Talk to me about separating my pool and hot tub.

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BauerR

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Mar 26, 2013
30
Baltimore, MD
Currently my pool and spa are connected in the same filtration/pump setup. I have a pool heater (400,000 BTU propane) that heats everything. The spa has its own plumbing that is easily separated from the pool.
My main questions are sizing and filters.

The spa is ~750 gallons. What size pump should I go with? Also, I need an idea of filter size and type. Should I go DE?
Any idea of heater size and type? As stated before, I have a 400,000 BTU unit that was intended to heat everything, might not be a good idea to use. Not to mention it's 20 years old.

Thanks for any help!
 
Why would you want to do this? That just doubles the amount of work as you have to maintain the chemistry in 2 separate bodies of water.

Maybe if you tell us your concerns we can help determine a way to adjust what you have to work better for you.
 
My guess is you want to run the spa in the winter? I know some people on here talk about running just their spa in the winter and combined in the summer.

Backwashing can be problematic in the winter, so I would think a cartridge filter might be the best choice.
 
And why couldn't you run just the spa in the winter with shared equipment? Seems like you could still close the pool down and isolate it with valves.

There must be something that I am missing.
 
Normally, you set the valves to spa only and then heat the spa for half an hour or so before each use. Between uses it cools down and transfers heat to the pool as they share water. You still save a great deal of money this way, even though you are heating the pool to some extent, compared to heating the spa 24/7.
 
Post up some pictures of your equipment pad ... certainly sounds like something was not done correctly or not understood.

Like JasonLion said, normally you move 2 valves (suction and return) to isolate the spa, then turn the heater on and in 30-60 minutes it should heat up and be ready to use. When done, you turn the heater off and switch the valve back to "pool mode" which often has some spillover from the spa to the pool so that the chemistry in the spa is maintained.

Now if you are truly looking to maintain the spa HOT all all times (which would cost a LOT), then you would need to look into separating the systems. But with that size heater, generally the spa can be heated in a reasonable amount of time before you want to use it.
 
I can certainly do exactly what you guys described with my current valving. I just didn't know how long it would take to heat up and more importantly, how long it would last after it was shut off.
I guess I can do it a few times to see how long it takes.
 

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Not sure what you mean by how long it will last ... you leave the pump and heater on for as long as you want to use the spa. Once you turn off the heater and switch the valves back to pool mode, if there is spill over, the spa temp will drop to the pool temperature pretty quickly.

It is certainly going to be cheaper to only run the heater when you want the spa hot than trying to maintain it at temperature.
 
BauerR said:
Melt In The Sun said:
Really!? That sounds like something a few plumbing/valving changes can correct.
Click to expand...


Well, how do you keep your hot spa water from cooling down when everything shares the same filter and pump? You would constantly be fighting the pool.
Click to expand...

Not only that, how can you possibly heat 45,000g of water enough to consider it a spa? I mean, you would need to get the spa to somewhere in the range of 95 - 105 degrees. Or else you just have a kiddy pool :mrgreen:
 
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