awitowsk

I am with the nay sayers on the dollies. For both the logistics and safety of the tub. In my lab I have tried dollies under water tanks. It worked OK under a 55 gal tank. All the wheels bulged a little over time, but we could still move it. Under a 150 gal tank they squished out a lot over the first month (to ovals) and the idea was scrapped. Also moving water was much more difficult than thought due to it sloshing. You should be draining the tub periodically anyway, just plan the moving for then. Use any of the suggestions or even cut 1" pvc pipe into rollers. Just keep putting them in front of the tub and it rolls slick as on a conveyor belt.

Thanks. The original sensor was part of the heater and the replacement that went in the wall of the spa just goes through a rubber boot and into a bulkhead. The first day I opened the tub walls up this spring it was cool outside and the sensor was reading about 10 deg cool resulting in a very hot hottub I will give some insulation on the sensor a try. Is basic closed cell spray foam my best bet?

Last year I picked up a used LB spa which I love and use daily, but that hasn't been without issue. To make it more efficient I used 2 layers of 1/2" insulation board inside the cabinet walls and filled the cabinet with several cases of polyfill. I mounted a wireless thermometer in the cabinet above the electronics to keep an eye on temps. Last winter the air inside the cabinet stayed a steady 5-8 deg cooler than the water (right around 97 depending on tub temp) even when the temps were well below freezing. This summer I had some leaks so I pulled out the polyfill and left one side open for the summer while I monitored the connections. I just recently put the insulation back in and sealed it up, but the problem is when the outside temp is around 60 the cabinet will stay around 105 deg from the heat thrown off the circ pump and give a false reading on my temp sensor. I switched out my electronics to a Gecko s pack when they went bad which required me to put in a temp sensor through the tub shell. Not knowing any better I mounted it on the same side as the pumps which generate all the heat. So now I need to open the cabinet and flush cool air over the back of the sensor to get an accurate reading. so the heater will kick on. I am thinking if I spray a about 2" of expanding foam over the temp sensor this will insulate it from the cabinet temps. If the water is 97 and the cabinet is 105 will this balance out, or will the reading still be way off and not allow the heater to come on? I don't want to encase the sensor for no reason and have it give me headaches down the road. Once the weather cools down the issue will go away, but I don't want to have to open it up every time the weather warms back up again. So my options I see: 1. Cut a vent and route air to just the sensor area, 2. Insulate the sensor from the cabinet, 3. Uninsulate the tub and loose efficiency, 4. Something else and entirely better I know there are a lot of techs that read the board, what do you guys suggest? Thanks, Alex

Thanks. I went through and removed every connection, cut off the melted brittle part and put them back on adding hose clamps. Hopefully it does the trick. I did over tighten on one trouble jet that kept leaking after the refit and clamp, cracking the air inlet. For now I sealed it off so no air from that jet.

Last winter I picked up a used LB spa. I knew it was low quality, but so was the price so I went with it. The owner was in the navy and while on a tour said he had a squirrel get in and chew up the air lines. So he replaced all of them with 3/8" PVC braided lines. Its been several months and we noticed the water slowly seeping out. After removing the sides it seems many of the numerous airline hose connections are leaking both where they connect to the jets and where they come to connecting Ts. I tried tightening up hose clamps and adding some where there were none but there are still drips. It looks like he used a lighter to melt all of the hose ends ends before jamming them on (probably because it was winter) Is Braided PVC the right type of hose, or is there a better type? It seems awfully thick and rigid for the application. Should every connection have a hose clamp? Thanks, Alex Just let me know if you need a picture to help explain what is going on with it.

I was thinking that. I think it may be overkill for what I am wanting too. I also had another thought. Would it be possible to run one of the existing air control lines down to the circ pump return line to add a mist of bubbles to the circ pump return? Would a venturi needed to be added to pull the air in?

I am considering adding a blower to my spa. Its a LB Salida, nothing too fancy. It has about 40 jets that are run on two circuits with a 5hp pump on each circuit. The jets are a bit much when soaking for long periods, but I would still like a little bit of water movement, more than just the circ pump. I have replaced the spa pack with a gecko unit that has an extra output for a blower so wiring it up would not be an issue. I was thinking of plumbing a blower into one of the jets plumbing circuits. It will take some playing but I think I will be able to fit one in the cabinet. Would this give a decent ambiance or a bubbling mess? If I were to add one would it just take a check valve and running the blower with a T into one of the main jet lines? Are check valve reliable enough to keep the water from flowing back to the blower? Thanks for your thoughts. Alex

Did you find the spa you want? As far as leisure bay Rec warehouse is the only seller of them. I did as much research as I could about them when I was in the market for used. With 2 rec warehouses within 30 miles they are 90% of the used spas for sale in my area. Ultimately I decided used I would not be working with a dealer so it didn't really matter. My experience - Found a fairly nice one, salida, has 2x5hp pumps, circ pump, about 40 jets, 3 color changing lights, waterfall. I had some initial bad luck with it, but now am completely satisfied. Notes about it though: Sides are plywood coated with composite finish. Plywood where the sides attach rots very quickly when wet. If sides get wet and are not fastened down plywood warps and sides want to bow. (not a problem unless you take the sides off) There is no insulation other than the underside of the shell. It was easy enough to insulate the enclosure with 4 big walmart cases of polyfill and foamboard in the walls for under $100.

Curious if you figured anything else out. Do you mean you just bypassed the boards to get the pumps running, or were you able to get the topside and everything working?

I am interested to find out what the problem is too. I recently had the same issue with a used tub I purchased. I was told it may be the topside. I ended up getting a new universal pack for about the same price as a topside and just being done with it. Still don't know what the problem was. Best luck, hopefully its something easy.

Thanks. I played with it some more and found out if I made a solid connection shorting the wires for the switch it changed instantly from the FLO to FLC. I made a weak connection that must have added a little resistance the the FLO went away. Now I need to figure out why I can't get the flo message to go away without shorting the connector. The circ pump works fine, water comes out the return and powers the waterfall. Are there more sensitive sensors for using with a circ pump instead of a primary pump?

That's what I thought. When I shorted the sensor leads to give it a false connection it reads FLC which the manual says "the system detects a problem with the pressure switch" online I found somewhere that said it knows its getting a closed reading when it shouldn't. Does anyone know how many ohms a pressure switch should have? If I know the correct ohms I could use a resistor to bypass the sensor. If I give the board the correct resistance and the error code goes away it will let me know the problem is not the board. Since its new I hope its only something simple. I read pressure sensors are not flow direction dependent and flow sensors are. Does anyone know if the gecko pack is flow direction dependent and possible that I may have it backwards?

Hi, I just replaced the pack in my spa with a Gecko s-class pack and have a FLO error. I have it plumbed with a 24 hr 1/15hp circ pump running through the heater. The flow from the circ pump seems fine, plenty of pressure no air in the lines. Tried with/without filter. I tried adjusting the pressure sensor but get a measurement of no resistance no matter if its the whole way in or out. Any ideas? Could the heater backwards cause the error? I have the pump on the sde of the pack that the cords/power connects to and the outlet on the side that has the temp probe/light exit. Thanks, Alex

What air temp range should people look for as the upper limit in the spa near the pumps?

Thanks. I sent a you PM, If you can help me out it would be much appreciated. I was told by Balboa that the controls were proprietary and I had to contact leisure bay/rec warehouse. I found techs who were willing to work on it, but the cost makes me question fixing versus a new pack.

Bump for another fellow from Va beach Wish I could help, but I am new to this. Let us know what you find out if no one answers you.

Your post summed up about a month of research I did since getting a "cheap" spa. I did read some problems of using the thick house batting type insulation. If it gets wet it will loose its insulation value and hold water. Some people put it in bags, but then it also makes nice homes for mice to shred and fill with debris and odors. Some people use non rated insulation like packing peanuts which can be a fire hazard. Whatever you use you don't want it to get sucked into the pumps or blower either. The foam board/reflective insulation seemed like the way to go. I am new to this, but after much research that seemed to be th consensus of what I found across the web for dealing with spas that come with a lower initial cost and also insulation. I just picked up a lower brand spa that only had insulation on the tub. Before installing it I put a R-3 1/2" rigid foambard inside the cabinet of the spa against the frame on all 4 sides, and then a second 1/2 layer of rigid foam cut to fit directly under the outside skin. It took about 2.5 4x8 sheets and I used 2 cans of closed cell foam to seal all of the gaps. Cost about $40. I also put a remote thermometer inside above the pumps. Figure if its heating up too much in the summer it will be easy to remove the front panel and pop the foam boards out of that side. Don't know if it will actually do anything since I just got it and have to get an electrical issue sorted out first.

Yeah that was the first step. The board and topside are proprietary to leisure bay, so no one else said they sell them. A few said they would work on them if I mailed it in. Leisure bay only has email contact information, I have sent 4 over the period of a week with no responses. I was able to get their phone# form a conversation with balboa and no one answers no matter what time you call. There is only one single voice mailbox and so far no callback. Rec warehouse service was surprisingly better than I expected from the reviews. Nothing great though. My local one is willing to sell a reconditioned board for $225, $475 new. I called 3 other stores and they all said rec warehouse does not offer reconditioned boards. Period. Not sure what that means. The topside is $275 from rec, $200 on ebay. I have tested the transformer and its fine. My hunch is its the display, but don't think its worth replacing. For about the same as the cost for a tech to test it and either a reconditioned board or topside I can just get a whole new pack. I think I am going to go that route. That way I have a new heater/board/topside and if there are any problems down the road it will be easy fix without dealing with leisure bay. Gamble of used I guess.

Well I am pretty well stumped. It seems that it should be something simple but if it is I am missing it. Pricing out a new board they are quite expensive. Plus another $200 for the display if the board is not the problem. I am leaning towards just getting a universal spa pack since it comes with a new heater, board, and display. Does anyone have experiences good/bad with the replacement packs?

Well I had been looking for a used spa and found what I thought was a good deal on a leisure bay salida. I know its not considered a top quality brand, but seemed to fit what I was looking for. It is 3 years old and seemed to be well taken care of. New owners bought a house with the spa and didn't want it. I went and looked at it last weekend and everything worked perfect so I picked it up. The move seemed to go fairly well, no significant bumps or drops. Thanks to some help here on the forum I got the wiring hooked up this weekend, but nothing happens. The lcd display does not come on and none of the indicator lights come on. The only thing that will happen is if I push the test button on the gfci I can hear a click a half second later at the spa. Otherwise power on/off nothing. Its permanently wired 220v. Balboa controls g3 pack. 2x2.5hp pumps, circ pump, and 4kw heater. I tested the voltage and and it reads 120 volts across each hot individually and 240 across both hots. I tested each of the 3 fuses with an ohm meter and they all had basically no resistance. I checked the dip switches and they all look to be in the right positions. What can I do now? Is there anything else to test? Is there a way to find out if the problem is with the top display or the circuit board? Thanks, I am really hoping you guys can help me out.

Thanks. Obviously I spent way too long working outside last night and was a good thing the wife pulled me inside to call it a night. I didn't see the ground bus behind the pigtail last night. This morning I got up and it was obvious. I had read to pull the ground from the main panel and not to run a ground rod. Are you suggesting pulling the ground from the house and also running a ground rod to the ground bus, or just a ground rod?

Quick question. I picked up a 50 amp GFCI spa box and want to wire it 220. I thought there was supposed to be one bar for the ground and another for the neutral hookup, this box has just one bar. Do I just hook both up the neutral and ground coming from the main box ground bar to the bar in the spa box, then also the white pigtail and the ground out to the spa? Thanks, Alex

Thanks for the quick replies, the internet is amazes me sometimes! I hear you. A hundred bucks or two is a tiny amount in this circumstance. Safety is #1, and I know the house will be unsellable if it is not done correctly. I enjoy learning all the options and finding the best balance. So far I like the attic/romex idea best. I am also going check the regulations in my area for the conduit along the building. The hot tub is going on the right side of the house on a deck, (it was built last year to support the load) the other side and back of the house walls are covered by shrubs and decking. I may be able to blend the conduit along the border between the siding and slab.

Thanks guys, that was great information. I had not realized the 6-3 w/ground NM was an option for the indoors. Glad I am taking it one step at time. I am still debating if I want to run through the attic or just dig and lay the conduit the whole way. I don't think I will have enough physical workroom to run the wire to the side of the house by the spa, so I would still have to come out about 30' away, only saving about 30' of digging. I saw this bulk #6 single strand on bay for cheap, I am not sure what its classified as though. Would it be safe to splice a few feet of color coded THHN or THWN to each strand and use it for the bulk of the run inside conduit to save some money? Anyone know what this wire is? Ebay wire link

I am planning on purchasing a 220v spa soon and will be running the wiring myself. The spa will be directly behind the house, the main panel is in the garage at the front of the house, about 60' away. I am planning 4 strand 6awg from a 50 amp double breaker in the main panel to a 50 or 60 amp gfci spa breaker box (haven't bought one yet) on the back wall of the house. Rather than running conduit out of the garage, then burying it down the side of the house and around the back, can I run the wire through the attic? Its a single story house. I was thinking run conduit through the garage ceiling into the attic, then running just wire to the back of the house and back into conduit where it will be coming out the back wall. Are there any problems with this? Thanks, Alex