LOWiQ Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 So we purchased a house that has an addition in it with a 2002 Beachcomber 720. It has sat empty for at least 5 years, but it looks like it was cleaned and put away properly. We filled it up a couple days ago and noticed some leaking at the pump couplers. They were loose as the people must have removed them to fully empty the tub. We gave them a tighten and things looked perfect. We were so happy. All the pumps/heater/controller/etc all seemed to be working perfectly. We added some hot tub pipe cleaner and let it run that night. In the morning we noticed a little water on the floor. Seems like there is a small leak from somewhere. I did some reading and took a guess at the light. We drained the water to just below the light and I took a look at it yesterday. The leaking seems to have stopped so it either has to do with the light or the top jets that are no longer under water. Light: It looked like it had a two hairline cracks in the front bezel of the housing. After looking up the fact that I would have to damage my tubs siding and remove insulation, etc to get to the back side, I decided to try and use some GE 100% silicon around it and hope for the best. I did that, waited 30 hours to refill the tub. We did that last night and woke up to water on the floor again. So here we are with a leaking hot tub still. Any ideas? I assumed seals and gaskets and o-rings would have been dried out and ruined after being left dry for so long. The couplers and whole front pump/heater/controller area is surprisingly dry. No leaks from any of that stuff. So I'm left with the light still leaking or the upper jets. Are there seals/gaskets I should be looking at/changing out on the jets? I've never owned a hot tub before so I'm at the limit of my knowledge here. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Your side panels should come off without damage. How high did you fill it? Water level should be about 6 inches from the top. If you overfill it will leak, possibly down to the footwell. Fill it and leave it off, see if it leaks without the pump running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 19 minutes ago, RDspaguy said: Your side panels should come off without damage. How high did you fill it? Water level should be about 6 inches from the top. If you overfill it will leak, possibly down to the footwell. Fill it and leave it off, see if it leaks without the pump running. I've seen hot tubs where there are a couple screws and the side panels come off. That'd be great, but ours are nothing like that. It looks like 1.5" tongue and grove pieces that have no exposed fasteners. I assume they're glued top and bottom. Looks like they would be a bit of a nightmare to try and remove without major damage. Easier might be to set the depth on a skill saw and try to cleanly cut a square access hatch or something out. Problem with that is I would literally have to make like 6 around the exterior of the tub. I could go one at a time and hope I get lucky, but we all know how that usually goes. It was filled according to the manual. The skimmer/filter assembly was halfway floating up. The water level was definitely more than 6" away from the top of the tub. The hush pump runs almost constantly for filtration, so I'd have to cut the power to the tub altogether. I can do that, but I'm almost 100% sure it will keep leaking until the water level gets down to where it stopped before. Just sucks that there is literally no easy way to find the leak nor fix it. I'll go kill the power and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Ok. It seems that they are stapled from the back into panels then attached. I would recommend a little investigation before you start cutting up your skirting. Let's see if it leaks with nothing running first, that will narrow things down by half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 For a leaking jet: Remove jet faces and silicone around all the jets at the level it stopped. Has worked for me in the past as a quick fix. When jet faces are removed inspect the seals between the jet face and the acrylic for missing patches of seal. Run a bead of silicone around the jet face and smooth with a damp finger. To make a full repair you wil either have to damage the skirting or stand the spa on it's side and remove bottom. Locate leaking jet and back off the large nut holding the jet face in place and push the jet housing forward, clean away any old silicone. then re silicone inside and out and re tighten the nut. For the leaking light bezel:...Is the light on the same wall as the pumps and pack? or on a different side of the spa? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Yeah apparently you can slide them out (good luck) if you can get the tub on its side. That isn't really an option for me. It's inside an addition that doesn't have the ceiling height to flip this thing on its side. So I'll be cutting them off one way or another. I'll try to make clean cuts and reinstall them with some trim covering the cuts or something. Not entirely sure. The light is on the front (pump) side to the left. The pumps are all outside the tub unit on a beachcomber. Doesn't look like I can get that skirting off easily either. Sigh. Great design until you need to work on it at all. I'll see if this thing keeps leaking. If it doesn't, I'll drain it to below the problem area and then take a look at some of the jets. Didn't realize they're held on from the back with a nut just like the light housing. Ugh. There really has to be a better mounting method that's more serviceable. Someone would make a fortune if they figured it out. Actually I guarantee there are better ways, but they probably cost slightly more so it's never going to happen. I could just attack everything above the leak water level with silicon and give that a go. Then maybe run some fix-a-leak and hope for the best. I'd like something a little more permanent if I'm going to leave this thing filled in my house. Kinda scary that we could leave and it might leak everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 4 hours ago, LOWiQ said: So I'm left with the light still leaking or the upper jets. That is a huge and potentially costly assumption. Most leaks in a spa only leak if the pump is running. These can be caused by a number of things, including user error. If it is a wall fitting, jet or light, it will leak even if the power is off. Find out what it is before you go all gung-ho smearing silicone around your tub (which is temporary at best) or cutting up the sides. A little planning will save you alot of doing. As far as a better way goes, this is the better way. Jets used to have a threaded wall fitting which screwed into the jetback. This type was much more prone to problems than the current design and no easier to fix. In a 2002, you might even have the old style. Every jet fitting manufacturer that I know of has gone to this newer style. What is poorly designed is the spa itself. Without removeable sides and a full foam insulation it is practically disposable. The manufacturer intended you to have to buy a new one. That is why they designed it to be ridiculously expensive to fix. It would have been simple to make those sides removeable, but they made them this way instead for a reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 If the light is on the same wall as the pumps you should be able to remove the equipment tray with the pumps and pack and then remove the black plastic or at least enough to pry it down enough to access the light bezel from behind. If you can get at it... to remove the light bezel just take a large flat head and bust it out from the inside bather area. Don't try and mess with the nut on the back. Waste if time. once removed clean up any olb silicone and or gasket o ring and re silicone the new one in front and back and tighten the nut. Do not over tighten or you will crack the bezel and have to start over. hand tight and then a an extra 1/4 to half turn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 2 hours ago, LOWiQ said: it will keep leaking until the water level gets down to where it stopped before. Where did it stop before? Has it heated up yet? It is not uncommon for spas to leak a bit until the gaskets expand from heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Okay well it's entirely off and sitting to see if the leak continues. The temperature in the water only got up to around 70*F. Maybe that's way too cold to have the gaskets swell? I can always turn it back on and let it heat back up. What temperature is required do you think? I will definitely wait before I start siliconing the whole thing. I hate silicon personally so I'd really rather not. Worst case I guess I rip all the skirting off and start digging around in insulation until I find a wet spot. Not sure what I could use as replacement skirting if I can't get this stuff off nicely, but I'm sure I can source something. I'd love to go and replace all the gaskets on all the jets and refresh this whole thing, but the time required would be insane. I'm really trying to get this thing working as the addition was build around the tub. There is no way to get it out without a chainsaw and that seems like a huge waste. If it really can't be saved I'll turn this room into a home gym and slap a new one on the patio instead. Thanks and I'll update this thread once I can get a feeling on the leak with the power entirely off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 4 hours ago, LOWiQ said: love to go and replace all the gaskets No, you wouldn't. I am not sure if 70 is hot enough or not. If it continues to leak while off we can fire it up and get it warmed up. If it stops leaking when off it is not gaskets or light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 10 hours ago, RDspaguy said: No, you wouldn't. I am not sure if 70 is hot enough or not. If it continues to leak while off we can fire it up and get it warmed up. If it stops leaking when off it is not gaskets or light. respectfully disagree. They will leak even if not running. Might just take longer. I do agree that o rings and sometimes gaskets can plump up when warmed up. OP Due to your situation and the spas location I would run and heat until it gets down to the filter opening and starts sucking air then shut it off and wait until the water level drops to it's lowest point and stops. If it stops at a spot where there is a jet focus on that jet and silicone around the face of that jet. I have done this with a bunch of Beachcomber spas and have gotten years out of them and not had a callback. You can always redo the silicone again if it becomes a problem 1,2,5 years down the road. It is not ideal but it will work if you have a bad jet gasket and either can't access it from the bottom due to location or not wanting to spend $$ tipping it up and repairing. I would go this route before cutting into panels. Let us know where you end up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 2 hours ago, CanadianSpaTech said: will leak even if not running. That's what I said canadaguy. Read it again after your morning coffee, maybe it will be more clear. 12 hours ago, RDspaguy said: it stops leaking when off it is not gaskets or light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 Okay so I marked it last night around 9PM and it's down maybe 1/8" since then. Not a huge leak for with everything off. I've turned the power back on and turned the heat up to 95*F. I'll let the hush pump recirculate and filter the tub and the heater do it's thing for a while then go check. Once it drops below filter level I'll kill the power again and see what happens. If it's only going down 1/8" in like 15 hours then we're in for a long wait until it finally drops to the leak level. I'll see how this goes with it on, but the Wife is impatient and just wants me to drain it down below the light level and silicon the 4-5 jets that are above that level. Hopefully we can get this thing running before May. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cusser Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 I use leak seal liquid in my spa, like once or twice a year. Mine's a 31 year old CalSpa with foam insulation, and one side cannot be accessed as 6" from the house. Leak does not appear anywhere I can reach from the equipment-access side. I've pried off the 2 other sides and torn out some of the sprayed in foam, cannot find source of the leak. So leak seal has worked for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 Yep. It's a messy bandaid, but does ok on non-flexible fitting leaks for a while. I consider it a temporary fix so it is not really an option for me. Customers don't pay me $95 an hour to pour a bottle of fix-a-leak in and tell them to call me again in 6 months. But you can sometimes limp it along that way, depending on what the leak is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 How much water do you lose with it running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 6 minutes ago, RDspaguy said: How much water do you lose with it running? I have it on and the hush pump circulating/filtering the water right now. Is that sufficient, or do I need to go keep turning on the jets full speed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 See how much you lose with the circ pump first. Then see if you lose more with jets. The more we narrow it down now the less digging we have to do later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 So maybe this thing just needed to sit and get some heat into it? I let it heat up to 95*F and left the circ pump running all night and the floor is all dried up in there. I'll keep an eye on it for a bit longer, but now it's time to try the jets on. Fingers crossed something just needed to swell or moisten up and seal properly. No clue. I'll update again after I can run a few cycles today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 I repair and sell used spas. It is very common for an old tub that has been dry and cold to leak for a bit 'til it gets hot. I do not even look for leaks until it is 100f. Hope it is all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOWiQ Posted April 13, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 Well thank you very much RDspaguy and CanadianSpaTech! I've ran a few pump cycles and it seems all good. I guess it really did just need some heat and cycling. I'll keep an eye on it, but I think it may be getting some use shortly. Now to sort out the massive collection of chemicals they left and attempt to get this thing where it needs to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 If you go to the forum menu you will find a water chemistry forum. There is some good info there. A google search will bring up a whole lot more. There are many ways to maintain a spa, depending on what you are wanting. But basic sanitation and balance are the absolutely necessary goal of them all. They always sound more complicated than they are, and get easier once you are familiar with the method. Do some research, then come back and start a thread with your questions. Do not base your decision on what they left you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray Widdifield Posted August 25, 2021 Report Share Posted August 25, 2021 My tub has sat for three months without water.Had used leak seal before,seemed to slow the leak down.Today filled tub and let sit with cold water.Four hours tub, water dropped three and one half inches. Should I begin by cutting out the side where the water is on my cement pad. Murray Widdifield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted August 25, 2021 Report Share Posted August 25, 2021 Please start your own post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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