Vicki5112

Thanks I suspect you are quite right about no way of keeping it from getting yucky till the filter comes. We had never had a problem with the Baquaspa since we started using it when we bought our first tub in 2008. We recommended it to our neighbor since they were impressed how clear & nice smelling our spa was. They had nothing but problems trying to balance it. They went back to their old method but they still complain about the chlorine smell. I suspect they aren't getting that balanced well either. I was reading some of the comments from @waterbear & have picked up some info that I'll share with hubby. I appreciate the help. This has been a great informative forum for me & I have appreciated having the access to it. You may not remember but last year we had a leak & used the Fix A Leak...we have been fortunate there too so far as we haven't had a leak since July of last year 🙂 But as you said at the time, it can have it's drawbacks. We only paid $100 for the tub since the seller couldn't find the leak so we figured we didn't have much to lose if it didn't work 😉 Pic of my $100 hot tub 🙂

OK, so I can't get a filter locally so I ordered one on Amazon. Question...is there a way I can keep the water from getting so yucky until Tuesday when the new filter comes? We had just cleaned & refilled the tub on Wednesday. Thanks.

OK, thanks so much for your for your response. We have used Baquaspa for over 10 years. I'll go out & get a new filter today if I can find one locally & see if that fixes it. I hope it does since it's a much cheaper fix 😉 We had been soaking our filters in Soft Soak as the spa place doesn't carry Baquaspa cleaner. The spa folks said it was OK to use that brand with Baquaspa.

So I have been researching, not really sure what to research but I did see something that might indicate a circulation pump issue. Think this could be the issue? Thanks.

Hiya folks, I am experiencing a problem with our spa & I'm not sure what to even try to fix 😉 When the filter is in & locked down the water will not circulate correctly through the filter. It has surges with the jets. If we loosen the filter the jets work fine but I know it is not filtering the water this way. I have tried 3 different filters that we had on hand. Two were bought within the past year. We clean it regularly with SoftSoak (we use Baqua Spa chemicals). Thought it might be that the filter wasn't clean enough so we brought them down to the house & cleaned them with the power washer & replaced it but it still does the same thing then when it is locked down. We had a situation the past few weeks where it had been too warm to enjoy the spa so we didn't go out. The water got really cloudy, kind of yellowish and a bit stinky. I thought it needed some water clarifier so I added that 3 times but it didn't help. So anyone know what our problem might be. I have looked high & low on the net & can't seem to find anyone with this issue. Hot tub weather is upon us & I sure miss going out to relax in the tub. Thanks.

Yep, my dad always said any day above ground is a good day 🙂 Thanks for your help. This is a great site.

Thanks for your response RD. We either had to try the Fix a Leak or trash/get rid of the tub. The person we bought it from had previously tried to fix it by digging out all the insulation. Once he got done doing that & refilling it, he found he hadn't fixed it at all which was why he sold it to us for $100. We tried to get our local Watkins dealer out to fix the leak but they never showed up even after several calls. We had pretty much decided to either sell it to our neighbor who was interested in it for the same price with the leak. As a last ditch effort, I googled fixing a leak & saw that stuff. We figured it was worth a last try & so far it has worked for us. It was either that or get rid of the tub. Being retired & on a fixed income, we most likely would not have gotten another tub. We couldn't afford a new one & were hesitant to buy a used one in the event that the seller might not disclose any issues. Our first used tub was bought from a dealer in Pittsburgh & the move was included in the price of the tub. Having moved from the city & living in a rural area now, it's hard to find used tubs & then to find a moving company willing to move it, not to mention the expense. It cost us $438 to get this one moved about 30 miles. Earlier this summer we were looking at a used one & I called the moving company that moved this one & the one we were looking at was too big for them to consider doing. It was 7X7. So I guess we'll continue to muddle through with this one & if we have to start adding water again every week, we'll do it cause we do get relief for all those senior aches & pains...lol

Thought I'd add an update. Now that the days are not so warm, we have turned the heater breaker back on & it is heating properly so it must have indeed been the sun that was heating it up. I'd have never thought that. As far as the leak goes, the Fix a Leak is still holding. I am debating on giving it another dose of the stuff prior to the cold PA weather, kind of being proactive rather than reactive. Not sure if that is something I should do yet but we will be draining & cleaning it soon anyway and refilling it for the winter. It was quite easy to clean the Fix a leak out of the tub. We usually do a mid winter drain & refill too if we have a warm day in Jan or Feb.

Just an update...I still have the heater breaker turned off & have been using it once the sun goes down most days. I guess y'all were right about the sun heating it up. We didn't have this issue with our other tub as it sat under a gazebo & got very little sun. We are in the process of putting a roof over the tub now & I expect then that it will be less hot since it will no longer be in the direct sunlight all day. It has been around & under 100 most days & I find if I leave the cover open after the sun starts going down it seems to take it down a degree or 2. The leak fix is still holding & I'm so glad of that. I did take some buckets of water out of the tub one day so I had room to add some cold water since I had company coming & the temp outside was still in the low 80's that day. Thanks for all your replies. This is a really great & helpful group & I'm so glad I found it 🙂

I did have it set to the summer mode but the temp was still 102 so I turned it off & just let it sit with nothing on at all. I wanted to get in it so I put a bit of cold water in it, left the cover off & it finally cooled down to 96. I couldn't add very much water though since the Fix A Leak is still working for us 🙂 I turned it back on so I could use it but I left the heater off. Heater is still off but I have it on its regular cycle. It is 87 here today & the tub is 95 so I can get in it again tonight. If my brother comes up to use it this evening, he likes it hotter so I will have to turn the heater breaker back on for him. But I plan on keeping the heater off off right now (after my bro uses it that is...lol). It's supposed to be in the mid to high 80's the rest of this week as well as next week. I guess I won't revisit the heater issue while this run of hot weather is still going on. I like to use it as often as I can because of back & hip issues. Thanks for the help & once I get back to this issue, I'll be posting for more advice 😉 I just re-read your message & no I do not have the daily clean cycle activated? SHould I be doing that? This tub is a lot different than our Nordic & we don't find the manual very helpful.

I'll do that in the morning after I turn it back on. I have it off for the night. Thanks again.

I just went out & turned the whole spa off, both breakers. I am currently on hold with Watkins so we'll see if I can explain what's happening & if they can help. The local Watkins dealer hasn't returned my call from 2 weeks ago yet. I had called them about the leak prior to using the fix a leak & they said the work order was in & they would call me the beginning of last week. So I haven't bothered to call back about this issue. It just seemed to me that I had done something with a setting when I pushed the temp up several times after it had hit 104. I immediately turned it back down to 96 that day. It has been hot ever since I did that. I can't find anything in the manual to address this specific problem. I thought also early on it might be a problem with the heater but when I turned the heater breaker off & left it off & the tub still heated up to 102, I guessed it wasn't that then. I didn't think the circulation pump would generate as much heat so as to get it to 102.

Thanks. I wondered if I did something to reset it inadvertently since the excessive heat just became a problem after that day. I have it set at 80 & have for the past few weeks. I have never had an issue with a tub being too warm. Our Nordic would stay at 82 where I kept it set then when we wanted to get in in the summer, we would set it to 92 then back down to 82 until the next time we were going to use it then we'd up the temp to 92 again. I knew it retained heat some since in the past few weeks when I would get ready to use the tub & I'd be turning it up, the temp light would come on at 90 or 92. I'm going to turn all the breakers off again & leave the cover off in the hopes that it will cool down. Yesterday early afternoon I temped it & it was at 97 then 3 hours later it was back up to 102 and the heater breaker was turned off. It seems to ramp up to 102 & stay there for quite a bit then it will go back down to the high 90's for a few hours then by evening it's back at 102. The temp here today is 84 outside. Last evening when I set the summer mode the circulator thingy in the floor stopped putting out bubbles but today all day it has been blowing the bubbles as usual. I'm so dumb about this stuff and can't figure out what half of the things mean in the manual...lol

Hi, we are having an issue with our Tiger River tub. Last week I was scrolling up the temp & I got to 104 and I may have clicked on it several times. Not sure if that would make any changes to the tub functions as I couldn't find anything in the manual that was any help. Since then the tub seems to be at 102 most of the time. We normally only keep the tub at 96 when we are using it & 80 when not in use in the summer now. We did see something about a summer mode so we set that but the tub has only dropped to 100 after 2 days. We had turned off the breaker to the heater 2 different times but the tub continues to heat up. We have 2 breakers assigned to the tub. One is power to the whole tub & other is heater. I'm a bit confused as to how the heater continued to heat when the breaker was off. Do you think I have a problem with a malfunctioning heater and/or breaker or did I do something on a setting that I can't seem to figure out? Some of you may remember my posts about the leak & adding the Fix a Leak. Well for the time being that is fixed but we still can't use the tub because it is too hot...and my hip & back really miss it 😉 not in use

Today we drained & cleaned the tub. It's refilling now & if it doesn't rain this evening we plan on taking it for a test drive 😉 Clean up was very easy. I wasn't sure how it would be. Once it's filled, we'll put the filter in & run it for a few hours, then take it out & clean it. I imagine there will be a small residual amount in the lines when the jets are turned on. I wonder if we'll be one of the lucky ones??? Sure hope so. Even if I just don't have to refill it every week, I'm gonna take that as a win lol 😉 Thanks all.

So now we have decided a different course of action. Tomorrow we will turn on the jets for a few hours to see if we get a leak once the lines have pressure on them. If we do, we'll add another 6 ounces & see if that helps. After thinking about it, it kind of made more sense to run it while the first dose is in rather than drain it out & clean it when it might need another treatment or so. Save on water & work that way 😉 There were no real instructions on the bottle so we're like everyone else, we just are trying to do what makes sense to us.

Day 2 & still holding but I suppose the real test will come on Sunday & beyond. We will drain it tomorrow, clean it, let it sit overnight then refill it Sunday & turn on the jets. Wish us luck 😉

So here we are...24 hours after the application of the Fix A Leak. We ran the jets for about 10 hours, shut the jets off & just left it sit. Checked it just a few minutes ago & we have not lost any water so far. It's early in the game with this stuff so we are cautiously optimistic. Several people have stated it word for a short while & started leaking again & others said theirs was fine for months & a few even years. If I have to put the stuff in every so often it's still better than adding water every week. We plan on letting it sit for another day or so then draining, cleaning, & refilling it. The water doesn't feel or smell funny like I thought it might. I'll keep y'all posted as time goes on & thanks everyone for the help & suggestions.

Oh wow RD..our Nordic ran until I'd shut it off...lol This is only my 2nd tub so I thought they were all the same. Good luck Cusser 🙂

Thanks 🙂 We are currently letting the jets run. The directions were a tad vague on the bottle so we are mostly basing the course of action on the posted reviews of the various people who have used it. We are not planning on getting up every two hours to keep the jets running but we will keep it running until bedtime tonight. I wish I could keep the jets running longer but the Tiger River jets shut off after two hours & I was told there is no way to override this feature. It will be a day or so till we'll be able to tell if the tub is still leaking since we don't lose a lot each day. We do plan on running the solution through again if it doesn't stop it this first time.

So we did go ahead & put the Fix A Leak in the water & I'll let y'all know if we are one of the lucky ones that it works for. I am confused though about whether or not to turn the tub off all together for it to "cure". Our tub has little bubbles that come out of the heater return/spa drain all the time so I'm assuming it is circulating the water in a small way since we don't do anything special with it in the winter & it didn't freeze. The jets never cycle on or off every so many hours like they did on our Nordic tub. We keep it set at 86 during the winter & 82 in the fall, spring & summer. In reading the reviews on Amazon, some people shut theirs down & some didn't. I don't know what we should do. Thanks.

Thanks guys. Not sure if I can talk hubby in to taking on this job. We just moved in to a place that is needing lots of repairs and he has to get that work done first. I'll run it by him if this Fix A Leak doesn't work. We are unable to see where it is leaking since there is no wetness around the tub at all. It sits on shale but we were hoping that where it was leaking would show by making the shale show a darker gray. The guy we bought it from had already tried to fix it once & he told us where he thought the leak was. He tore it apart & resealed something he said, then used many many cans of that spray foam to reseal only to find that he didn't get the leak fixed after all. Since he was the only one who ever used it, he didn't want to invest any more time or money in it. He had been topping it off each week like we have been but he had to pay for his city water & he had a family, he didn't like that added expense on the water bill. I'll let y'all know if we have a hit or miss with the Fix A Leak. Seems from what I read, it works about the same as the Stop Leak my dad was always putting in his car radiator when I was a kid...sometimes it worked & sometimes it didn't 😉

Thanks guys...we figured that we'd give it a try. Nothing to lose since we most likely will not have service on it if the Fix A Leak doesn't work. We initially thought we might have the tech come out but when we saw what others are paying or estimating for a leak repair, it may just be time to write off the $100 tub & go for a new one. We aren't sure we can justify putting $1000-$2000 in a 19 year old tub. We feel we have gotten our $100 use out of it over the months we've had it. We will just take the good parts off of the tub & try to sell them & junk the tub. Of course I may feel different tomorrow...you know how women have that prerogative to change their minds 😉

Hi, I have a Tiger River Sumatran 2001 model and I bought it for $100 knowing it had a leak. Loses about 5 inches per week. We have re-filled once a week & used it all last fall & winter waiting for the weather to get nice so that we could rip it apart & try to find the leak. Well during my internet research, I found a product that I could buy to stop the leak providing it was small. It is called Fix A Leak. I figure it's worth a try before hubby & I start looking or calling for service. The question that I have is the product says to run the jets continuously for quite some time and ours shut off automatically after 2 hours. Is there any way to override that feature or am I going to have to get up every 2 hours to restart the jets? Thanks, Vicki