Bought a Hot Springs Classic new in 1992. Only repair was to replace the circulating pump once. That is until 5 years ago when I opened it up in the spring (after winterizing) and found a 24" long crack in the shell from the bottom up to one of the pockets for the back massagers. Got the repair kit from Watkins, tipped it up on it's side and dug out the foam in the cracked area and proceeded to epoxy/fiberglass the exterior of the crack and filled the crack from the interior with the MEK melted pellets. Drilled a small hole at the end of the crack. It has always leaked since the repair, about an inch a week. It is on a deck raised eight feet, so I always know if it is leaking.
Filled it again this spring and now it was almost gushing water, about 8 inches in a day. Did some careful measurements with a caliper and it slowed down, finally was dropping at the rate of 2.5" per day. Same rate with the pump on as with it off, so it was not in the plumbing. Way too much to make it usable. So I bit the bullet and tipped it up again and dug out the foam I has replaced after the first repair. A small area of my repair has delaminated near the back massager pocket where the bottom takes some sharp angles. Guessing a tiny leak froze during the winter and pushed the fiberglass layers of the repair apart. The surprise? Carpenter ants has burrowed into the foam, making a nest and munching on small areas of the wood base that had not gotten quite enough preservative.
I took a wire wheel cup on my angle grinder to clear the foam and loose fiberglass from the edges of the repair. This time I am going to fill the sharp angles with epoxy repair putty before setting another layer (or two) of fiberglass in a thick layer of epoxy. It is a pain working around the wood base slats, but this time I am making sure there is no foam left near the edges and I end up with fully soaked layers of fiberglass. And this time i am not re-foaming the repair area.
Any words of wisdom before I start the repair?