Vermonter

Thanks!!

I purchase my first Roberts cover 6 years ago for a customer. I had the ability to let my customer test it for me based on the positive online reviews. The second one I bought was for my own tub 5 years ago. Since then I have bought or helped buy 4-5 others and all have been steller. The 5 year old one on my old tub is still in great shape. The 6 year old one I can't say, I have not talked to that customer but would be willing to if you need. That would be rhtubs.com?

Thanks. Very noble of you to name your competitors. Much appreciated! Tony

Boy does that sound familiar when you read reviews about them. Earlier this year a friend called and needed me to cover for him at his store the next day last minute. He told me a guy was coming back to look at a spa and he's written up a quote so he left me the folder for him. I looked the next day and saw a price reduction due to him not getting a cover. On the phone my buddy said he was getting something called a spa cap which I knew about. When the guy came in I had saved a couple links to the bad reviews plus the "F" rating on the BBB. He was stunned and sat and read through it but before he left he had decided that the science was true and the reviews were BS and he was going with them anyway. I was stunned that anyone would buy that POS with all the complaints and that F from the BBB. That F rating tells me they treat customer product complaints the same way they treat people who want to cancel an order made an hour earlier. http://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/spas-and-hot-tubs-supplies-and-parts/spacapcom-in-lynden-wa-13025291 Ordering replacement covers can be tricky. Some OEMs make a very good covers, many don't. Same with after market covers and you can't tell from a picture either. Stick with the OEM cover if it was good or go with doc's (I've actually never seen one of his that I know of but others have ordered one so you at least have some feedback). Thanks... Hopefully they aren't going to make an issue out of it, but if they do, at least I have MasterCard on my side. Seeing as my spa is a (*cough*)gulfcoastspa, I don't think the OEM is even an option, since they went out of business. That, and it lasted about 3 years- I'd love one that's going to get me through, I dunno, 5- suggestions?

Well, I am glad I cancelled my Spacap order! I ordered one yesterday, on the advice of a friend, and then (belatedly, I admit) decided to come on here and see what others have to say. Not so good. So, I called back immediately (within 20 minutes) of getting off the phone with the woman, and they didn't answer- so I left a message saying "Please cancel my order, I'm looking into some other options." So she calls back today, and leaves a rude message saying she's cancelled my order. Then she calls back again to say "It's already gone into production, and your card has been charged." It takes 3 weeks to make this thing, but in less than 12 hours it has gone into production? B.S.! So I called her back to tell her as much, and it is obvious I've called her bluff- I tell her I'm putting a stop on the payment, and she just says "Allright." Bad business people! I can't say anything for the quality of the product, but instead of calling back and trying to ease my mind and selling me on the product, she just makes it real easy by being deceitful and down right rude. Perfect. Anyway, sorry about that rant, thanks for the advice on the covers, I will look into all three- anyone else want to 2nd or 3rd these motions?

Hello all! It's time for a replacement spa cover; I had been strongly considering a SpaCap, until I read some of the reviews here and elsewhere. Which leaves me with the question: what's the alternative? Are there any brands that come strongly recommended? Others to avoid? I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but a search for "replacement cover" surprisingly returned very little useful info, so I figured I'd ask again. If you can just point me to a link where this has been hashed out already, that would be great, too... thanks in advance... Tony

Great, thanks a lot for the confirmation on that one, so I haven't been wasting my time! Tony

Hello again everyone.... so I had read on the back of a bottle of hardness increaser somewhere along the line that I should wait overnight after adding pH up or down before adding Ca, or it could precipitate out of solution... I haven't seen it on the directions on any bottle I've had since, but I've been following this guideline anyway, as to avoid the possibility of this happening. So, is this true? Will it precipitate out if I don't allow enough time? Thanks... Tony

Okay, thanks for the advice... I ordered the right motor and will just return the one I have. I suppose in the end it may end up costing me an additional $25 or so, not that big a deal. Thanks for leading me in the right direction. Tony

reeffreak, what specifically do I need to know about the control pack? And where do I find this info? (In the manual? On the tub?) Pool Clown, what/where are the relay switches on/for the pump? Please bear with me guys, new at this stuff. The breaker for the tub (the one in the fuse box) is 50 amps, so that shouldn't be a problem. I never use the blower- ever- but even so, I can't imagine that would use up the additional 25+ amps. Thanks for the help- Tony

Tony, your best bet is to talk to the manufacturer on this. Under normal operation I wouldn't expect the 5 hp motor to draw much more than the old 4 hp motor did, since the load on the motor is determined by the pump. In other words, a 2-pole AC induction motor is going to run at "about" 3450 rpm, and the torque it needs to produce to spin the pump that fast (which is related to the current draw) is mostly a function of the pump, not the motor. But the fact is that there are conditions where that motor could draw significantly more current than the old one, and this can get you in trouble. For example, the startup current of the larger motor will be higher than that of the old motor. This shouldn't exceed the relay's specs.... the spa manufacturer should know if it'll be a problem. There's other annoying things that *could* happen as well, unlikely perhaps.... but still I would probably talk to the spa's designers before installing that motor. Well, sadly, the manufacturer went out of business, and the company that took over their spa parts division is pretty well useless. The motor is rated at 3450/1750 rpm's, the same as the old one, if that makes a difference. Hmm... maybe I should just send the thing back and get the right one?? Thanks for the input!

Hello all... so, I recently ordered a new pump motor online, and the specs they had listed on the web site do not match the specs on the motor, now that I have received it. It turns out I only needed a 4 HP motor, and, as according to the specs listed on the web site, I ordered a 5 HP motor. My question is: can I use it anyway? It seems to me that by the time I ship it back to them (although I suppose I could get them to pay the return shipping) it wouldn't be worth it (plus the additional time w/o my tub!)... the SF amps on the installed motor are 16.4/4.8; the SF amps on the one I received are 19.5/5.0. Thanks in advance. Tony

Hello, and thanks for the response... Unfortunately, the spa is 3 (or 4, I forget) years old, and no longer under warranty, and besides I'm the second owner and the warranty would not have transferred over to me, anyway. Thanks so much for the advice, now if I can just find someone to deal with it before it freezes! Tony P.S. I will let you know how it works out

Hello all... I recently started getting a P1 Error on my in.XM display on my Gulf Coast Spa LX 7000. Now, I know that this means that the primary pump needs attention, but I'm trying to get some information on what to expect, both financially and as far as the parts go. The pump still works on low (the tub is still able to heat and circulate and such), but pretty shortly after switching it to high, the entire thing shuts down and I start getting the P1 Error message. Are these things fixable, or is pretty much a matter of replacing the whole thing? How difficult is it to replace the thing myself? (I have some electrical experience and a very, very little bit of plumbing experience)... should I just hire someone to come and fix the thing? (This goes out to you, Hillbilly Hot Tub!) Please advise, as winter is just around the corner and I'd rather not be out there fixing the damn thing in a foot of snow (or hiring some poor soul to do it for me in the same!) Thanks in advance- Tony

Check out the http://www.poolcalculator.com/ Insert your numbers, away you go. Extremely helpful tool, and (fairly) accurate, too. I'm not sure if you need to shock with bleach as much as the fact that you can shock with bleach. My understanding is that MPS shock (aka "non-chlorine shock") is somehow "better" in the long term, although one of the others can probably tell you why that is much better than I can. But yes, you can use bleach to shock, I do it sometimes because it's a lot cheaper than MPS... hope this helps at least a little, good luck! Tony