Does it sound like everything is working?

[Water Numpty]

HI all,

A total newbie to hot tubs.

Here is the deal, 

Im in the UK and have just moved home and the new place had a drained hot tub that was working 2 months ago and used/maintained daily by a passionate owner.

Today I wiped the whole shell over with a microfibre cloth, shut the drain and filled it with cold water. The ambient temperature here is about 7 deg C, I switched the tub on at the wall the Bilboa display (electronic spa control standard 7 digital) said 'pr' and before I really noticed anything else some of the jets burst into life and I didn't have a clue what was really going on which ended up with me pushing the jet buttons and mode buttons randomly to make some sort of sense of things but with no luck but after 10 minutes or so they all stopped and the display read 9.5 degrees. During that period I saw 'hfl' on the screen as well.

I left it for about an hour and put in a test strip. It showed that the water was chlorine free and alkalinity was a bit high. I had done some mini research on this kind of thing as there is plenty on the internet but when I bought the test strips my local dealer dismissed the need for alkalinity correction so I didn't buy any ...another trip is lined up to get that tomorrow. You live and learn! Then I checked a few times over about 3 hours and the temperature had climbed to 12.5 deg C. In the mean time I found a manual on line by bilboa similar to my panel that explained a few things. If you hadn't guessed already 'pr' was a priming of the pumps. 'hfl' was a flow difference detected which may indicate an air lock. I think in my random button pushing I stopped the priming process which may have been responsible for this? or maybe not.

So perhaps all is actually well from the next sentence onward?....

I turned the tub off at the wall, then turned it back on again. I checked the display and it was on 'pr' again. When that display changed it read the temperature as  ' -.-C'  for a minute or so then jets 1 & jets 2 (thats all of them) started on their own. The temperature reading returned to '12.5C' and after a few minutes the jets stopped and the amber heat light came on. Water is all calm. Just checked once more and the display was alternating '12.5C' with 'lf' which indicates low flow. So I looked that up and found that once the priming process is over in my 'similar' manual it should heat on standard mode as opposed to sleep or economy. Well I hit the mode button and it showed economy so I scrolled through to standard and the heat light has come on and the 'lf' has dissappeared. Now I will watch a little longer. My trouble is I don't know what I should expect. Does that sound right? if not whats my next move?

[mrwrick]

Go to Balboa for manuals, get your  model and serial number for specific info on jets and controls and what codes mean. Get into the water forum and follow advice about testing and balancing water using common household chemicals to keep cost down versus industry products. The forum will tell you all about that. The fist indication not to follow what the spa dealer has said is that he did not address your high alkalinity. It may or  may not be a problem but is certainly one of the ongoing tests and factors you must deal with for balanced water and maintaining the integrity of your whole system, motors, plumbing, etc. The forums here are the best source of all the info you will need, short of actual Balboa manuals. Good luck, enjoy.

[Water Numpty]

Thank you mrwrick,

I will. The picture of the control is pre clean by the way.