If you have driven into Hillsboro down Ash from the north of town, you have most likely seen the floating hot tub by the police station. If you hit it at the right time, you will see the side that has the banner that says Aah Spas which is the spa manufacturing facility located behind the police station at 410 N. Main.
What many don’t know is that, according to owner Chuck Maltbie, Aah Spas is the only spa manufacturing facility in the state of Kansas.
“Actually we are the only spa manufacturer within 700 miles of Kansas,” said Maltbie. “So what we do here is we actually take it from a flat sheet of acrylic and vacuform it, fiberglass it, drill it, build the cabinetry for it and make a complete spa.”
They then sell those both direct from the factory as well as through a network of dealers.
“Right now we have 14 dealers in seven states that we sell hot tubs to,” said Maltbie.
He said that anyone in Marion County or Harvey County can come directly to the factory and buy a spa directly from there.
“I mean we get folks from Sedgwick County. Anybody can come to the factory and get one,” said Maltbie. “We try to get those further away to go through dealers so we can help them better. But yeah, we service, we sell and we deliver from here at the factory as well. We do evening appointments and weekend appointments as well. So that way folks don’t have to take off work to come talk about hot tubs.
The factory will do free factory tours to show step-by-step how they are built. Maltbie recommends it. “We offer a free factory tour so folks can call us up. We prefer to do it by appointment, just that way we got somebody that can explain stuff and walk people through it. We’re building every day. If we schedule it then that way we can make sure that give ’em our undivided attention,” said Maltbie.
Maltbie said he is also proud of the fact that his company is the only small manufacturer in the United States right now that currently has a five-star Google rating.
“Even the Hot Springs and jacuzzi and all of them, you know, the best that they have is a four to a 4.5. We also have a zero-complaint history with the Better Business Bureau. We won several awards for that. So we take kind of great pride in making sure that we take good care of our customers and that we put out a quality product,” said Maltbie.
Aah Spas also support shopping local as much as possible.
“We are a big pro-shop-Kansas, shop-local proponent. So when you support Ahh Spas, you’re not just supporting us, you’re supporting other businesses here in the community, because we buy all of our paint from Nicole down at the hardware store. We buy all of our lumber from over in McPherson. We also buy through Farhas. We just bought a $150 bucket of screws from the local lumber yard here,” said Maltbie. “All of our propane comes from the co-op. We buy all our fuel locally. We buy as much as we can locally. All of our sheeting that we use on the bottom of our tubs is manufactured for us in McPherson. We have a company in Emporia that does the injection molds of some of the parts that we use in our production. So anything that we can do to buy and support Kansas businesses is what we do.”
Aah Spas also is a big part of the local Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce often sponsoring the local cruise nights and other activities such as Easter egg hunts and holiday events.
“I tell folks that you can buy cheap stuff on Amazon, but you know, Amazon’s not gonna donate to your kid’s basketball team. He is not gonna cook, buy chocolate bars to support your swim team tryouts or whatever. So you can’t expect local businesses to support your causes and your adventures if you’re not supporting them,” said Maltbie.
To learn more about the company or see how they make their hot tubs, you can check them out on YouTube.
You can also reach them at 785-825-8888 or call or text Maltbie directly at 785-819-2215. You can also visit the website at www.aahsspas.com.
