Hot Springs Grandee - Side Removal

[TWG1572]

Hello! First post here, been a lurker for the last several weeks though and have gotten a lot of good information from this forum.

To set this up, we bought a house last summer with a 2001 Hot Springs Grandee. The prior owners appear to have been using it, and it was full when we bought the house. We never ran it, but I did go through the winterization steps last fall. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago - when my wife got a wild hair and wanted to fire it up. I went through all the start up steps, and everything came online and worked. Life is good - right?

Last weekend I noticed a couple issues that I suspect might require removing the sides, but I don't know...

1) There appears to be a slow leak somewhere, since the lowest corner of the spa always has a wet spot on the concrete. I know they are supposed to be level, but it appears the concrete has settled in that area. There is about a 1" fall from the high corner to the low corner. The awesome part is that since the tub isn't level, the leak could be anywhere. Equipment compartment is dry.

2) As soon as the hot tub warmed up, we have mice attacking it. I came out to a pile of insulation under one of the overhangs on the side. (We have about 3 inches of skirting, then the main body of the spa hangs over the skirting by about 2") I probed the material on the overhang - it's pretty rotten all around. The other three sides are firm. I've got full blown rodent killing measures now happening, but am scared what happened inside the tub. I'm thinking about putting mesh on that side to prevent more attacks if I can't easily repace the rotten material.

Looking at the sides, there isn't any access at all. Do the boards come off one at a time? If so, that will be a pain! I can't really flip this thing on end easily - it's hard wired and a heavy beast.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm kinda at that point where I'm willing to do some work to get this thing squared away (I'm a relatively handy guy), but a lot of $$ or time will probably lead to me selling it on Craigslist or just winterizing it and letting it die a slow death from non-use.

[spatech (the unreal one)]

You need to determine leak path. Since you're doing the work you can take some time and find it locigally. If its leaking quick enough you could wait to see what level it drops to. If its a slow leak and thats too long to wait for, drain half then wait and see if the wet spot goes awy. if so an a couple inches per day until the water starts to chow itself. Once you get the spa to where the level has settled you can probably figure out where to start. One thing it could be is a leak in one of the corners where the moto jet is. If so its pretty easy to get to and to fix.

[TWG1572]

The leak appears to be relatively slow. It's been running for 2 weeks now and it's dropped about an inch. So the half full method would be the way to do it. It makes a lot of sense - I know I'm up against the clock too. Snowed yesterday, not too long before temps stay below freezing till March.

None of the moto-jets work, so maybe that's where i should start. If replacing them/poking around in there could solve it, it would be a nice and comparatively painless route to go.

[Hot Spring Ace]

If you play with the water level to find the leak I'd take it just below the moto and see if the leak is gone, then assuming it is gone I'd raise it just below the top of the moto cavity to see if the leak returns indicating its between there (though there may be other jets in the spa situated in that range obviously). There is a dain fitting in the bottom of the moto cavity which could be your issue and back in 2001 there was also a bleedline fitting midway up the cavity (since removed in later years). Either are pretty easy fixes because you can just cap the vinyl tubing line and epoxy over the broken nipple on the cavity and its easy to get into the corner. If its not within the moto cavity I'd then raise the water just about the minijets that are above the moto. One of those may have cracked. Its easy to get to and the fix isn't too bad, just a new wallfitting and o-ring. If its not either of those things then it can be a myriad of things though you already ruled out the equipment compartment unfortunately though double check that light lens as sometimes its a small crack that you can't see and you have to put your hand on the lens and feel for wetness.

The moto jets not working is almost assuredly unrelated to your leak. If they are the original ones they're long overdue to be changed which is easy enough but before doing so make sure the air is on to them as well as water flow because they need both air and water to work properly.

[Tim126289]

question ,  how do you remover the side and rear panels ? Only the front has screws