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General Beluga

Member Since 07 Oct 2008
Offline Last Active Apr 14 2010 08:15 AM
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Posts I've Made

In Topic: 2 Week Vacation - To Drain Or Not To Drain?

27 January 2010 - 01:18 PM

QUOTE (THE SPA GUY @ Nov 7 2009, 10:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Recoil Rob @ Nov 7 2009, 08:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (PaulR @ Nov 7 2009, 03:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Peteyboy @ Nov 4 2009, 08:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I would also bump up the pH a little.

If your pH drifts that much in a week, sure. With 50ppm borates, my pH moves very slowly.
--paulr


Water chemistry should be the least of your worries.
If there is any possibility of freezing temps, unless someone is going to check your spa every day for you to make sure it's still running, it would be foolish to leave it filled. GFI's can trip for a multitude of reasons and if your tub shuts down while you're gone and no one is there to reset it you are leaving yourself open to freeze damage.

In fact, here in NY, I tell my customers who want to use the spa year round that during the colder months they must check it everyday to see if it's still running. After 21 years I can't begin to tell you how many times I get a call from someone in Feb. saying they hadn't used the spa for 2 weeks and now it's frozen solid. Or a call in April saying they thought the tub was running all winter but now it's empty. Freeze damage because no one was watching, the GFI tripped or something else went wrong and the spa froze.

Your spa, your money, your call, but unless you have someone to monitor it, winterize it.

I would keep it running i am in Spokane, we get colder than you guys on the coast , there would be no question , when i go on vacation in December i leave my D1 running , never had a problem, even when we lost power last year for a week still no issue, good advice to put some chlorine in there, have a great vacation


In Topic: Newbie Needs Help!

28 May 2009 - 07:52 AM

QUOTE (Milkman @ May 27 2009, 10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
1st off, hello to everyone on the Forum! Just want to let everyone know that I am new to the forum as well as new to owning a hot tub. So please cut me a little slack if I am a little off on my terminology & descriptions.  wink.gif

A few weeks ago we picked up a used 2003 Arctic Spa Summit. Price was right & we were told by the previous owner that it had some leaks & they were just going to get a new one as this one was off of warranty. Brought it to our house, leveled it, set it up & got it all wired in. Inspect everything & found 1 diverter valve was cross threaded & had cracked. I replaced the valve, hand cleaned the tub & filled it up. Turned it on & everything worked normaly. Found 2 more leaks, 1 from a crack on the light lens & the other around the control above the diverter valve that was cracked. Ran a bottle of spa cleaner through the tub, drained it & hand cleaned it again. Spoke to the local hot tub store about what to seal the leaks with & was told to just use waterpoof silicone from the hardware store. Picked up a tube, sealed the light & around the control valve. Allowed 48 hours for it to dry. We filled the tub again, let it heat up & adjusted the chemicals. Everything seemed good for about 2 days & then the silicone started to bubble & come off around the light & the control, now my leaks are back!!

I'm thinking obviously the silicone that was recomened can not take the heat & bromine as it is just getting eaten away. So what should I use?? I'm just going to order a new light assembly & start from scratch there. As for the control, should there be a seal ring under there? When I took the control out it appeared to have the remains of a sealing ring in there. Should I still use a little silicone as extra security with a new light & possibly a new control seal?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Greg


If all else fails, try a epoxy glue.  They make one for underwater applications.  You an buy it at any pool supply or hardware store (Lowes, etc).

In Topic: Needing Input On Purchase

23 May 2009 - 09:00 AM

QUOTE (Batman @ May 18 2009, 05:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Okay, long-time lurker, first-time poster. You guys have some great opinions and I am finally biting the bullet to buy.

My local dealer selection is very limited. Hot Spring, Sundance, Caldera, Artesian and Jacuzzi. My ability to wet test is even more limited because most of these dealers have just a few floor models and even fewer available to test. Yes, I realize from reading here that wet testing is important but none of the models I am interested in are available to wet test.

My space is fairly tight and the wife wants a low profile unit, so here are the models I am considering:
Sundance Marin (probably our first choice right now, wife like air injector even though the forum does not)
Hot Spring Sovereign (pumps seem marginal but like the cool down seat and we have super dealer)
Caldera Martinique
Artesian Quail Ridge
Jacuzzi J460

The 30" Hydropool 575 intrigues me because it has a salt option and redwood cabinetry but with no local dealer and weak warranty I am inclined to nix this one.

The dealers all seem to make their brand the best and hint around about problems with other brands.

Any of you guys have any advice before I pull the trigger?


I love my Sundance Hawthorne 6 person spa. All those manufactures mentioned are good. That being said, I would go with the best local dealer. You will need service someday and it is always good to establish a relationship with a local dealership that can service your spa repair needs. I have had excellent warranty followup with Sundance. Recently I had what they call "microcrazing" develop on the top and sides of my new Hawthorne. They are tiny lines that form under the clear coat that don't effect the integrity of the spa but, look bad when the sun light hits them at a certain angle. I had the spa for about 8 months and contacted my dealer who put me in touch with the Sundance Warranty Department. They told me that this problem is rare but, occasionally does happen but, not to worry, as it is covered under their warranty. They had me send them some digital pictures of the problem and quickly agreed to replace the whole spa at no charge to me; I only had to pay a reasonable delivery/hook-up fee to my local dealer. Sundance makes an excellent high-end spa and I have been very impressed with their service and would highly recommend Sundance spas to anyone. They really do stand behind their warranty!

John

In Topic: Mps And Chlorine Readings

13 April 2009 - 10:10 AM

QUOTE (Nitro @ Mar 19 2009, 02:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Chem Geek can explain this in more detail.

Total Chlorine = Combined Chlorine + Free Chlorine. FC is what needs to be consistently above zero, and what we are most interested in. If FC gets too low for too long we will have serious problems.

However, if CC (spent chlorine) get's too high (above 1ppm), it starts to give off bad odors etc. This happens when not enough Chlorine is used. Therefore we want to keep CC < 1ppm, by using plenty chlorine.

MPS helps Chlorine oxidize waste, and therefore helps keep CC low. The issue is, once you add MPS, the CC reading is no longer valid. Keep in mind though, MPS will only stay in the tub for few hours to a day max.

Hope that makes sense.


Nitro,
I'm going away for about a 5 week vacation. I hesitate draining my spa as I don't want the seals to dry our and develop leaks. I have a Sundance Spa with an ozone generator and I use N2 with MPS shock weekly and add a small amount after each use. l also add dichlor in small amounts weekly to keep FC above 1. Given this routine, I am thinking that I should be able to shock the spa good before I go and have the neighbor kid add about a tbs of dichlor each week to keep the spa fresh while I am gone. Do you think this will be sufficient or do you have additional directions that I might need to follow to avoid a mirky mess when I return for vacation

Thanks,
John

In Topic: Help Me With My Sanitation Method... What's Right For Me?

11 April 2009 - 09:43 AM

QUOTE (chem geek @ Mar 23 2009, 05:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Raegor @ Mar 23 2009, 12:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm a noob but my instructions say if you're going to be gone a week lower the temperature to 80 because dichlor will last longer then at 100...

That should be true, but would apply equally to any source of chlorine whether it's from Dichlor or bleach. Chlorine is a little volatile and its reactions with other substances occur at a temperature dependent rate, so lowering the temperature should reduce the Chlorine Demand (CD) that Nitro talks about.

However, I don't think anyone here has quantified the effect so can't tell you how much difference it makes in practice. Certainly, if you are going to be gone for a week, then it's less expensive to not continually heat the spa water while you are gone.



That might be true but, if you are using an N2 stick in conjunction with Dichlor, the stick it looses it's effectiveness at lower temperatures.

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