Kerry Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Hello. We've got numerous blisters on our ThermoSpas shell (these have evolved over the past several years). We were told by the service department when we contacted them that our tub was affected by a defect in the materials used in the shell construction but that it was a widespread industry problem and that ThermoSpas wasn't the only brand affected... ( , nice, huh?) Basically they told us that they would offer us a prorated amount for a new tub (recommended) or that they would sand and "repaint" a new sealant over the affected areas (not recommended...) for a fee, even though we were still under our warranty. Neither option was acceptable for us. We've decided to squeeze whatever remaining life we can get out of this spa and simply look for a different brand when this one no longer holds water. We are OK with picking up some materials at Home Depot but feel strongly about not paying ThermoSpas to repair something that was defective from the outset--(I think they called this shell a ticking time bomb and actually laughed....) We will not be purchasing from ThermoSpas again, either for service or sales. So does anyone have any recommendations about what product we can use to extend our shell life, given that we have about 2 dozen blisters that are growing (both in size and numbers) by the year? I'm told that the shell is acrylic and that the material behind the shell is fiberglass. I was thinking that I could squirt some silicone gel inside the crack but stumbled on this site and thought that some of you pros might have some better advice... Here's a picture: NOTE: if you CTRL-click on the link, it will open the picture in a new window... if you just click on the link, you will navigate away from this forum... This is the first one to actually split open and the shell easily flexes in when it's pressed on... Here's another blister that hasn't split open yet... most of them look like this: These blisters feel solid to press on but the staining would indicate that there has been seepage in/out. My guess is that eventually they will all progress to look like the one above. At this point, we don't care if the fix is aesthetically pleasing. We'd just like it to be comfortable to sit on and for it to keep the water in if that's possible... Given how quickly these blisters are growing, we're figuring that we're on our last gasp but that it couldn't hurt to ask... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Spa Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 This was never a, "widespread industry problem". Unless you can call poor manufacturing, "widespread". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted July 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 LOL-- yea. Must admit that response did raise our eyebrows... We were actually pretty lucky with this tub--we got it from a factory end-of-year sale as a discontinued model for less than $3000 about 8 years ago. It's been moved twice and had a very unfortunate incident where our son dropped some knex construction toys in it and (unbeknown to us) one of those pieces manged to slip past the filtration and jammed the impeller (this past January)-- We went a week without using it and when I went out to do the weekly water maintenance, found 6 inches of ice-- Fortunately, (after the spring thaw & once the toys were removed from the main pump...), both pumps and all electrical components worked -- we replaced lots of burst piping and the tub's been working beautifully all spring & summer. However, the blistering has been evolving for the past 6-7 years... The tub was pretty new when the first one emerged, but it was small and we didn't know enough to recognize that more would follow... I'm sure our winter freeze accelerated the process as they're larger and many more have emerged this year than in years past... If we had been savvy enough to recognize the early blistering, our prorated quote may have been high enough to justify a trade in, but because the tub was 4 years old when we contacted ThermoSpas service, we'd pretty much decided that it wasn't worth upgrading just for bumps and they talked us out of the "repair" option saying that it wouldn't prevent further blistering... The tub itself doesn't owe us anything, considering what we paid for it, how long we've had it, our unfortunate winter freeze event and how much we've enjoyed it... We just didn't appreciate how ThermoSpas handled our requests for service early on or that they knew their shell to have defects and not just made light of it, but tried to use that to get us to upgrade... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbilly Hot Tub Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 LOL-- yea. Must admit that response did raise our eyebrows... We were actually pretty lucky with this tub--we got it from a factory end-of-year sale as a discontinued model for less than $3000 about 8 years ago. It's been moved twice and had a very unfortunate incident where our son dropped some knex construction toys in it and (unbeknown to us) one of those pieces manged to slip past the filtration and jammed the impeller (this past January)-- We went a week without using it and when I went out to do the weekly water maintenance, found 6 inches of ice-- Fortunately, (after the spring thaw & once the toys were removed from the main pump...), both pumps and all electrical components worked -- we replaced lots of burst piping and the tub's been working beautifully all spring & summer. However, the blistering has been evolving for the past 6-7 years... The tub was pretty new when the first one emerged, but it was small and we didn't know enough to recognize that more would follow... I'm sure our winter freeze accelerated the process as they're larger and many more have emerged this year than in years past... If we had been savvy enough to recognize the early blistering, our prorated quote may have been high enough to justify a trade in, but because the tub was 4 years old when we contacted ThermoSpas service, we'd pretty much decided that it wasn't worth upgrading just for bumps and they talked us out of the "repair" option saying that it wouldn't prevent further blistering... The tub itself doesn't owe us anything, considering what we paid for it, how long we've had it, our unfortunate winter freeze event and how much we've enjoyed it... We just didn't appreciate how ThermoSpas handled our requests for service early on or that they knew their shell to have defects and not just made light of it, but tried to use that to get us to upgrade... Those blisters are huge! There are a couple of different routes. The one we have tried, and works well (but has been with much smaller blisters) is drilling 2 small holes in the bubble, putting a vacuum over one, and a cut straw and super glue (made for pool and spa repair) while using a heat gun, being very careful, heat the blister as you are sucking the acrylic down and adding the glue. The heat gun makes the acrylic more plyable, the glue sticks it back dow. Other suggestion, cut the blister out, sand and use a fiberglass repair on it. This is not pretty, but it covers the hole. The blister should not leak since it is usually the acrylic separating from the fiberglass or whatever they used for a backing) unlees that backing was also very thin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted July 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Thank you for your response. We will definitely try this. Would you be kind enough to recommend a brand or specific product that we should ask for? Also, can we find this product at a Lowes/Home Depot or do we need to go to a hot tub retail store (or are we best off looking online)? I'm thinking that the sanding and fiberglass repair seems most manageable, since we don't have a heat gun or a vacuum (other than our carpet vacuum)... Plus these blisters are just so numerous and large that I don't think I have the patience to do the straw/glue vacuum procedure that many times... Interesting though, your comment about the fact that it shouldn't leak after being repaired as long as the backing is solid... I discovered the burst blister only after draining for our monthly maintenance--the tub had not been noticeably leaking--one of the reasons I was so surprised that it was such a huge slit across that blister. It's water levels were just as they always are... Makes me think that perhaps we aren't on our last gasp after all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted January 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 I thought I'd do a follow up on this in case anyone has a similar issue... We had great success using the Marine-Tex epoxy putty. Here's a link to their web site: http://www.marinetex.com/ Although we purchased the fiberglass tape, we didn't need it. The putty by itself was strong and adhered well to both the shell (edges) and fiberglass backing. We used the white and tinted it blue to try to match our shell. Unfortunately, the blue never even came close, so retrospectively, it wasn't worth the bother to try and color it. Although it wasn't pretty, the patch worked like a charm and when it was done, was actually stronger than the hot tub shell. We had so many blisters that continued to erupt and split open, that by the time we were done, our hot tub really looked awful. If the aesthetics are important to you, you probably won't be happy with the results. If your goal is to seal the leaks and you can live with a blatantly patched shell, then this stuff works great! Here's what we did: --We prepared the surface by using a rotary tool to cut and then sand off the blistered shell and warped surface behind, basically leveling the surface of the hot tub down to the material behind the shell. This was by far the hardest part, to get a nice contour that would be comfortable to sit on... when doing this, we took a bit of the attached shell off and tried to bevel it so there would not be any sharp edges. --Then we pretty much followed the manufacturer's instructions for preparing and applying the Marine-Tex compound. You'll want to wear gloves and old clothes for this part. --After it was cured, we sanded any ridges that weren't smoothed in the application. Definitely wear a mask if you do this... Good luck on this. Our tub continued to blister but always in areas far away from our patches, so I'm pretty confident that the patches held tight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjames710 Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 This can't be right, according to Thermospas, they have "an unprecedented 0% failure rate". Just look at this page http://www.thermospas.com/hot-tub-marble-granite.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 HA! Love it! Funny how the shell in the link is identical to my poor blistered (& very patched) shell... Color & all...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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