We have 3 of the Aker fiberglass bathtubs. If I could do it again, I would have at least gone with the acrylic ones instead as the fiberglass tubs seem quite flimsy. I am not sure how much sturdier the acrylic ones are, but I would assume they would be a decent improvement over the fiberglass ones. The quality of the tubs seems to be about right for a builder grade fixture.

I have not seen the Advanta, so I am unable to offer any comparisons there.

i ended up with a maax living tub - it's here but not yet installed. i remember reading that the shower sets they had at HD were better than the sterling vikrel, but not as good as the regular maax brand name stuff. *much* less expensive, though, so kind of expected. I decided against the maax shower in favor of tile.

showrooms told me different things about the tubs, but most told me that aker is a higher level product. i'd guess that's true since they were in showrooms where they had bain's & other high end stuff - why waste precious space with a builder grade tub.

one showroom lady told me that maax used to just do showers & aker was a different company that just did tubs. maax recently bought aker, but some models still kept that aker name. don't know why.

i do know that the 2 aker tubs i sat in were the most comfortable i found. they were just too wide for my bathroom, and did not have air-only. most akers have whirlpool-only i believe.

you may want to email or call the maax customer service - they were helpful when i was trying to figure out details & looking for local places to see tubs.

hth,
lisa