Overflowing

[billy sharpstick]

i have several very friendly, and dare i say it, somewhat large friends. a couple times i have seen too many people climb in at once and waves of water run out over the side. (one time this happened at a friend's house and we were grateful for the FFCI breaker when it ran down on the control box and tripped the breaker!)

later on in the night, as people get out one by one, the tub has a much lower level. this seems to be a waste of water AND heat. not to mention gettting the area all wet. has anyone ever figured out a way to have this water temporarily drained off into a reservoir barrel and later pumped back in?

i figure that once the water gets to the top of the tub, a person of 160 lbs displaces 20 gallons. a 55 gallon drum for example, would hold the water displaced by three people.

i even have a hole leftover from when i replumbed my tub and moved the filter to a location off the deck that could be used for an overflow drain.

bill keiser

[kengorman]

My spa's instructions indicated to fill the tub to 1inch below the pillows. Without anyone in the tub, the water level is at least 6 inches below the top rim. I've had as many as 6 people in the tub, and the water level has never overflowed.

My tub outside dimensions are 92x92, however, the dimensions from the inside edge of the shell side-to-side is about 80 inches.

I notice that the water level rises about 3/4 inch with each person that enters the tub.

A little math bears this out.

80in*80in = surface area of water = 6400 in^2.

1 person displaces about 3 cubic feet of water (approximately)

1 gallon (gal) = 8.34 pounds

1 cubic foot (ft3) = 7.48 gallons

3 cubic feet = 5184 cubic inches.

5184 in^3 / 6400 in^2 = 0.81 inches

I believe an easier solution than an overflow tank with a pump to pump the water back in is to figure out how much the water rises with each person entering the spa. Keep your water level just below that level times the number of anticipated soakers.

This may be a problematic approach with smaller tubs whose water levels rise much more dramatically with each person entering the spa.

Ken

[Brock]

another equation is that when you have all the pumps on high...the air bubbles moving...the blower blowing.....that water will roll and rise and bubble a bit more and raise the maximum water level to parts where it will or could overflow just with two persons.....too low and your pump will suck air...too high you lose water. Only other option is to get smaller friends....but that would also mean I cant get in my own spa if I invoked a size limit...LOL

[billy sharpstick]

I believe an easier solution than an overflow tank with a pump to pump the water back in is to figure out how much the water rises with each person entering the spa. Keep your water level just below that level times the number of anticipated soakers.

This may be a problematic approach with smaller tubs whose water levels rise much more dramatically with each person entering the spa.

Ken

that wouldn't work for me. the aforementioned incident where the water shorted out the tub controller was a tub about 7 x 7. over a dozen people climbed in. as the night wore on and the water and surrounding air got colder, people began to leave one by one. when we last saw the tub, there was one last person huddled in the bottom in about 18" of water. i think we went somewhat over the factory recommendations for occupancy.

bk

[In The Bubble]

I believe an easier solution than an overflow tank with a pump to pump the water back in is to figure out how much the water rises with each person entering the spa. Keep your water level just below that level times the number of anticipated soakers.

This may be a problematic approach with smaller tubs whose water levels rise much more dramatically with each person entering the spa.

Ken

that wouldn't work for me. the aforementioned incident where the water shorted out the tub controller was a tub about 7 x 7. over a dozen people climbed in. as the night wore on and the water and surrounding air got colder, people began to leave one by one. when we last saw the tub, there was one last person huddled in the bottom in about 18" of water. i think we went somewhat over the factory recommendations for occupancy.

bk

That's quite an image.....12 fat nekkid people sqeezing into a 7 by 7 tub. Be still my beating heart.

[Tom]

a couple times i have seen too many people climb in at once and waves of water run out over the side.

Although we've joked a bit at Bill's expense, it is a fair question.

Bill, it's reasonable to expect the water not to overflow if you are within the recommended seating capacity. The hot tub should be designed for that. However, most users do not routinely crowd the tub and so we do not -- and will not! -- design for 12 people in a 5-person unit.

Whenever our teenaged sons had the church youth group over and stuffed too many bodies in, we simply bailed water with a bunch of five gallon pails and set them aside. Once the kids went inside for games and snacks, we poured the water back in. Saved chemicals, at least.

[billy sharpstick]

That's quite an image.....12 fat nekkid people sqeezing into a 7 by 7 tub. Be still my beating heart.

um, guess ya had to be there.

actually not all my tub friends are fat. that was for effect.

[Zeph]

i have several very friendly, and dare i say it, somewhat large friends. a couple times i have seen too many people climb in at once and waves of water run out over the side.

I've seen this phenomenon quite a few times in friends' hot tubs so I anticipate dealing with it too. Maybe my friends are pretty friendly. I do understand that this is overloading the spa's seating design so there's no point to the manufacturers dealing with it. But since it does nevertheless happen (and buying a larger than 8x8 hot tub is not likely), how to more gracefully handle the situation is a fair question.

There's the wasted heat and chemicals - and also the sucking air and reheat time after people leave.

I was just thinking about the same concept as billy - a somewhat insulated overflow barrel with a pump to refill. I picture a pipe going horizontally from the tub plumbing into the tank, making a right turn upward, and rising to the desired overflow level. Another pipe from the bottom of the tank would have a pump to reinject water as desired. Or perhaps with an appropriate valve situation could use the main pump (drawing from the barrel as well as the shell's outtake when trying to refill).

Is there such an accessory? Or has anybody rigged one up?

The idea of buckets isn't bad if this doesn't happen constantly but only at parties - I'm sure people would cooperate in taking a few buckets of water out when yet another person wants in. For those folks with the huge white 120 qt camping coolers, that's enough to add another 240 pounds of below-surface flesh (the coolers may not take the pressure tho). Or just a plastic barrel, with or without some added insulation.

This can't be a new problem!

Zeph