kimpur Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 I am new to the hot tub community - enjoyed our 2008 HS Vista thoroughly during the winter months, now trying to adapt to summer usage. We've been in a heatwave of about 99 degree temps for the past week. We've got the tub set in summer mode, defaults to 80 degrees. Heater is "on" from about 12:30 to 8:30 pm (if it actually comes on at all, I don't know). I finally got a thermometer and started testing the actual temps of the water, so I've been experimenting (leaving cover off during heat of the day - it cooled on down comfortably at night to about 92 for the past 3 or 4 nights). Last night, though, it was reading about 99 and was noticeably warmer than it's been on previous nights. I thought well, maybe it's better to leave it covered in the heat and just open it late evening when ready to take a dip. I checked it early this am and it was still reading 99.2. Whazzup with that? Could the thermostat be malfunctioning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imnay Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 I am new to the hot tub community - enjoyed our 2008 HS Vista thoroughly during the winter months, now trying to adapt to summer usage. We've been in a heatwave of about 99 degree temps for the past week. We've got the tub set in summer mode, defaults to 80 degrees. Heater is "on" from about 12:30 to 8:30 pm (if it actually comes on at all, I don't know). I finally got a thermometer and started testing the actual temps of the water, so I've been experimenting (leaving cover off during heat of the day - it cooled on down comfortably at night to about 92 for the past 3 or 4 nights). Last night, though, it was reading about 99 and was noticeably warmer than it's been on previous nights. I thought well, maybe it's better to leave it covered in the heat and just open it late evening when ready to take a dip. I checked it early this am and it was still reading 99.2. Whazzup with that? Could the thermostat be malfunctioning? I guess your issue is a variable depending on what the user expects from the tub. We have a 22.5k gallon pool and in our summer current heat wave the pool temp is around 95 degrees and we LOVE IT! The water is to us refreshing - maybe it's an age thing - we're older and perfer warmer water to colder water. We keep our spa at around 100 degrees in the summer - to us, the whole effect of a spa is hot water that you sit in for around ten minutes for the benefits of heat plus hydro massage (whatever that is). If I wanted to sit in cool water I would sit in the bathtub - not our spa. I guess if you don't have a pool then you can try to make your spa water cooler but - LOL - to me I would suggest a cold shower and fill a small inflatable yard pool with a hose for a dip in cooler water and keep the spa a bit warmer - whatever but Best of Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rentit Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Yes, for some reason I was a bit surprised by this post. It is 105 here right now and the tub is set on 100. I've never thought that was an issue; for heat therapy you need it to be hot...all this business of leaving the cover off during certain times and measuring the temperature is lost on me. I'll be staying tuned to see what I can learn. Thanks for the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raegor Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 Well, I'm wondering if my heater is stuck on cuz my spa is 105 and never dropping. Yes its hot as hell during the day down here in Louisiana but its still not cooling down at night. I leave the cover on, don't want to take it off due to bugs, and 105 is too hot for me as hot as it is outside with no breeze and high humidity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatech (the unreal one) Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 Well, I'm wondering if my heater is stuck on cuz my spa is 105 and never dropping. Yes its hot as hell during the day down here in Louisiana but its still not cooling down at night. I leave the cover on, don't want to take it off due to bugs, and 105 is too hot for me as hot as it is outside with no breeze and high humidity. Obviously you want a spa that is well insulated and this appears to be your issue. The spa is holding temp throughout the cooler part of the day due to how well insulated it is as I believe the issue is temp creep due to outside temp and the heat generated by the circ pump but you have an easy way to determine if its the heater (and you might want to read up on the summer timer mode for the circ pump). Your spa comes with two breakers; one is for the heater and the other if for everything else. Simply turn off the heater breaker and see if the issue continues. If it does then you might want to consider draining 20% of the water and refilling with tap water to bring the temp down since you're hesitant to leave it open to cool off due to bugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerimiahR Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 If wired according to Hot Spring's recommendations, you should indeed have two breakers as spatech stated. They should be out near the hot tub depending on your local electrical code. Anyhow, inside the breaker box should be a 20 Amp and a 30 Amp breaker. In your case, the "20" amp breaker controls only the heater. The 30 amp powers the rest of the spa. You could optionally turn off the 20amp breaker and that way you'll know for sure it's not the spa heating itself. Just remember to turn the 20 amp back on when winter months come. Otherwise your spa will not be capable of heating. Also as spatech stated, because your Hot Spring is well insulated, it's going to retain heat extremely well. For example, we have a Grandee model (same size as your Vista) outside our showroom. Back in December we had several nights where temperatures hit -20F. We disabled all power to the hot tub over night one evening just to see how much temperature loss we'd have. From 6pm to 9am, the 500 gallon spa went from 104F to 100F. (We DO NOT recommend trying this at home by the way) But as a dealer/repair center, we wanted to test it out (accepting all potential risks of course). If the spa will hold it's temperature that well at -20F, it'll do much better with 99F weather. Just to be clear: *Do not disable power to your spa in freezing temperatures, as this may result in serious damage to your hot tub, and will not be covered under a manufacturer's warranty.* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raegor Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 Thanks for the info. I have the Vanguard but the same breaker etc. I'll try turning off the 20 to see if that effects anything. Yea I know its really well insulated I could tell that from the past winter how well it kept the heat, I was just hoping the same insulation would prevent the daytime sun from superheating it. I guess the heat travels into the tub a lot easier then it travels out. Of course the sun is blasting heat onto the cover & walls all day, whereas at night it would just be an ambient transfer through the insulation... super slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpur Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 Hey thanks, guys! Good info - we have experimented over the past couple weeks and the answer did indeed seem to be - just shut the breaker off to the heater during these dog days, and don't worry about it! Water temps have been a cool, comfortable evening temp of 92 to 95 degrees since (still in heatwave days in upper 90s). The heat becomes a moot point, anyway, (in summer mode that is, at the default of 80 degrees). Heck, ain't no way that water temp is gonna get below 80 for quite some time anyways ......we stay in there as long as we want and thoroughly enjoy it! Yeah, I know it's a HOT TUB....but you can sure feel refreshed after a COOL dip in the evenings, too! Love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtherio Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 Hi Kimpur, Hey thanks, guys! Good info - we have experimented over the past couple weeks and the answer did indeed seem to be - just shut the breaker off to the heater during these dog days, and don't worry about it! Water temps have been a cool, comfortable evening temp of 92 to 95 degrees since (still in heatwave days in upper 90s). The heat becomes a moot point, anyway, (in summer mode that is, at the default of 80 degrees). Heck, ain't no way that water temp is gonna get below 80 for quite some time anyways ......we stay in there as long as we want and thoroughly enjoy it! Yeah, I know it's a HOT TUB....but you can sure feel refreshed after a COOL dip in the evenings, too! Love it! I am in the Dallas, Tx area. After recently draining and refilling my tub, I heated it up to 100 (my normal setting), for the next few days (with the cover kept on during the day) the tub got up to 102/103. I set the heater down to 80 (the lowest setting) and the tub maintained a 100/101 temp. Our days here were right around 100. My tub is on an uncovered patio and it gets lots of sun during the day (it is on the west side of the house). Even with our recent cooler days it only dropped down to 96. So a well insulated tub, with a nice cover on it will retain and even go up in temp on hot southern days (learning experience for me as I only got my first spa a couple of months ago). Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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