Wes8398

I'll have to take a closer look to see exactly how tough it is. Aside from attempting to poke my finger into the stuff, are there any other tests I could do to help figure out if the foam is adequate or not?

No, it doesn't crumble at all. It just seems pretty light. I could probably poke my finger into it fairly easily. Can you tell by color or anything else?

Thanks for the responses. Regarding the type of foam the tub has, maybe it's not open cell. It doesn't feel spongey at all, it's actually quite brittle. I broke a small piece off and it was quite light in weight, which was why I assumed it was open cell.

Hey all. My wife and I just bought a year and a half old hot tub last week. I'm wondering about adding some extra insulation to the cabinet before we put it in it's final resting place and actually get her running. I've taken the side panels off and it appears that it's heavily spray foamed (appears to be "open cell" foam) for insulation and I think that the skirting/side panels are also made out of some type of dense (but lightweight) foam which is then formed and painted to look like wood paneling. My question is, would it be worth it to add more foam (of the canned variety) even though it seems pretty thick already? Would another type of insulation be better (IE stuff existing voids with batting)? Also, the foam is lacking a bit on the motor/plumbing side of the tub; obviously to keep those parts accessible. Can anything else be done in this area? I'd be interested in utilizing the heat from the motors, but I'm not sure this can be accomplished with the existing spray foam in place. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'll see if I can snap some pictures tomorrow and post 'em up.

That's the plan of action I think I'm takin'

Thanks! I'll see what I can do!

Thanks guys. I think I'll replace the sand in the spring, when I re-open the pool. Hopefully going to be closing it down for the winter this weekend.

I gave it a good 5 minute backwash and 2 minute rinse today and then took the head off to inspect the sand. It appears that there is some type of sediment in the sand that's not backwashing out. It's really hard to describe (hence the pictures) but when I take some out it felt like wet paper or wet cotton balls ... Not sure if this is from a product I've used or what, but like I said, it doesn't backwash out. Any ideas?

First of all, hello! I've just found this forum and it seems like a great place! I'm trying to get my pool ready to close for the winter (live in south-western Ontario, Canada) and the last few weeks has been an absolutely ridiculous battle with far too many trips back and fourth to a near-by Pool Store. I'm hoping to gather some insight here. Background: - moved in to house 3 weeks ago - previous owners used "cheap" chemicals (HTH shock [cal-hypo], no-name pucks, etc) and probably never took the time to properly balance the pool water - water was crystal clear when we moved in, but appeared to have algae "sediment" in various places on pool's floor - being new to the pool, I had the water analyzed within the first few days of being in the home, and thus the battle began. Some of what I've been doing - Brought stabilizer up to 50 ppm (initial reading had been zero) - Shocked with ~5 gallons 12.5% liquid chlorine (killed algae, but has now caused very high phosphate levels) - been fighting with phosphates (and apparent inherent lack of FC) ever since (used 2 bottles of Calypso "Phos-free" ... still had high phosphate readings ... just today poured a bottle of Aqua "No Phos" in and awaiting the results of the next few days) - also been fighting to attempt to bring down calcium hardness levels since they've been very high ever since my first testing (vacuuming all the sediment from phosphate removers to waste has meant replacing water, but nothing too significant yet). Current numbers pH: 7.5 T.A.: 110 Adj. T.A.: 110 FC: 0 TC: 1.5 CYA: 50 CH: 600 Phosphates: it's a judgment call on color-matching the test, so I'll say ~1,000 ppb So, I've been told a couple things that concern me. One is that I shouldn't close my pool with CH readings this high. Two is that until the phosphates are brought down significantly, I will have a very hard time getting my FC readings up (which I want to do before closing). Third is from another local pool store who told me that they don't "deal with" phosphates and that I should totally ignore that part of the equation and just shock the pool multiple times a day for as many days as it takes. Without babbling on too much more, I'm just looking for any ideas and/or suggestions as to what I can do to get my water "ok" to close the pool for the winter. I understand that dilution is the only way to bring CH down, so maybe that's the best answer I can get, since dilution will also bring down phosphate levels...? Thanks in advance!