After nearly 2 years and a Sun Basket VIP membership; I’m back to the drawing board (or should I say cutting board?) in search of a new meal kit service company that will deliver despite Arizona’s extreme temperatures. If you want to know why I’m no longer getting Sun Basket delivered, read my previous post. https://rusticcountrymarket.com/why-i-suspended-my-sun-basket
I’ve received invites from the following companies:
Gobble: They do the food prep work. You cook.
Hello Fresh: Promise Simplicity.
Purple Carrot: Plant based meals.
Freshly: They cook and deliver the meals. You heat them up.
Home Chef: Already tried them.
Green Chef: Sorry, didn’t really like them the first time.
Factor 75?
And then I happened upon Factor 75. Their meals are precooked. They offer Keto, Paleo, low carb, gluten free, dairy free, and spicy meals. All Factor 75 meals are free of gluten, soy, hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives. All their meats are pasture-raised and grass-fed and their produce is organic. Their emphasis is nutrition, and healthy living. They even offer nutrition coaching. They are based out of Illinois.
After reading up on them, I was pretty excited to give them a try. My only disappointment is that they use OnTrac as a deliver provider. Historically, they do not deliver on time, if at all. I put delivery directions on my order, so we shall see if our food arrives. If not, I’ll be calling Factor 75’s customer service.
Stay tuned: I’ll let you know what we think of their meals!
I’ve been a loyal Sun Basket customer since Nov. 2017. I was even a part of their VIP Membership. In the past, I’ve received my meals despite extreme Arizona weather. Since Sun Basket changed their terms of service on 7/22/19, I’ve had several deliveries cancelled by Sun Basket (4 to be exact).
Turns out, for me to continue receiving Sun Basket despite extreme temperatures, I have to sign an extreme temperature waiver, IE: RELEASE AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY. This waiver releases Sun Basket from liabilities due to delivering food products during severe heat conditions. No where does the release define what “severe heat conditions” are. This ambiguity leaves this release open to Sun Basket’s determination.
As per Sun Basket’s current Terms of Service: “Each Sun Basket box utilizes carefully engineered packaging to sustain freshness even after our Delivery arrives on your doorstep. Our packages are designed to keep food products fresh if unopened and left at room temperature (i.e., 78 degrees Fahrenheit) through midnight of the delivery date.”
I translate these terms as: Sun Basket won’t deliver if the temperature is over 78° outside. That pretty much eliminates Arizona from getting Sun Basket, unless I sign their extreme heat waiver, because we usually have HOT weather here in Arizona!
I notified Sun Basket that it’s time for me to part ways with them. I let them know that I’ve really enjoyed their recipes and hate to let them go, but this extreme heat inconvenience forces me to do so. If Sun Basket can’t package my box to survive Arizona heat, I requested they cancel my account.
Contrary to reports that Sun Basket is hard to cancel, I immediately received notice that my Sun Basket account was cancelled.
The following day Sun Basket called me regrading my feedback I sent them. They assured me they monitor the weather and add extra ice during extreme heat, but they can not guarantee my shipment will arrive fresh during extreme weather, thus the waiver. They offered to pause my account until the 2nd week of December, instead of cancelling it, and they added 3 – $20 credits to apply to 3 future weeks orders when I resume delivery.
Our goal is personalization without compromising our warranty. Once the warranty is expired, we’re free to make all the changes we want. But for now, we are sticking with simple personalization.
For example:
We didn’t like the pseudo curtains. They seemed to create a closed in feeling, so we removed a few screws at the bottom, and released the tops that were held up by Velcro, and BAM! We now have a wide open view. We left the blinds that pull down, that are hidden behind the box valances. I considered removing the box valances, until I noticed they are connected to the blinds. (That might be a post warranty personalization!)
We bought an Aquaterra Spas Ventura 96-jet, 6-person Spa from Costco (online). It was delivered as promised, wrapped on a (partially broken) pallet. It was delivered to the edge of our property. Prior to it arriving my husband (who is a contractor) set a paver stone base for it to sit on. He was able to use his rigging skills to relocate the nearly 918 pound spa from our front property edge, on to the paver stones. After we unwrapped it, we were glad to see there was no damage to the spa caused by the broken delivery pallet.
Spa Won’t Hold Water
When we started to add water, we quickly realized there was no drain cap! The spa was also missing the cover lock key(s). I called the manufacturer. They sent them to us – no problem. Next we hired a local, licensed electrician to run the electrical. The electrician buried the electrical line under the pavers so it would not be a trip hazard. Once it had power, we were thrilled to see it had no leaks when we turned the jets on!
Within a few weeks, we decided to buy a cover lift from the manufacturer, Watkins Wellness. To add the cover lift, we had to empty the spa so we could install it under the spa. If you buy a spa, consider buying the cover lift prior to installing the tub. We think Costco should offer the cover lift when you buy the spa.
We love that the spa comes with a Bluetooth sound system. The subwoofer sounds like it is located under the spa. We learned that if the spa drops or will not connect via Bluetooth, we need to flip the circuit breaker on and off.
Got Privacy?
Our next goal was to create some spa privacy. After scouring Pinterest and HGTV for ideas, we decided to build a bamboo privacy fence to surround our tub that does not block our sunset view or inhibit star gazing.
At first we were going to put a tall fence on the back and front sides, and a short fence facing our backyard, but we quickly changed that decision. We ended up with a tall fence all the way around and we used the short fence for the gate on the front side. Once the fence was complete, my husband secured the exterior pavers with concrete.
Creating Our Desert Oasis
We added a couple solar lights, and of course I added some decorative touches! I’m sure you can understand when you look at these pictures, why we wanted to preserve our sunset view.
Finally, we added a sun shade over the hot tub to protect it from the strong Arizona sun. Large enough to create shade, yet allow us to view the night sky. We used spring clips so we can easily take it down during monsoon season.
Love our desert oasis!
Spa Challenges & Lessons Learned
Balancing the chems has been challenging. We’d get one right and another would go wrong. One day we opened the tub to find it cloudy! We found the following website helpful: https://www.spadepot.com/spacyclopedia/adjusting-ph.htm
We added a drain valve prior to adding the drain cap. This makes it much easier to hook up a hose to drain the tub!
We learned that it is recommended you use an RV water filter on your hose when filling your spa. Who knew?!!!
It can get windy where we live, so I added some extra strong Velcro along the front edge to stop the cover from lifting and allowing dust and sand to enter the tub.
Another lesson: Don’t forget to loosen the clips on the backside of the tub BEFORE you lift the spa cover. They will break. And if (when) you break them, you can get replacement clips on Amazon.
Within 3 months we noticed that the screws on the speakers were rusting. We bought a set of stainless steel screws to immediately replace the screws.
