Hillbilly Hot Tub

I agree, this consumer was under the assumption it was fine since it was being sold by a store

I know costco does not make spas, this discount center (Mr. G's in walpole NH) purchases its products, at least many of them from Costco's returns. They do tell you this, and most of their products still have the costco return lables stuck to them describing why they were returned, such as missing parts, light out ect. This was an image/icon spa that had been returned after several years of use I am guessing since it was about 8-12 years old. my post was about people need to be careful what they purchase. This guy was more trusting in beleiving the the spa was ok since that is what they told him, and this was a store. They have purchased several tubs from costco, some have had no issues others have. i am guessing that manufactures do not want to waste the money to pay for the tub to be shipped back to them, put money into it to try to sell as a refurb. i know the tubs we sell do not take most of the tubs back if they are "returns' for issues. They try to sell them to dealers for pennies on the dollar and have us refurb and sell them. they only tubs i have seen go back are freight damaged tubs, where all the parts are new so it is worth it for them to have them shipped back, so I disagree with you DK. It costs way to much to ship stuff nowadays. Maybe this is why many tub manufactures that have delt with the big box stores have gone out of business, besides making their tubs to try to meet price points, they take a huge bite on a return policy like that. as far as blowing the pole outside, the spa was never hooked to a GFCI dissconnect breaker,(he did have a licensed electrician do this, i would not hire him!) it did blow the house fuse and then kept going I guess. Probabley no different than a power surge coming the other way and blowing the fuses on your tub, this just went backwards to the line. you would have to speck to vermont public service about that. the tub did have a dead short, even with all the components unhooked. the tub had also been frozen at some point and had major plumbing issues.

they use it with the brillance because that system tends to push up the PH, and many people do not check their water chemistry as much as they should, so it prevents issues, and yes, the soy proteins to moisturize the water is funny. I think they may need to reword that, have to point that one out to the sales rep and see what he says!

Itchy, I would go back to the shop that sold you the wrong stuff, ask to speak with the owner and tell him/her they really need to get their staff educated before they kill a child. Many children die a year due to RWI's. Some tub shops hire young high school or college kids and exspect that they will learn by reading the bottles. This is not right, they should send them to a CPO class or at the least to the training seminars that most the higher end chemical companies offer, and then test them to make sure they know what they are doing. It irritates me when stores give bad advice, i ran into this myself when i had to go purchase chemicals for my pool at my other home, when i questioned them, they said 'oh it is so different here because it is florida, its hot all the time" which had nothing to do with what I needed. i listened a bit more, then told her that we owned our own store, and I was a cpo, she kind of got quiet. this store sends out teenages to maintain pools everyday, hundreds of them. not a single CPO on staff. they dont even test the water, just pour in chlorine, if its green they add algicide. Scares me!

I have also seen what looks like this in bromine tubs, the salt builds up over time. we use sea klear thick tub and tile cleaner, it works really well, Scale feels a bit more rough than the salt residue build up which is usually smooth. The acid water bear suggests should remove the salts too, it removes about everything!. If the shell is like this, what about in the lines and on the heater, you may want to look into using swirl away to clean out in there also, it will also help remove some of it from the shell.

dont use dichlor/bleach method with a swag system. Foam can be caused by several things, not justs soaps. Body oils and sweat also build up which can cause foam, PH that is out of balance will cause foam as can low CH. What are your readings, how long since the last water change and what is the useage. A clarifier such as sea klear can also halp collect up the unfilterable particles in your filter, thus helping to eliminate foam. Foam down only helps for a day or 2 so I find it a waste of money. It sounds, since it dissipates so quickly that it may be a water chemistry issue, such as PH, or a build up of materials the filter is not picking up

Seems as Costco sells their used spas to discount centers. They are turning up in our area via one of these centers and being sold as running spas with nothing wrong with them..Again, buyer beware, even purchasing a spa from a "store". These tubs have issues, plus they were never winterized and have froze up. We went to one today, the buyer had to pay big $$ because the tub not only tripped his house breaker, but blew the breaker/transformer on the outside pole. He then had us come look at the tub which was very old had been frozen, and had a serious short in the control system, thats without any of the compnents hooked to it. (we wont mention the electrician never hooked it to a GFCI, thank god it had these other issues) He is working now to try to recoup at least the money he paid for the tub, and he is still going to be out the money to the electric company and our service call, but on the bright side at least he did not burn down his house or get electricuted! Please, please be careful when purchasing used tubs....I can not say that enough. If they are not up and running, ask if they can get it running for you.

you can try these guys, http://www.coverplay.com/node/29 We have used these covers for a few years and they are great, many benifits, and as stated before, i always thought rh tubs had a good cover

Sounds like the relay is clicking, so check the 2 fuses on the board.

sorry, i thought it created a surface tension, thus not allow the bubbles to form due to the tension, guess i am bass akwards

Not all spa stores are overpriced and give misinformation by the way. All though there are a lot of spa stores that do not understand water chemistry, there are quite a few that do also (where do you think many of us on the forum come from) You can tell when you gom in and ask a few questions how knowledgable they are. I carry little 2 ounce start up packs of sodium bromide, what they are selling the OP is a one step. he will have to use it several times to build upm a reserve since it is mostly chlorine. You can also find liquid sodium bromide in many places, although this is a exspensive route to go.

Just salts will not sanitize, you have to have the generator to produce the chlorine or bromine BTW

I agree with the salts, if the previous owner had been using bromine, there would have been sodium bromide(bromide salts which come from the dead sea) left in the water, you actually may have had a bromine spa before. You may want to look into a after market salt generator, such as the nexus which uses different salts to create chlorine. i have not experienced that particular one personally, but there are hundreds of different ones out there.

anti foam does not remove the problem, it just hides it by creating surface tension on the water so foam can not be created. it only lasts for a day or 2. You need to address what is causing the foam to truely get rid of it.

Chlorine is a salt, so i am guessing thats what you are seeing, such as if you splash ocean water on a glass and let the water evaporate, it leaves the salt. How much chlorine you use depends on how many bathers, how long, what other contaminats may be in the water such as swimsuits, lotions, deoderants, hairspray ect. the outlines givin for how many ounces of bleach per bather hour is a estimate, each person will be different. You will learn with a bit of time, what your personal use will use so you can add the coreect amount after soaking and still have a reading the next day without creating to many CC's. Some people find it helpful to use MPS weekly to help oxidize the waste and keep the chlorine demand down. It looks like you are doing well now, if you added chlorine after getting out and brought it to 5, it dropped to 3.5, then you added a bit more than needed (thats if this was done after using the spa) The CYA in the hot tub is not for the sun, it is to protect the tub and equipment from the harsh oxidizer od bleach. Have you read over the entire dichlor/bleach method outlined in the forum? It is very helpful, along with all the other posts.

it does take a lot to raise the CH level. Out here we are at zero CH out of the city tap and in my 500 gallon spa it takes a pound plus to get my CH up, good thing is that it stays in the water unless you splash out a lot!

http://www.coverplay.com/coverup We love this one, very rugged. Does not bend or rust as some of the others do. Just my opinion from what we see in the field.

And a circ pump is always an added cost. Its either built in at the start or added at the end. There are now free rides Dorthy.... I understand that it is either added or built in,(may have been born, but no quite yesterday ) but the price he was quoated for the clearwater was with the circ pump, and the ozone, was wondering if they were included in the price he was given for the arctic, if n ot his price would then be higher for the arctic. Most companies you can add anything/ or they maybe "included" its the bottom dollar for the "apples to apples" i was looking at

If it has a 24 hour circ pump, that pump will cycle 24 hours a day, even in ecn(it just wont turn the heat on in ecn except during a filter cycle)

is arctic's an added cost? This stuff comes with the clearwater signature, ozone is also included on all their tubs, no extra costs. i think people are trying to say they are comparable tubs, but for the price, the clearwater is his better deal, alond with having a local dealer.

Are they like a powdery residue that wipes off easy (salt deposits?) or a bit slimy or goeey (residual oils, soaps lotions) which may be since you said you had a foaming issue. Also, your CYA is pretty high for the dichlor/bleach method. I am guessing you used dichlor too long before switching.

High bromine readings will cause a false high PH reading on the test strips, don't adjust the PH untill you get your bromine level down or you may be adding acid in water that does not need it. Get the bromine level down, then test the PH again. And water bear has a really great write up on bromine!

Clearwater does not do the advertising tnat other companies do, thus helping in keeping the prices down a bit. The signature series tub has a 20 year shell warrenty and a 5 year equipment warrenty. It is on the back of theirs sales book...this is what it reads, Signature package: 20-year spa shell Clearwater spa shells are warranted agaist water loss occurring from defects in material or workmanship for 20 years from the original purchase date. Clearwater spas also warrents thier spa shell interior surface against blistering, cracking and delamination for 20 years for the origional purchase date. 5 year equipment. Clearwater Spas warrents the operating equipment and plumbing agaist defects in workmanship for 5 years from the priginal purchase date. The Gold level spas are a 10/3 year warranty. The go on to list the limitations, such as the other manufacures do such as pillows, filters ect. Stereos have their own warranty as do covers. I will have to ask them why its not on their website, I find that it is better than most since it covers blisters and delamination for(surface) 20 years also, most others do not. Here is a link that lists their top 10, http://www.poolandspa.com/page149.htm#Let Your

First, i should state that I am a Clearwtaer dealer... Second I will state that it was a toss up for us whether to take on the clearwater line or the arctic line. We liked them both. IMO, they are both equally built. We have had no issues with the clearwater spas at all, and the company has been really great to deal with. Which level yukon are you looking at, what does it have for pumps/jets ect. what is the warrenty. Is it possible to wet test the tubs. Since they are fairly equal in quality, you may need to wet test to see which has the best feel for you. The other really important role in buying a tub is the dealer. which dealer do you think will give the best service for the years following the purchase of you tub. IMO again, you are getting a better deal on the clearwater, specially if you like the dealer and they are close by, But they are both good spas.