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arches2

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Everything posted by arches2

  1. Or you can buy a controlomatic smarterspa salt water chlorine generator. I ran the bromine method here for years with great success but switched a couple years ago to the chlormaker and it's been great. almost completely set it and forget it (unless usage changes). You can still show with bleach once CYA is at 30 if needed. It only needs a couple cups of salt for a spa. x2 on the test kit with dpd chlorine test
  2. For your next water change i'd think about going with Muratic acid since it's cheaper and you need a lot of dry acid to get it down.
  3. Go over to the hot tub chemicals section of this forum and read all the sticky threads. that will give you enough info to make some informed choices and ask the right questions in that sub-forum. Water questions in this sub-forum don't usually get as much response.
  4. get a taylor kit for bromine so you know what is actually going on. doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you keep bromine between 3-8 (my personal range) with a target of 4-5 and the ph at 7.6 (7.4-7.8 range). Use borax / borates it really does make things easier. Since you have the chemicals you can use them but i'd look to add a bromide bank and use a floater (if your usage goes down). With your current usage you could just use the dichlor / bleach method as described in the sticky thread which is basically what you are doing with the bromating granuales (which are mostly chlorine). Thier mehtod is not bad but you need to do a better job in knowing what's going on in the water.
  5. Chlorine tabs are a bad idea in a spa. They are extremely acidic and will dissolve really fast in hot water. if you don't stay on top of the water you'll damage the spa. For your situation (which is very similar to mine, except i'm in 3-4 times a week) i'd recommend you go to the three step bromine method with 50 ppm borate. There is a sticky thread for this method in this forum. If you follow it you'll do fine with it. With the borax in my tub i rarely have PH issues (just bump up the TA to about 70-80) and as long as i don't run out of tabs all is good.
  6. You are on the right track and the circ pump must run for the heat to come on. It could be as simple as a bad start/run capacitor or the pump could be siezed. I've found that capacitors on the pumps are often the best place to start if the pump will easily turn (use a screw driver or something to spin the motor on the cooling fins). I don't know the controls on the masters but if you can force on the heat or circ pump you should hear the pump try to run then it will likely give up. That's a bad starting cap and can be replaced for about $20 with a little looking around (i've found them on Grainger.com mostly). If this level of troubleshooting is beyond you then you could just replace the circ pump. be a couple hundred dollars and you have to wire it into the the control panel.
  7. slightly over your budget but sundance optima or Marquis have great jet packages and features as well. Never been a fan of hot springs for powerful jets.
  8. get a multimeter and start checking voltages. There are a lot of things that can be wrong in either the pumps or the control board. You have to narrow it down.
  9. i don't see anywhere where you used a multimeter to see if you were getting power 110v to the heater. I am not familiar with how this tub works or it's error codes but there has to be moving water in order to heat it. Is there a circulation pump. are you getting flow? Is there an air lock in the heater that is not allowing water to flow through it? Use your multimeter to find out where there is no power when there should be. Follow the circuit.
  10. if it's tripping immediately and won't stay on at all you most likely have it wired wrong assuming that there was no ground fault in it when you bought it. Did you see it operating? If the circuit was overloaded it would stay on at least for a couple seconds. You have a GF somewhere.
  11. First things first, find the leak. sounds like it's very small since the water only went down 1" over a month. You could loose that from splash out if there were kids in there. if it doesn't leak then there is no reason to not then work on fixing it more. Since you used it for a month you know it works as far as heating, pumps and electronics. To replace the ply just tip it up on it's side (you may have to un wire it do that) (motor and control side down since that is the heaviest) and go at it. You can buy replacement spray foam in a can for spas and re insulate (after you verify it's not leaking). Replace the wood supports, any minimal amount of carpentry skills can handle that.
  12. for decontamination follow this thread: http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19115 start with a spa flush to make sure you get rid of that bio film which everyone here agrees you have. Then follow that up with a super-chlorination before dumping the water. I agree with chem geeks recommendation of an aftermarket salt water system like technichlor. you get the benefits of a chlorine system with the ease of a bromine floater tub. However, you said you used the same method before and you didn't have problems. You may find that after decontamination that your problems go away.
  13. http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19149 more info that you could ever want if you didn't notice this thread hiding up in the pinned topics separated by the ads.
  14. make sure the cover lift they are selling you will work in your space. Most require at least 2 feet of clearance on the side it's lifting too so make sure you plan for that. Where i put my spa i had clearance issues with a deck railing so i needed the covermate III style that doesn't drop down. it also provides i nice privacy wall to the neighbors
  15. N1oty is the best poster on this board when it comes to technical support. without the pros here this turns into people like me who don't really know what we are doing trying to help people who really don't know what they are doing which is no good.
  16. Try spinning the whole filter. it will give you more leverage. Those nuts can get sticky so you just need more force
  17. If you are using salt water in your pool you could also try an aftermarket Saltwater chlorine generator for the hot tub such as Techni-chlor. It works the same. Just another option for you. The startup cost isn't too bad.
  18. Do you have an aux control panel? It sounds like a button is stuck preventing any other inputs from reaching the board. The board is functioning correctly in that the tub is running and your light relay is clicking away. Try unplugging your topside panels and see if the relay stops. If it does you have a topside issue and not a PCB. Do some more diagnostics before jumping to the board right away.
  19. since none of the experts replied yet i'll take a shot. 1) You are going to want to run a decontamination process on the tub. See the Hot Tub Chemistry section of this forum for the sticky thread on that. 2) You have to fill the tub to run the decontamination so that would be a good time to check for function. I'd fill it up, check to see the heater works correctly, and check for leaks. To check for leaks make sure when you fill it to not spill any water around it so you know if there's water it leaks. Leave it over night and see if it holds it's level. Run the jets for a while and see if it holds it's level. While doing this put in the spa flush for the decontamination and a small amount of dichlor. The only way to know if it works it to try and turn it on and it needs water in it to do that. Once you know it works then pick a sanitation method (chlorine, bromine, or nature2) from the hot tub chemistry section here and have at it.
  20. The experts will be along shortly i'm sure but something to research for you would be adding 50 ppm of borates to the tub. they will lock your pH and keep it really stable. I use borax (20 mule team, right from the laundry isle), but you can also use "gentle spa" or boric acid (roach powder). With this method you'd keep you TA between 50 and 80 (whatever works in your tub to lock the pH at 7.6 or so). there are lots of thread on this board on the details.
  21. i also use the scum balls I've tried putting it in the dishwasher however i don't think it helped and it seemed it may have even caused some foaming. At $6 each for a month or two of use i just throw them away now. You could try soaking them in filter cleaner, just make sure you rinse it well.
  22. if you are properly cleaning them, filters can last many years. If you've never cleaned it and want to treat it as disposable then a yar is too long. I take mine out and spray them down to get all the debris off every month or so and do a complete cleaning soak in TSP or a filter cleaner solution every 4-6 months. I have two filters that i rotate.
  23. the pumps will be that hot. That's normal. What i meant by heater, is can you feel hot water (hotter than your tub water) entering from the circulation (low speed) "jet". Then when you turn on the heater (so it displays that it is on on the panel) / Crank it to max, do you feel a temperature change in that low speed circuit. In my tub it's obvious when the heater is actually heating vs just circulating from my low speed "jet". It is possible that the pumps can put that much heat into the water from just waste heat especially if the air intakes are on and you are pumping that heat right into the water. My tub will heat up faster with the air on if the jets have been blasting away for a while.
  24. 1) Just make sure there's chlorine in the tub at all times. When starting out that means you're going to have to test it daily until you get a feel for whats going on. All of these "low maintenance" programs are compromises to maintaining a balance. You either have too much or too little sanitizer in the water. nature 2 method is what they set you up with (because it's expensive) and you need to make sure you have the right method to test for MPS. Read the hot tub chemicals board section for nature 2 threads. All the info you are seeking is in that board of this forum. 2) the outside of the cover can be completely covered in sap and it's not going to affect the performance of your cover. It might look bad but it won't degrade your cover. 3) the scum sponges do work well. you can tell when they are used up when they start floating low in the water. I use the scum balls or the scum bugs you can get on amazon for about $5-6. Replace every 1-2 months depending on how clean you are getting in the tub. deoderants and lotions (anything oily) is what these are good at removing. 4)no experience but i'm sure that's fine.
  25. Any of the methods outlined in the sticky threads of the hot tub chemicals board will give you the best start on changing. those methods will work in any hot tub.
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