I recently purchased a (somewhat) rebuilt 1998 Hot Springs Sovereign spa and I have a few issues with it that I'm hoping some forum members can weigh in on. The problems I am having with the spa area as follows:
#1 Temperature reading is not accurate to actual temperature in the spa.
-the readout of the temperature is about 6-8 degrees below that actual spa temperature. The spa thinks it is getting up to temp, the green light goes on and the heater turns off, but in fact it is considerably cooler than the readout. This is a problem because even if I max out the setting, it's not warm enough. My thought is that this could be a faulty thermostat/ thermoswitch (not an expensive part to replace) but I'm wondering if I should be looking at anything else before I go ahead and order a new thermo? Is there any way to adjust the current one?
#2 Spa takes a long time to heat up/ reheat.
-the spa is currently running on a new dedicated 20 amp 110v GFI circuit that I had an electrician run direct from the breaker box. It was a long run (140ft) and the electrician used 12 gauge (pretty sure) copper for the run even though I questioned him on it not being heavy enough. He said it would be fine for 20amp service. I'm wondering if the voltage drop from a run this long could have anything to do with the slow heating/ re-heating? Is there any way to test for this?
-while I am on this topic I have read various posts about 240 being more "efficient" than 110/ 115. Is this true and if so, any hard facts on how much more efficient? I live in a fairly temperate climate but if there was major energy $$ savings to be had I might consider rewiring to 240
#3 Spa is "bubbling" even though there is no ozonator
-currently awaiting delivery of an ozonator (might be getting one from the people I bought the spa from - might be ordering a new one), the spa is ozone ready and the "Freshwater II" ozonator that was in the spa has been removed. The venturi tube is still there, and the end of it has been plugged with a screw very tightly however the spa still "bubbles" as if it were getting ozone into the line. Is this something that I should be concerned about? Should I be looking for air leaks into that line before I install the ozonator? Could a potential air leak in that line affect my ozonator performance?
Any help with above would be greatly appreciated. I spent some time this morning reading through the forums and there is some really good info here and very informed people so hopefully with your help I can get to the bottom of this.