Scam-WATCH---Steam-Generators Compare Steam Spa - Steamist - MR. STEAM - KOHLER - Amerec - STEAMBATH - THERMASOL -Whirlpool - ROMA - STEAMCORE

Scam Watch

You know I’m never surprised when I come across the same marketing games and tactics in a product industry. When I started to do my deeper research in the Steam generator industry I was actually pleasantly surprised that for the most part companies were very professional. Even the Sales people at some of the main companies would never put down another competitor and would also never comment about another competitor’s product features.

This is something I would see just the opposite elsewhere.

The first warning I would let people know about if they are thinking of getting a steam generator and accessories for doing a shower conversion is that they should stay away from a couple brands I have reviewed. Those advertising heavy discounts usually sell these types. You’re not really going to save any money versus calling up the company directly or talk to a distributor. I have a couple good recommendations and connections to distributors who are usually the best people to negotiate with.

So what bugs me most about the steam spa industry?

Some of the companies out there that purchase their steam generator and parts directly from the same manufacturer but slap their own brand on it and try to advertise it as totally unique to other competitors. There are several companies that do this and in general they are the cheapest ones out there. They can also be recognized for having a very limited and short warranty.

Several of the better brands out there which is around 3-4 also happen to manufacture their own product. Some of these companies have spent several decades just building steamers. I usually avoid companies that are involved in all sorts of other home appliances and products. Perfect example is Kohler in my opinion. People would think that with a big name comes a great product but his is very seldom true anymore. I think this belief had more merit decades ago but in general a lot of these big name appliance and home product companies sold out for the most part and has cheap manufacturing overseas and is simply too big to care if they are not doing their best service with just one of their product categories.

The BIGGEST scam in the industry is finding out how several of the most popular steam companies designed their products internal components in a way that backs up their marketing and advertising efforts. What do I mean? Let me give you a specific example. If you have done a little bit of reading on the main better quality companies you will see some companies say they have dual tanks or split tanks etc. and because of having that it creates specific benefits that other company’s steam generators would seem to have. They might claim that the two tanks allow for a steady/constant flow of steam to fill the shower. Also having the two tanks leads to conserving more power or that having two tanks somehow can help with superior self flushing cleaning process after the session.

Sounds great right! Forget those inferior one tankers!! But these statements are not true..

In general steam generators are pretty simple devices and for sure there are differences with better quality ones than not but the issue decades ago was as more companies entered the market they needed to work harder on their marketing efforts to differentiate themselves from competing brands. All of those benefits I cited previously can be achieved with one tank.

The other marketing tactic or Scam if you want to call it that is when a company states a feature in their literature about their equipment that makes it sounds like it is something unique or even brand new…once again most of the time these features are not unique. Perfect example would be Split Tank Technology. Oooo fancy. Truth: Most generators today are manufactured with some type of divider between where the water level is measured and where the water is boiled. Some companies play up this but it has been a standard configuration with most brands for decades.

The one thing that really stood out in this product category as different than other industries is that a lot of these steam companies don’t patent their “unique” features. That’s cause they aren’t unique! The way this industry has progressed is that a company might come out with a new improvement and a few other competitors just make the same changes to their generators. Perfect example is the amazing feature where you get instant steam when you turn on the controller.

Some companies call this:

Warm Start, FastStart, QuickStart, and if you habla espanol Steam Rapidamente!

Ok the last one I made up..But what you will notice is that all those various feature names are TRADEMARKED!!! These are NOT patented systems. A Patent for a truly innovative function or feature of a product is not the same as a Trademark. The trademark of these names is showing that these companies for the most part are just protecting the name or marketing content/collateral they invented. So legally another company cannot call their feature on their unit the same thing but they can have the exact same function that provides the exact same benefits.

You should be chuckling by now if you were one of the folks that got sold into believing how ‘unique’ some of these brands are. Perfect example is Thermasol, don’t get me wrong I love that company and they do have superior quality in their design and component quality etc., but boy do they do some serious marketing magic. When you see through all that you start to realize that the much higher prices they are trying to justify are not quite there. I mean the quality of the product and service is definitely there but again they aren’t THAT different from the other 3 best brands I think to warrant the much higher price. Again look through the trademarks understand what is standard with multiple brands then see what remains that is truly unique to their brand. It really depends on a person’s budget and also how much money they are overall planning in a steam bath redesign. In general if it is going to be a higher end project going towards $8-15,000 then they might be worth considering. But I am really digressing now and if anyone needs help analyzing their situation start with taking the Questionnaire on my site also referred to as the ‘Steam Quiz’.

There are some other Scams I actually can’t mention on this site as I was asked to take them down by two different companies a while back. I can say this though is that those two companies fell into the category of the cheapest brands around which is generally what I guide people away from anyways.

Which steam generator best serves You? I compile useful information to help you make a decision.