Adding air to Lay Z Spa while full of water

[abalter]

Has anyone successfully added air to their Lay Z Spa while it is full of water? They say not to use an air compressor (I assume because you can blow the thing apart). You are supposed to use the pump to inflate the tub. Would the pump be able to add air when the tub is full of water? What about using an air compressor and being very very careful?

The alternative is to drain it. Would rather avoid if possible.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!

I would think using an air compressor would work. Check the initial pressure of the tub and then limit your increase to a few psi at a time.

Good luck!

 

[MPurcell]

The instructions about the amount of air pressure to maintain (and not exceed) in the body of the tub are very specific. The tub come with an air pressure gauge that fits the equipment, so that you can avoid over inflating. And the equipment is designed so that the air is being being put into the body at not too great a flow rate.. I agree with Marty that you should be fine with an air compressor if you are careful, but you probably will not have an air pressure gauge to guide you, so that could be a little problematical.

Many of the issues mentioned in the multitude of comments about the lay-z-spa on Amazon and elsewhere relate to the seams splitting. I suspect that many if not most of those issues result from carelessness resulting in over inflation. I have had my spa for just under a year now. I carefully inflated it to the recommended pressure level, and it has remained inflated at the same level for the entire time, including through two drain and fill cycles where the tub was turned on its side and rolled around for cleaning purposes.

 

[jseyfert3]

I have an Intex spa I just set up, which is probably similar. I believe you should be able to add air when it's full, but you'd want to make sure the air was on before you remove the spa fill cap, then connect the hose, air it up, and disconnect the hose and cap before turning off your air pump.

My Intex spa has a one-way valve so air won't rush out when you remove the fill cap. I say to have the air running so it doesn't start rushing out when you plug the hose in. I would not use an air compressor unless you have a really sensitive gauge, most tire pressure gauges will be horribly inaccurate at the couple psi the spa needs (my Intex specs like 1.5-2.5 psi, which is hardly anything).

 

[doyouwantonions]

Has anyone successfully added air to their Lay Z Spa while it is full of water? They say not to use an air compressor (I assume because you can blow the thing apart). You are supposed to use the pump to inflate the tub. Would the pump be able to add air when the tub is full of water? What about using an air compressor and being very very careful?

The alternative is to drain it. Would rather avoid if possible.

Remove the filter from the pool
Cap the inlet and outlet pipes in the spa with the black rubber caps provided

Undo the connections from the pump to the spa

Inflate in normal way

Whilst it’s disconnected, you may want to backwash your pump too

 

[dogpool]

Have people had luck with this? I only put up my Coleman Saluspa about 3 weeks ago and it's already gotten a bit soft. I don't want to drain just to add air! Hopefully there is not a leak that is too bad, but I am not up to the task of draining, seeking and patching leak, and starting all over again when it took me over a month to finally getting around to filling it. Plus I live in California where there is still very much drought conditions, so wasting that amount of water is not ok.

 

[lacerz]

Have people had luck with this? I only put up my Coleman Saluspa about 3 weeks ago and it's already gotten a bit soft. I don't want to drain just to add air! Hopefully there is not a leak that is too bad, but I am not up to the task of draining, seeking and patching leak, and starting all over again when it took me over a month to finally getting around to filling it. Plus I live in California where there is still very much drought conditions, so wasting that amount of water is not ok.

Not sure if you resolved your issue, but I wanted to give my input in case it helped you or anyone else needing resolution to this problem. I have a Coleman brand Saluspa that I purchased about a week ago. Works great. However, I noticed that it was starting to lose air after one week. This is most likely due to the weather. The spa is outside and we've gone from low 20s to high 60s in the week. Naturally, I went to the Internet to see if there were similar issues and how it was resolved. I found nothing, except this post. So I went forward and found a fix. Here it is:

The air jet that the pump uses to create bubbles can be disconnected without (much) water loss. I disconnected it and used the cap that came with the spa to seal it off. I was anticipating water to start gushing out, but there was none. Once the air jet was disconnected, I twisted the pump so I could connect the air hose used to inflate the spa. The water intake and outtake are still connected, so the range of motion is limited, but they are flexible and I was able to get the air hose connected without much hassle. Once attached, I inflated the same as setting up. You can see (and feel) the difference. Once satisfied, I turned off the air and disconnected the hose from the pump. Once the hose was disconnected, I removed the cap from the jet intake. At that point, I had very minor water leakage...nothing worth concerning about, maybe 2 ounces, but it happened. Then I reconnected the jet intake and...done. Pump was powered on the whole time. Spa was full of water the whole time. Issue resolved.

Hope this helps.

 

[dogpool]

Hope this helps.

That does help! Thanks! I wasn't sure how that would work, but now I am less worried about trying it.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[doyouwantonions]

It’s not a problem just put the blanking caps on the inside of the pool I think - there are videos on YouTube which is where I found out how to do it

 

[teterouge]

Yes I have successfully reinflated my spa with water still in it. I've got a Sienna Easy Lay Hot tub, it deflated quite a bit after a week. I took filter off, put caps on the inside vents, detached the pump, attached inflation hose, with pressure gauge attached, reinflated to 1.2 psi. Then re-attached to pump heater and all good.

 

[Mheesbeen]

I did what lacerz said and it worked perfect..