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PFC5

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  1. For all those people trying to limit sanitizer because they are afraid of chlorine or Bromine I think this is a good example (and luckily turned out to not not the worst that can happen) by not keeping sanitizer levels at proper levels. Some scary stuff can happen and EPA approved sanitizer is much less potentially dangerous than all those other non approved methods. It is not worth the risk to "try" them IMO.
  2. One of the Mods here sells covers that seem to be rated very good: http://www.rhtubs.com/covers/insulate.htm I heard www.SpaDepot.com makes decent covers also. If you live in a cold winter climate, I recommend you get a cover with the added FULL hinge seal even if it costs a little more money. My cover that came with my spa only has a block of it at the ends and the snow/frost melts at the hinge which is a good sign that heat is escaping from there. I am sure others will post about other reputable sellers of covers, and some to avoid as well. Hope this helps!
  3. I know my cover only has a block at each end of the hinge and not along the whole hinge like some nice replacement covers have. I have thought of getting some bubble wrap wound up tight then wrapped in vinyl to cover it to attach to those blocks at the end of the hinge to fill the void and better insulate since my cover is only 3 months old that came with my new spa. Heck even just the bubble wrap and duck taped to one side in that seam would probably help a lot. The bubble wrap would have to be replaced every few months I imagine due to the outgassing of sanitizer & ozone, but it would get through the coldest months. I do have a blue bubble spa blanket that I tried to use, but it is a pain to use IMO and it turned the water cloudy the day after I started using it. I assume the contact with the chlorinated water resulted in some plastic leaching to cause the cloudiness, so I removed it. I may use that to make that full hinge length block.
  4. Rinsing the filters off in decent weather is not much of a hassle IMO and I had no problem rinsing the filter off weekly when the weather was good and well above freezing. I will likely go back to a pleated filter during the summer, but I bought 3 of these as a package price of $65.00 for the winter when cleaning the filters was not going to be easy.
  5. I thought I read one of the benefits of tubbing was it helped with high blood pressure, by improving circulation.
  6. I wasn't overly impressed with it after the first couple of weeks because I rinsed it off in the sink after the first week and then started seeing some tiny white particles along the waterline. But I have since stopped rinsing it and they never came back again, so I am more pleased with it now. I have had it for almost 2 months and I have not had to clean it at all and the water is staying good and clear. The tiny particles I use to see floating in the water are totally gone so it does filter better and not needing to rinse the filter weekly in the winter is nice. I bought it for use in the winter so I didn't have to rince the pleated filters every week and thank God I bought this. We have had over 75" of snow so far and I cannot imagine trying to rinse the pleated filters outside because I would have had to dig out snow in a decent size area just to rinse the filters. Then I would have had a lot of ice and still had the hassle of draining the hose to bring back inside to avoid it freezing. I highly recommend these filters for winter use at the least. It takes a big hassle involved for those with snow in winter trying to rinse the pleated filters.
  7. IN colder areas if you soak for more than about 15-20 minutes you will likely want the heater to work with the jets though. Otherwise the temp of the water can drop pretty fast when cold out especially when there is a wind too. I believe that a 240v setup will actually use less energy and will heat up the water after each fill much faster also. To do a 240v run you need an open spot on the breaker panel in the house so you can have a dedicated line, and you will need to get a disconnect box with a GFCI breaker out near the tub (but at least 5' from the tub for safety reasons). You can get the Spa Disconnect boxes at Home Depot pretty cheap as that is where I got mine for about $50.00 which includes the GFCI breaker too: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100686230/h_d2/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&keyword=spa+disconnect&jspStoreDir=hdusΝ=P_PARENT_ID&navFlow=3&catalogId=10053&langId=-1&ddkey=Search I recommend you run 6-3 cable both from the indoor breaker panel to the spa disconnect, and also then bury it in conduit from the disconnect to the spa. You will also need to run conduit on the outside from the disconnect to the spa to protect the wire and anyone/anything that might come in contact with the wire. I also ran conduit from the exit point of the house to the disconnect box because the exit point was easier where I had it come out of the house and then run to the disconnect box more than 5' away from the tub. Here are some of the conduit items you will need: The LB connection for where the cable comes out of the house. You might also need this where the conduit comes into the deck for the spa as well: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202043405/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 You will need a few of these to attach the conduit along the deck and possibly the house as well (this is a box of 100 so you can buy them individually to attach about every 3-4 feet of the copnduit run: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BuildLinkToHomeDepot?linktype=product&id=202361722&MERCH=REC-_-product-3-_-1;conduit;202043405-_-202361722-_-N This for any bends in the conduit: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202043344/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 This is the conduit you would need: http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Electrical-Boxes-Conduit-Fittings-Conduit/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbohl/R-202295893/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 You will also need the glue to chemically weld these connections together and couplers at the disconnect for the cable going into it and the cable coming out of it as well. The most expensive thing is the 6-3 NM-B wire. It must be all copper wire (not aluminum with copper coating) like this: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202316279/h_d2/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&keyword=032886263705&jspStoreDir=hdusΝ=P_PARENT_ID&navFlow=3&catalogId=10053&langId=-1&ddkey=THDStoreFinder I only paid $202.00 for it in October 2010 but the price of copper must have gone up as it is now $248.00 now. I believe you can buy it in custom lengths as well if you do not need anywhere near that amount, but I used over 75' all together so I just got this as it was close to the same price and my bro-in-law wanted some for when he bought a spa so I got this length already packaged up. Hope this helps!
  8. If we keep getting more snow I will have a snow wall around/above the tub for extra privacy. We got mostly ice on Saturday and at least the weather has been above freezing for yesterday & today so maybe we can melt some of this snow.So far we have gotten about 75"+ of snow which is more than double what we normally have at this time of winter. So much for global warming. lol
  9. You probably have a lot of bromide bank and whenever you add oxidizer (chlorine or MPS) it is also activating the bromide back into bromine. So you might want to reduce the oxidizer amount added after each soak. Can you provide info on how you are maintaining the spa? Including how much oxidizer you add after soaks, etc. would be helpful.
  10. I would also consider shocking it since the Total Combined Chlorine might be a lot more than the Free Chlorine and making it less effective. Does it have a heavy chlorine smell since that is one indicator of a high combined chlorine level. Another thing you failed to mention is what type of chlorine are you using? If you are using Dichlor granules, then you may have a high CYA (chlorine stabilizer) level which makes the chlorine much less effective if too high. It shouldn't be over about 20-30ppm for CYA. When was the last time the filter(s) were cleaned? If they are really dirty the chlorine could use getting used up just fighting off what is on the filters. And last but not least, since this is a used spa, how long was it sitting unused? Did you do a decontamination before using it? If water was left in the pipes for a while the biomass build up could be eating up all the chlorine.
  11. I know having a storefront means higher overhead/rent compared to warehouse type online retailers, but pricing must be closer for local stores to get people to support their local businesses, so maybe taking a smaller margin on them is a thought. I will usually pay an extra 10-20% more to support my local businesses but many will not pay that much of a premium. SO maybe limiting your margin to only be 10% more max and hopefully pick up more savings in the higher volume you may do. Some profit is better than losing the sale and all profit from them.
  12. I occasionally feel itchy even when the water is perfect, and figured it was some healing action just like you itch when bones are healing. Thanks for confirming this.
  13. Here is what our back yard looks like: Yeah that snow is about 7' high and that IS a door to my office totally blocked at this point. But the priority was to keep the hot tub clear and available and that fence in the background is a 6' fence and my 9yo son can simply walk over it easily now. And we have more snow coming Saturday & next Tuesday as well. Thank God we only got 8" instead of the expected 24" yesterday.
  14. Can you trust him after bypassing the required GFCI SAFETY feature? Also what amp are the breakers? AFAIK (not being a licensed Electrician), the wire must equal the max load of the breakers installed not the draw of the components attached to that circuit. The reason being is that if you change the device connected to it and it has a larger draw, then the wire will fry (and maybe start a fire) before the breaker would even trip. There is a 125% rule with motors etc whereas we are supposed to make sure the wire & breakers can handle 125% of the rated total load so at start up where they draw the most power, you still have wire (and breakers) that can handle the start up load. I would call another electrician to see if he is right or I am. The reason he might have gone with an undersized wire is to save himself money if he quoted a flat fee to do the install. I know my 6/3 wire (really 4 wire counting the bare copper ground wire) cost me $202.00 for mine. 8/3 would be cheaper and might be the reason he went with that. You do realize if you get a new spa down the road that needs a 50amp breaker service you will for sure need to replace everything from the wire as well as the breakers instead of just the breakers which is a 5 minute job? That means buying new wire and snaking the new wire all over again. I would definitely get a second opinion if it were me.
  15. For my 240v hot tub we used 6/3 wiring from the breaker box to the disconnect box outside. We also used that from the disconnect to the spa as well. So you might want to check code for which wire is needed. Amazing how some people who are supposed to be pros are not and thank God no one got hurt but this wiring job. Maybe you should report that person so he doesn't kill someone else, and learns his trade before doing such jobs.
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