Help For Newbie

[waldorbigbill]

Hey guys,

I'm asking the people to write anything you think a newbie should know when looking and buying a spa. Hidden cost or things they might over look any of that kinda stuff

Thanks Bill

[waldorbigbill]

Well I'm glad we all chipped in to help out the newbies with our thoughts.

Thanks Bill

[Pathfinder]

Bill I dont think its the fact that none of us wanted to post in this thread. I think with the way some of these helpful threads are getting hijacked and then go way off track and finally turn into a pissing match is brutal. So many I think including myself would rather just post on specifics then spend time trying to justify our our points.

I will add a major issue always overlooked B4 you buy a spa find out if you have enough room in your electrical panel to support a 40 to 60 amp load. I have seen this time and time again people are all gung ho to buy a spa and they want it the next day or two only to find out they have no room and have to spend an extra $3500 for a 200 amp upgrade for the house.

[Roger]

Hey guys,

I'm asking the people to write anything you think a newbie should know when looking and buying a spa. Hidden cost or things they might over look any of that kinda stuff

Thanks Bill

Positioning in your yard is also very important and something that should be though about before you buy. Once you have decided on a model you can finalize the positioning based on the seating of that particular model.

[Autoplay]

Avoid Jim da Jim at all costs!

[waldorbigbill]

What about issues of saftey I saw another post about kids drowing bring up a good point how you should have a locking system on the tub and maybe have it closed off if kids can get to it.

[Pathfinder]

safety is an issue with children you can have all of the safety features in the world on your tub but if you leave your children unsupervised then its beyond your control. Safety when it comes to children is at least 90% parental responsibility just like any other product. Most top rated portable spas with bottom intakes do not have the capacity to suck someone under for the fact that it is usually equalized with top suction from the skimmer. One manufacturer does not have bottom intakes so that is not a worry.

Remember this is an information post & not about ANSI standards or anything else related.

[waldorbigbill]

safety is an issue with children you can have all of the safety features in the world on your tub but if you leave your children unsupervised then its beyond your control. Safety when it comes to children is at least 90% parental responsibility just like any other product. Most top rated portable spas with bottom intakes do not have the capacity to suck someone under for the fact that it is usually equalized with top suction from the skimmer. One manufacturer does not have bottom intakes so that is not a worry.

Remember this is an information post & not about ANSI standards or anything else related.

I agree with you 100% it's the parents responsibility. I have a question what do you mean ANSI standards? Sorry still green horn learning

[Pathfinder]

There's a certain poster on the forum (which Im sure you can figure out who) states that the tub company in question that has no bypass filtration is Illegal and go against these standards. The funny thing is these standards are not law they aid in helping bring some sort of standard of safety to the industry. If you take some time and do a little back searching there are multiple pages on this issue.

[gcgalt]

I'm pretty new to the spa thing myself but here are my suggestions....

Do your homework on the net to narrow your search on a brand that suits what you are looking for.... Size, features, number of jets,price range, etc.....

Then once you narrowed it down to 3-4 brands you like....WET TEST.....I can't stress this enough. You will never know how it feels until you actually get in the tub. I found no two tubs felt the same comfort wise....I actually had a local dealer tell me he didn't do that.....I laughed at him right to his face and said " You actually expect me to spend $5000+ on something and not try it out? " I walked out of his store......

Once you find a brand and tub.....A level surface, easily accessible from the house, especially for the winter.

As far as chemicals....I highly recommend a product called Eco One...You still need a few chemicals such as PH up or down depending on your local water supplies PH, stain and scale remover for when you fill/refill your tub every few months and certainly a cleaner such as chlorine.... However once your tub is in the PH balanced range after a fill....You will only add the Eco One product every month and chlorine daily.....That's it. Very easy and crystal clean water.

That's pretty much my thoughts....

[chem geek]

Essentially, the EcoOne products are enzymes that help break down organics in the water, but as said in the post, chlorine is still needed daily for sanitation. So they essentially replace using non-chlorine shock (potassium monopersulfate, KMPS) for that purpose. I do not know, however, if the enzymes would prevent the production of disinfection by-products of chlorine combined with organics -- I know that KMPS will prevent such by-products. I also haven't compared pricing for EcoOne vs. KMPS.

So it's really about comparing EcoOne vs. non-chlorine shock since both are added once a week and both require daily chlorine addition. Thanks for bringing that option up. I think that anyone using the "Dichlor for a week, then switch to chlorine" will be reducing their disinfection by-products anyway so probably either EcoOne or non-chlorine shock would be effective. I'm not quite sure what problem EcoOne is trying to solve since I didn't think spa users generally complain about combined chlorines or a buildup of organics unless they aren't using a weekly non-chlorine shock. The main advantage I see with EcoOne is that it probably does not build up sulfates in the water (which KMPS does).