Please Help Troubleshoot My Leak

[ar7499]

Hello there and thank you for taking the time to read my story.

I have a dimension1 californian. about 5 years old. It was winterized by my wife and I. We drained all the water we could by pumping out, then towel dried, used a shop vac to suck water out of the pipes, blew air through them, and fianlly left all of the pipe junctions around the pump open. We did not use any anti-freeze, because from what I had read we would be fine if we got out all of the water.

I guess maybe we did not.

I filled the tub on Sunday. Turned the power back on, fired it up, and both pump are running strong. The heater is running well and we were up from 55 to 95 degrees overnight.

We are also abot an inch lower on the water level. When I got home from work on Mon I noticed that the area below one side of the spa is wet. There is no water in the control/pumpp area. It must be leaking out from below the spa?!?

The spa is set about half way concealed in a deck, sitting on a cement slab. access to the side panels is pretty well blocked, but I have removed enough decking to remove the back panel and one side panel. All I see is what apppears to be cardboard, but it very hard. I assume this is some skin applied to the outside of the fiberglass shell. There is a 2x4 frame that seems to be the frame of the spa, and it all appears to rest on some sort of wooden box/ sub frame.

On the side where the slab was wet, the internal 'carboard' backing seems wet too. I can not even begin to see how I would get access to any return pipes or any of the internal drains. Do I need to fully empty the spa, and jack it up?

I am a fairly determined diy'er, and I can't afford to have someone come out and do the dissasembly on an 15 minute rate.

Any tips on what I should be doing to locate the problem or how to access the workings of the spa will really be appreciated. My kids and I are SO dissapointed. We all love going in after a long day of work/school. I purchased a new cover in the fall, and haven't even installed the cover lift yet. I either need to figure out how to fix it, or get it out of the deck, so either way I guess I will be teearing out a lot of the decking :cry:

PLEASE HELP US IF YOU CAN

Thanks,

ar

[ar7499]

this is a last desperate hope that someone can give me a clue how to access the tubs innards. Do I need to flip it on it's side, or is there any access from around?

Thanks again for reading.

ar

[Pool Clown]

When we have a pool that leaks, sometimes we let it go (leak) till it stops dropping. That usually will tell us approximately where the leak is . Say it leaks down to a return then stops, thats where we start looking. You could do the same. Another way (I've never done this) empty the spa, then jack it up, put cinder blocks under the frame, fill it back up then crawl under and start looking for where the water comes out.

Happy hunting

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

I am guessing this is a full foam D!...??? If it is, you can add dye to the water. Let it leak, pullit out of the deck, pull off the sides to see where the dye is in the foam and follow it back through the foam. use a bright colored dye to do this and bear in mind, leaks can travel all over the place in foam till them come out, it may even be on the oppisite side of the tub. As said previos, let it leak as far down as it will, this will give an idea to where it may be. I would also speak with someone who works on/with D! to see if there is a common area that may get water trapped and freezes.

There is also stop leak products sold out there. Not sure how well they work, I would speak with someone who has tried them.

[spatech (the unreal one)]

I am guessing this is a full foam D!...??? If it is, you can add dye to the water. Let it leak, pullit out of the deck, pull off the sides to see where the dye is in the foam and follow it back through the foam. use a bright colored dye to do this and bear in mind, leaks can travel all over the place in foam till them come out, it may even be on the oppisite side of the tub. As said previos, let it leak as far down as it will, this will give an idea to where it may be. I would also speak with someone who works on/with D! to see if there is a common area that may get water trapped and freezes.

There is also stop leak products sold out there. Not sure how well they work, I would speak with someone who has tried them.

This is good advice with the dye though I would try to avoid the idea of using a stop leak unless its a last resort.

[ar7499]

Thanks for the tips. I will try the dye trick, jacking it up is half-way to getting it removed from the deck, which I guess is where we are headed if I can't get it to stop.

After five days, the level is still dropping, so I fear that it is going to be right at the bottom, but who knows.

So I guess this must have some foam that wraps around all the plumbing for insulation? That's great for the temp, but not so good for maintenence/repair. I just cant stomache or afford to 500 bucks worth of a repair persons time just to fet to the problem......

thanks again,

ar

[hottubdan]

Thanks for the tips. I will try the dye trick, jacking it up is half-way to getting it removed from the deck, which I guess is where we are headed if I can't get it to stop.

After five days, the level is still dropping, so I fear that it is going to be right at the bottom, but who knows.

So I guess this must have some foam that wraps around all the plumbing for insulation? That's great for the temp, but not so good for maintenence/repair. I just cant stomache or afford to 500 bucks worth of a repair persons time just to fet to the problem......

thanks again,

ar

If I understand what I read I have a few comments:

1. Fix A leak is a good inexpensive sometimes permanent fix.

2. Letting it drain to a fitting is a good idea.

3. If you have access to the side it is leaking from, assuming it is on the side and not the bottom, why would you have to jack it up???

[ar7499]

When I open up the side panels, all I have access to is the outer skin of some sort of rigid insulation. There are no exposed pipes or fittings. That is why I think I need to jack it up. I have not yet tried the dye, but it has leaked almost entirely to empty, so I have let it sit for a few days while I calm myself down.

thanks again, and anyone else with any ideas, I would love to hear them. Jacking this up won't be easy....

ar