poptones

I have a south pacific compact and often close one half of the top after getting in. The two "pillow" pads molded into the top make a great lever against my knees to help hold me a bit lower in the water, and leaving the top half shut most DEFINITELY helps the water stay warmer a bit longer on very cool nights. The mist of "fog" that accumulates under there slows evaporation, which slows cooling. Yes it works.

That skirt looks really nice. Is it rotten? I bet if you hit it with a belt sander you'll find a gorgeous, weathered grain underneath. Spray it down with some thompson's and you're good to go.

If you're not going to be using it for a few days, then what about turning it down low enough to inhibit growth of "bad stuff?" Load it up with chlorine and turn it down to 80 or so?

My plan which didn't come this year but will by next (It's dependent upon a bathroom update which is behind) is to use solar on the roof. I have planned a shower on the deck near the spa where the french doors open and so there will be hot running water with an outlet into the spa, overhead on the shower, and this will tie into the house hot water as the bathroom shares the wall with the outdoor shower area. I have to get the bathroom finished inside, the pergola done and the outside wall finished before it can be completed, but I am wondering how best to integrate the solar heat source. In the summer the spa is actually hot during the day just from the sun, it's at night and in the winter when extra heat is needed. A heat sink is needed to store the heat, but the best heat sink by far is water, and the biggest container of water happens to be the hot tub itself, so.... One option I'm seriously considering is a solar closet. A room 3'x6' with 6" of insulation all around would give me space to store 400 gallons of water and still have reasonable access. Problem with that is having to reinforce the flooring in the back part of the house - what was formerly a porch and so is the weakest part to begin with. Why not build a small shed near the tub with a south facing glass wall and let the sun do most of the work for you? A 6x6 foot shed with 6" of well taped styrene insulation all around will keep the heat through some pretty severe cold. 48 sq ft of solar glass collector, two small baffles to allow air to circulate and the best part is you can increase efficiency if needed easily by simply adding a reflective wall nearby to throw more light on that surface. Start saving milk jugs to stack in it - fill it with 300 or 400 one gallon plastic jugs and you won't need fires, just a small pump to circulate the water through a heat exchanger (ie 30 feet or so of floor radiator). Do you know of Nick Pine and his research into this? I didnt have a garden this year because of the move but I had a 4x10 foot greenhouse literally made from sticks and a 15 dollar roll of plastic that kept me in fresh tomatos all the way through thanksgiving! A few well placed jugs of water can help the sun do miraculous things. http://www.ece.vill.edu/~nick/solar/solar.html

Mine is a 200 gallon tub and it's sitting on a deck made from 5/4x6 planks with 2x6 supports on 16" ( I think) centers. Why not just make a base for the thing? You can buy casters made for such use online - I bought some last year that were rated for 200lbs each and they were like 60 bucks for 8 casters. A hundred bucks worth of casters and enough treated wood to make an 8x8 pedestal would set you back maybe 300 bucks, and seems like it would be a lot more reliable than the contraption you've been talking about. And I just cannot resist any longer the urge to ask: if you put a hot tub on wheels, does that make them hot wheels?

I got a brand new one with a warranty for 3100 tax, chemicals and all. It holds two people very comfy, three people if at least one's a girl, and four people if you're all very good friends. The only way I'd plop down three grand on a used spa is if ti was like 10 grand new and I had seen it filled with water and working.

That's hilarious. It's like the boiler on a locomotive! My uncle and aunt were sharecoppers. Back in the 40s they lived ina sharecropper shack and had no bathroom, people would bathe in a tub in the yard. My uncle decided he had enough carrying hot water a pot at a time so he put the tub up on bricks in the yard and built a fire under it. When he got in the tub lost its footing and he ended up rolling down the hill naked with the tub, water, and some of the fire...

Nope, never tried. I'm a bit of an off the grid type myself and I thought of all that "hippie" stuff before I got my tub, but after actually owning ne a while I can tell you I'd never consider it again. Who wants to have to stoke a fire 6-8 hours just to enjoy a soak? Your boat is mad cool. You got bigger pix somewhere?

Vinyl dye should.. well, dye them. It's not paint, it should last as long as they did the first time. I'd also like to know more about this as I also have black plastic fixtures. Is this something I have to look forward to?

Well, it's being used right? I fill mine right to the top and that always goes down an inch or so in a few days because of splashing and whatnot. If your tub had 6 people in it then a good bit of water must have been displaced to somewhere.

I dunno. My spa has a five year warranty on that stuff. I've already spoken with the folks at south pacific once and they seem legit and ready to help so I have little doubt if it's needed I'll be able to get new lids. After 6 months on my deck I've noticed the tops of them do sag a little from when they were new, but they are not warped - just sorta "different" than they were on top. The structure of the lid itself seems fine and the spa definitely seals well; one feels no warmth outside the spa when it's closed. The outside is just ambient temp, and I really don't even feel any heat along the seam. My only concern is how to glue weatherstrip back to it. The fellow on the phone said they have a primer they use. The weatherstrip has come loose on one corner and I have no idea how I'm going to reattach it, because glue don't stick to that kind of plastic.

I find it works well to just turn the techno to 11 in my bedroom and prop open the french doors. It even maintains stereo separation!

OK, well let's try it this way: last night I was out there about 90 minutes. I keep my tub at 102, but before the first hour was up it was 100 indicated on the spa, and it stayed there until I left, at which time it was still running. I came in about 1:30-2 am. I happened to be back out there at 6am and it was off and settled, however it's not exactly reassuring to know it may "only" take 4 hours to reclaim that two degrees - and the more troubling part is it's only about 60 at night now. When it hits 40 what happens? That only increases the delta 50% (102-60 vs 102-40) so does that mean I'm only looking at an additional 1 degree drop in the same amount of time? And if it only takes 8000-1000 btus to do this why on earth cannot even a 1kW heater keep up?

A party!

Evaporative loss with 0 m/s air movement and 100 deg fluid temp is 205 btu/hr/sq/ft. 205x6x7 (my tub size) equates to 8820. That's assuming a nominal ph of course - as it gets more acidic the losses rise a bit due to faster evaporation. And yes, I realize that with the cover closed MOST of the water does not really "evaporate" (though some will make it past the seal). But the water is STILL evaporating inside the cover - it just condenses on the cover and falls back into the tub. It is still cooled in the process however, and so contributes to evaporative losses. I'm really not trying to baffle anyone with bs, I'm just trying to explain how I've come to the conclusion I need to have my own system rewired. I'm genuinely interested in some experienced practical input on this, because I want to know just how much I should be concerned about getting that 220 drop installed before it gets much colder. I have everything to wire the drop, but I'm going to have to buy a 220v gfci and pay the spa tech to replace the 120v pigtail with one for the 220.

But what about when it's cold outside? Thermostats have about a two degree hysteresis which means, barring losses due to insulation and evaporation it will take 1200x6 or 2400BTU just to heat a 200 gallon spa those two degrees. If it's a 6x7 spa at 100 deg there's also 210x42 sq ft evap heat loss, or another 8,820 btu/hr loss and that's just when it's closed - open the lid to a small breeze and now we got 20,000 btu/hr. What I mean is, I live in the south and it is almost always at least 60 degrees or higher during the day. This time of year its more like 80 and gets down to 55 or so at night. The difference between keeping my tub at 102 vs 100 seems to fairly heavily impact the amount of time it runs each night and that's just with an average delta of maybe 35 degrees. What happens when that delta widens to 65 and my tub is already running half the night? I don't know that it does, but I do know that it never catches up when I get in at night - it runs the entire time. I can open the cover and it's off, which means the thermostat is off, but when the lid is open and I'm in it, the 1kW heater never is able to dump enough heat into the water to catch up. This difference in temps I expect in the winter is roughly the same in btu as the diff between having the lid on and having it off now. So realistically, how important is it to have that extra power? How far north does one need to be before the 110 powered tub is no longer practical for winter time? I'm in Northern Mississippi, it's only nearly October, and I'm already concerned.

My tub uses either, but it's presently wired for 110 only. The pumps are gonna use 110, it's the heater that uses 220. When you double the voltage you quadruple the power dissipation, which means my 1000W heater becomes a 4000W heater. What's this going to do to the BTU output? And the heating ability is directly related to the DIFFERENCE in temp. That means the 4kW heater is going to heat much, much better and so will run less time. If the tub is well insulated, it would save power because it would run only a short while every few hours when it's cold outside. If it's not well insulated it's still going to run a lot. Mine is pretty well insulated but it's already clear to me I need to wire it for 220 before winter gets here. These cool nights it runs quite a bit even though it stays heated from the sun all day. I don't know that a tub with one pump will always use less energy. All the pumps are not running all the time and it makes a difference how much they are loaded down.

I'm a large fellow so I wouldn't fit in those skinny little loungers anway - honestly I don't fit in most of those seats. I thought the only comfy tub I would ever find would be one of those giant redwoods with the bench seat but they kinda suck cuz they only have like 3 jets, so when I found mine it was love at first sight. My brother told me he didn't like the "floating" issue either, but what I find is floating is the thing I like most! I don't "sit" in the tub at all, I LAY in the tub... it's like floating on a bubbly cloud; it's like being a leaf in a warm, cozy pond. So, like everyone else says, as a newbie I can confirm it's not just "old hands" telling you this. Go try a few and see how you would most enjoy them. I might like a few more jets in the next one, and might even try one with a lounger since I now know I won't be "sitting" in the tub anyway... not unless I got 2 or 3 companions. By the way, if you use the proper shorts in the tub you won't have the bouyancy problem. Go to walmart and buy a 4 pack of plaid men's cotton boxers. Make sure it's plaid unless you want everyone to get a show. I prefer nude but when the kids were here for the Summer I couldn't have that, so I went and bought men's briefs for everyone (yes the nieces too). The fly provides a "vent" so they don't puff up but closes off nicely so there's no accidents when someone stands up (not that there'd be much to see anyway on a teenage girl with an open fly, but you get the point). It's all relative, of course. the bigger you are the more naturally bouyant you will be anyway - and I float really good. What a coincidence, that's just how I like it.

My south pacific tub is similar but it's essentially one molded piece inside and out. It has covers that screw on and it is FILLED inside with foam. The foam is all pieces formed to shape and on the bottom appears to be 1" sheet piled. This has been a concern of mine since I got it as I was just sure the bottom of the tub had no insulation at all under it, but I was surprised. Mine is insulated with plastic bags of popcorn as well, plus mylar coated bubble wrap. Honestly, I think my budget $2700 spa is better insulated than that thing, its just not filled with lights and a hundred jets and a towel warmer. Wouldn't matter to me anyway since the jets I got are just fine, I'll geek the lights in myself and the outside is gonna be surrounded by my deck anyway. Oh yeah... and my cover is better designed than that one - it comes with pillows!

My hose is 5/8 and I can drain my 250 gal tub in about an hour using the hose as a siphon. I put the jets on high, hold the end of the hose over the lowest jet and wait til the water has cleared the other end of the hose. After that it has a very strong prime, I even use it to vacuum the soapy stuff I sponge off the sides of the tub as the water level goes down. I also have my tub on about a 6 foot deck.

Of course! 30% Baking soda! Here's an idea: 50% bleach, 50% vinegar. Throw it in, close the lid and run. Nothing in the tub could survive that! (disclaimer: I'm being an idiot... don't mix vinegar and bleach!)

What I don't get is why? I'm a new owner myself and I'd like to know this as well. Mold can make some people very sick (I myself am pretty sensitive to it) and algae can also be toxic so this is potentially a problem - but I don't understand how it could be if there's chlorine in the water? Chlorine kills all that stuff - even the pros use bleach to clean up infestations. How would this grow in a properly chlorinated hot tub?

Usually a relay that sticks like that has corroded contact points. The relay itself overheats and the contacts become fused. The greater problem with this is not the annoyance of it sticking, but the fact that every time it's closed it is burning more and more oxidation on the contacts, which makes it more likely to get hotter, which makes it burn more oxidation... This is probably why it started as you described - it overheated once which started the oxidation process. When a switch contact gets overheated once it's just going to get worse every time it's actuated. What you would really need to do is replace the relay. I'm not a hot tub expert, but a relay is a relay and I do know about those.

Bleach (Chlorine) kills mold so if you have mold on the inside of the cover it seems you must not be using enough. How old is the cover? It's probably growing inside the cover as well. I'd ditch it; mold can make you sick. You'd probably want to do a decontamination on the tub as well. I know I would.

Which, of course, means you can do all that other stuff via a remote emulator. The question, again, however is would you really want to be doing this stuff to a hot tub remotely when you cannot see it?