Help With A Long Unused Spa

[PostalDave]

Greetings all,

My wife and I recently bought a house that has a huge Hot tub on the deck. I've got very limited information about the tub, other than the company who made it (Coast Spa and/or Gecko), and that it has an ozoneator, built in speakers, a 7hp pump and sits 6 (or more?). It appears to be in good shape, but it has been sitting (unused) for at least 5 months, full of 90 deg water under cover (5” thick spa cover over the whole tub). What the gallon capacity is, I have no idea.

Now, I've been reading the back and forth on this forum between chlorine and bromine, and will go with the latter. I've followed water bear's recommendation that the Taylor K-2106 water test kit is the one to get, and have ordered it.

My primary question is this: since the tub has sat for so long, what are your recommendations for cleaning the tub out (I would guess the tub is acrylic)? It's got a significant brown contaminate along the top edge of the water (probably algae) that comes off when we rub it with our thumb. This same color gunk also can be seen inside the tub in spots, mostly around various ports and internal fittings. Should I just empty, wipe down the inside with chlorine and refill it? what about a double empty, refill cycle with a shock treatment between the empty and refill actions? I've seen various 'flush' chemicals, but dont' know how much those types of things are really needed.

Secondly, since I am a COMPLETE newbie with a Hot Tub, what book/magazine/'net resource (other than this forum) can you suggest for good information on how to care for and maintain a Hot Tub.

Appreciate your suggestions, and have a great weekend,

Dave

Kansas City (Olathe)

[Tom]

My wife and I recently bought a house that has a huge Hot tub on the deck.

Secondly, since I am a COMPLETE newbie with a Hot Tub, what book/magazine/'net resource (other than this forum) can you suggest for good information on how to care for and maintain a Hot Tub.

Appreciate your suggestions, and have a great weekend,

Dave

Welcome to the forum, Dave.

You should be able to get support from the manufacturer, url=http://www.coastspas.com/site/html/index.html]Coast Spas[/url]

[PostalDave]

Welcome to the forum, Dave.

You should be able to get support from the manufacturer, url=http://www.coastspas.com/site/html/index.html]Coast Spas[/url]

Tom,

Thanks for the quick reply, and the welcome. I like finding forums for specified products/tools and gaining knowledge from the board members. Nothing better than to deal with pro's and proud owners to help cut through the marketing distractions.

On to Coast Spa: I have to admit that I find Coast Spa's website more than a bit lacking.

[rant]To be perfectly frank, I find that it spends entirely too much time selling new equipment than supporting existing owners. I'm an old hand at searching for stuff across the net, and I've failed every time while searching for the model number of this tub. I've even searched the site with google's 'site' keywords, and have had no luck. The local installer was next to no help either. Firstly they told me it was either 'tub a' or 'tub b', yet it was neither. I found the model number under the wood skirt, and gave it to them. They did scare up a manual for it, but it appears to be a generic manual with no specifications of any kind. I know the tub has two pumps on it, but that's from looking at the program control, not from the manual. I know it has a remote, but again, that's because I have one, not because the installer/manual said it had one. I didn't know it had an ozoneator (sp?) on it until I payed the installation company (EW) $100 to come by and look at it. The service guy who came buy was certainly knowledgeable enough, and appeared to give me straight answers (no upsell for products or what have you) but I found it a bit distressing to get a generic manual and no specifications for $100.

Now I don't mind looking stuff up, and to be perfectly honest, I like the search for information a great deal. But after spending more hours than I care to name looking for info, I gave up. Learned a valuable lesson too: namely, don't trust companies for support information. I thought the computer industry was bad till I came across Spa's and Hot Tub's

[end rant]

At any rate, have a good evening everyone,

Dave