New Spa Owner

[robd225]

I purchased my first spa rom Strong SPA and now have 4 to 6 weeks to get everything ready and I have a few questions.\

As fare as chemicals I will be following the 3 step bromine plan posted on this forum.

Chemicals, were is a good online store to purhcase my bromine from?

Electrical, my friends an electrician so I'm covered. We will be running 6/3 guage to a gfi hot tub sub panel that will be about 15 ft from the tub and then from the panel to the tub under ground in water tight conduit.

The PAD, I do not want to poor a concreted pad and strong spa says no pad is needed But just to be safe I wan to either place the tub on top of decorative patio blocks 10 x 10 ft area or use a hot tub pad under the tub and stone around the tub area.

Any one using a hot tub pad and if so what brand and were did you order it from.

Also any one using patio blocks and if so did you run into an yproblems with it.

The cover, the tub comes with a 5 to 3 inch cover and I dont want to drill into the tub so I was planning on using a cover caddy.

http://www.spa-mart.com/spa-cover-lifts/cover-caddy.cfm?gclid=CJfS8NaOk6sCFQnc4AodgDtD0w

An yone have any expierience with the Slide Under Cover Caddy?

Thanks Robd

[Even Further]

Congrats on the new spa!

I buy all my chems and sanitizer from Spadepot.com. They have good prices, shipping cost, and are quick to ship. The Spa Choice brand Sodium Bromide and Bromine tablets have worked great.

I bought an EZ Pad on eBay. Its not the best looking, but there are a few things I like about it. The plastic material does not trap moisture on the spa underside. The spa can be moved, adjusted very easy once its on the pad (without water). The plastic does kinda look like a gray concrete color. I plan to put paver stones around it or something. My pad is on top of paver stones already. I like the fact that if it rains, the bottom base of the spa is slightly elevated above the ground level.

[Spa_Guru]

In almost every case where I go to a customer's house where they have used pavers, the center of the spa has sunk, putting all the weight on the perimeter/cabinet, leading to cabinet damage, shell damage, and a warped surface where the hot tub vover mates to the shell, causing heat leakage.

IMHO, ALL spas should go on Smartpads (or similar product), concrete, or a good solid deck.

[DK117]

In almost every case where I go to a customer's house where they have used pavers, the center of the spa has sunk, putting all the weight on the perimeter/cabinet, leading to cabinet damage, shell damage, and a warped surface where the hot tub vover mates to the shell, causing heat leakage.

IMHO, ALL spas should go on Smartpads (or similar product), concrete, or a good solid deck.

I have a Strong Spa that sits in a corner on my 700 sq ft paver patio. This is just one data point, and for only two years, but so far so good. I will say that 1) The paver patio was professionally installed. I have hard clay naturally in my yard, with a few inches of compacted gravel and then a few inches of compacted sand, the base has to be done right prior to paver installation. Not saying you can't do it DIY, but prep of the base is most important. 2) I'm still really happy with the cabinet on the Strong Spa. It looks exactly like it did when it arrived two years ago. I think you'll hear from others with more experience, but the cabinet is a selling point and it's bullet proof. It's uniquely suited for a non concrete pad installation.

DK117

[Spa_Guru]

In almost every case where I go to a customer's house where they have used pavers, the center of the spa has sunk, putting all the weight on the perimeter/cabinet, leading to cabinet damage, shell damage, and a warped surface where the hot tub vover mates to the shell, causing heat leakage.

IMHO, ALL spas should go on Smartpads (or similar product), concrete, or a good solid deck.

I have a Strong Spa that sits in a corner on my 700 sq ft paver patio. This is just one data point, and for only two years, but so far so good. I will say that 1) The paver patio was professionally installed. I have hard clay naturally in my yard, with a few inches of compacted gravel and then a few inches of compacted sand, the base has to be done right prior to paver installation. Not saying you can't do it DIY, but prep of the base is most important. 2) I'm still really happy with the cabinet on the Strong Spa. It looks exactly like it did when it arrived two years ago. I think you'll hear from others with more experience, but the cabinet is a selling point and it's bullet proof. It's uniquely suited for a non concrete pad installation.

DK117

It makes a huge difference with soil types and the installation of the pavers, if you were in Pheonix AZ, the ground is hard as concrete already, Minnesota, not so much ;-)