dave nh

Wow...not familiar with your spa brand, but two problems with power issues, this one a fire! Did your circuit breaker and gfci trip? happy to hear it did not spread to your house. I do not know how your spa was wired or if there may have been any recalls , but i would look long and hard at the way the power pack was hooked up to the electric supply. Nice to hear your insurance is stepping up to the plate.

good to hear...i am on my 4 month anniversary with my Nordic Crown XL. Tub is great, i had my dealer come out and adjust one of my air valves, took them about 5 minutes. That is the only issue i have had. So far, have estimated electrical usage to be 13-15kwh per day based on past electric bills for period before tub, i run circ. pump and ozone 24/7. It costs money to run but we do enjoy it. Hope your tub contiunes to perform, thanks for chiming in on your experience.

It all comes down to the rates in your local area, your rates could likely be higher. I am not familiar with the standard/economy mode. Mine has a circulation pump that runs 24/7. It does not turn on the main pumps very often. I would say that if economy mode uses your main pumps less, you would save electricity. Just make sure your tub water is staying ok. Otherwise you will probably spend more in chemicals than electricty trying to rebalance.

The blower to run gas heat (if it is forced), uses alot of electricity especially if it is cycling on and off. If you can pull out your electric bill from a year ago it is the best way to compare and find an average kwh change. I have figured my tub is approx. between 13kw-15kw a day to run. Our electricity is expensive here in the northeast, so i guess it depends on your local rates. unfortuantely, there is a price to pay for the enjoyment of the spa, but i would not be without it.

Wow...spa looks like a piece of fine furniture!....i see it is indoors, where is it located? great looking thanks for the pics.

Thanks for the input, i have not used high amounts of MPS or salt treatments. In fact i did not shock it before i started seeing the particles settling out.

Recently completed my first drain and refill for my spa. On the initial fill when i got the tub after shocking i got nagging ring around the tubs stains from the iron/manganese and yellowish water after shocking. I had to keep wiping down the tub for a week and washing the brown stained filter for a week, then i was all set. I did add some stain and scale control when i did my initial fill but apparently not enough. This time i added more and the water turned cloudy and took a week to clear up, no ring around the tub though which was nice. My issue is that i have had to vacum flaky tanninsh color hard flakes from the bottom of the tub from time to time, but the water is now clear. My question(s) are: Does stain and scale control cloud the water when there is iron/manganese present? Are the flakes the minerals flocing out of the water? What is the difference between stain and scale control and other product like metal out? the manufacturers information is confusing because they all seem to say they do the same thing. i did add the stain and scale control immediately upon fill and did not wait for the water to warm up, i wonder if that was a mistake. At first i thought the flakes were calcificaton or something, but my Avg. PH is 7.4 and CH around 170. I use dichlor/bleach. Alkalinity is also in range about 150. Thanks for any input.

Try making sure all the air valves are closed before you cover it and see if that helps as well as make sure the skirt is not doubled under the cover somewhere. It should not be freezing like you describe.

Unfortunately a spa is generally considered to have the same requirements as installing a pool. With that said, having a surveying background, I have seen pools, expensive decks, sheds fences, even garages and additions, etc. well onto other peoples property or on easements or other rights of way. In many cases it is the second owner of the property who did not even do the work. You know the first people they blame? The town or city or "allowing" it to happen.

nice pic....if the cloudiness generally subsides after you turn your jets off, dont sweat it, its pretty normal. Just likely fine bubbles making it look "cloudy". I generally find shocking is a good idea anytime you have people, especially the ladies getting their hair wet. good luck and enjoy.

Your draining and refilling your tub every 1-2 weeks or do you mean months? I fill from a well as well , getting your ph and alkalinity down is pretty simple you can use PH down. Did your dealer go over startup and initial balancing with you at all? You might want to take a water sample down and see whats going on or post some test results on your water situation. The sister forum to this (water chemistry) has a lot of got information on it you may want to read. good luck.

My dealer said we could use chlorine or bromine for our startup, they said they recommended we just use chlorine (dichlor) because it dissolved better and is better for the pumps, etc (?). Anyways i have no problems with reactions to chlorine, etc. so it was a no brainer. Used properly there is really no smell. It is so widely available including household bleach you can get it just about anywhere, especially when the pool and spa places are closed.

Brock, The spa is no different from a pool, the reason the poster is required to do this is that his locality has likely adopted the 2005 national electric code which requires an equipotential bonding on all new pool and spa installation. I am not an electician but i think it had something to do with stray currents having the potential to shock users of the pool/spa, not from the dedicated GFCI source. I am sure there was an occurance somewhere for this to have been adopted.

The mats i picked up at home depot are 3x3 and are at least a half inch thick (with holes) , you can connect them. i think they were around $19 per 3x3 section. They are restaurant style fatigue mats as the poster above mentioned.

Good job...your locality must consider the mats to be "non-conductive decking", makes sense. I picked up some rubber mats at home chepot for the winter but they have holes in them to let the snow/ice through so i dont know if that would work in your case.

The most recent electric code requires an equipotential bonding grid within 3' of the pool/tub. It is generally made up of copper wire grids bonded together. Cant imaging the cost it is going to add to big pool installations. Cant imagine removable rubber mats would be an alternative, but there must be some way to work with existing patios without jackhammering and installing a copper grid. Talk to the local inspector who issues the permit for the tub/electrical installation. good luck.

Dave nh, my water looks good so far but im afraid that will not last. The print out he gave me shows the calcium should be 200-400ppm and mine was 147, is this wrong? After treatment it is now 400. Thanks and any other info is appreciated. I am happy if mine is in the 150-200 range, i think that is pretty optimal, certainly would not increase it. With your calcium at 400 and your high ph you may be close to having calcification/deposit issues. You may want to use a scale control until you get that ph down, since i dont think that you can lower CH once you raise it. But like i have said i am not familar with the baqua spa system. good luck. To be honest imo if your ph is in range and your water looks good/clear that is more than half the battle.

where are you getting the "coating" on the bottom of the tub? or on the exposed areas? What was your fill source?

How does your water look? i am not familiar with baqua as well, i use dichlor/bleach. But i am curious as to why your dealer had you raise your calcium levels as they seemed to be ok initially. Maybe your sanitation method requires it? As others have stated i would get that PH down first and foremost especially with that high range calcium level. I tend to keep my ph around 7.2-7.4. Good luck and i hope you get things straightened out. But i do think you are better reading these forums as much as you can in lieu of spending $$ at the store. good luck.

If you are in the market to buy this home and there is no exhaust fans i would ask how long it had been down there and if it were me would consider having an inspection done for mold/moisture damage just in case. Although it might be less in a heated basement, a spa gives off a lot of moisture. I think a heavy duty exhaust system would be a must with an installation under a living area. good luck.

The biggest problem with well water can be the dissolved iron and manganese, we have an aerator and carbon filter that takes care of a lot of the problem. But there is still some iron and manganse in the end. I suspect this would be the case as well with a "pre-filter hose thing", the only way to get at the dissolved iron, etc. is through sufficient contact time with an oxidizer then filtration. So do not be surprised if after you shock, you still get discoloration. A very small amount of dissolved iron and manganese can cause discoloration and ugly staining. My first fill with my new tub back in august had the same issue. Water turned yellowy orange, then i had a ring around the tub i had to scrub every day until eventually after cleaning the filter every day for a few days of the rust and iron iwas gone. This time around i filled the tub with water and added 16oz of stain and scale control before adding any sanitizer, an hour later the water turned milky and very cloudy, i was a little bit bummed. What i should have done is added a clarifier shorty thereafter. The next morning i added some clarifier, then cleaned the filter the next morning and added one more dose, now the water is great (after 2-3 days). Best of all there was no staining i had to deal with. The filter also was just milky and cleaned up pretty good. After the tub water cleared completely, there was some mineral dust at the bottom of the tub which i suspect was bound up by the stain and scale control and was too heavy to reach the filter. Next time i may try a different brand of stain and scale control to see if the water can clear up faster. I might also try and heat the water up a little before i add the stain and scale control. The whole time i kept my ph around 7.2, did not shock until the next morning after the fill (with dichlor). If anybody else has methods they have used including successes and drawbacks, please share.

Some people put spa indoors for the reasons you have mentioned, i am sure you could make it a nice spa area. Do you plan to finish off one of the garage stalls to make it more of an inviting environment? IMO you might need something more than just a dehumidifier, you will likely need some sort of forced ventilation as well, (assuming this garage is attached/under your house). Not sure if there are any building codes or not for putting a spa in a garage, but there might be. good luck and enjoy your spa.

Going into my first winter as well, my spa is just outside a porch door, then about 6-7' of trex to the spa. I was thinking of getting a small roll up indoor/outdoor carpet to throw out there as a pathway, but also take it in before snowstorms, etc. I noticed the trex gets a little slippery when the water starts to freeze.

Sounds like it could be a faulty pressure switch or other problem such as the temp. sensor? I am not a spa tech, maybe someone with more background can chime in as well. Hope you get it straightened out.

if it is maintaining 90 degress maybe it is the temp sensor or some other switch or something. I would definately have it diagnosed before replacing the heater. good luck. One other thing, i have a nordic crown xl and i noticed the heater has a 5yr warranty, might want to check your paperwork just in case.