model “comfort appeal” when you sit in them without water.  Salespeople gush about “see how comfortable it is”, because it sells tubs.  

 But it’s extremely important to keep in mind that everything changes when it’s full of water because of the buoyancy factor and jet currents.   In a full hot tub, you can barely feel the pressure points you feel when sitting in an empty tub because you’re almost neutral gravity when fully submerged.  

A poorly designed recliner combined with poorly planned jetting may feel great when you sit in the dry shell at the showroom, but when you fill it with water, you float up and away and your legs don’t stay in place.  A well-designed recliner keeps you anchored in the recliner even when it’s full of water with jets going full speed.