Vanishing Water

[benavidescj]

I hope you guys can help me figure out my vanishing water issue. This usually happens in the middle of the night (of course). I will open up the cover and half of my 350 gallons has disappeared. If I open up the side of the spa and look inside it will be wet on the bottom but none of the lines are wet. The circuit breaker will have tripped also. This happens about every few weeks now. The spa is about 10 years old. Nothing real special about it, it has the heater, pump, filter, ozonator. It is fiberglass and about 6 feet square. I can access the entire bottom since the shell is surrounded by a wooden frame where you can remove all the panels. Any ideas?

 

[benavidescj]

Just thought of a clue that might help. The level of the water is right about at the jet where the ozonator is hooked up, and also the light. The ozonator does not have a check valve but the company that built my spa said I really do not need one because the hose for the ozonator makes a loop at the top of the tub which he calls a siphon break. Is it possible for the water to get through the siphon break and get out the ozonator? I really don't think it is getting through the light because it is not wet at the light and I also think it would always be leaking if it were going that route.

 

[coloeb]

Try this , Let the water continue to leak the next time you discover it low. Wait a day or 2 and monitor the loss. Eventually it will stop losing water. when it does look around the water line and just above. Your leak is there. If it never stops draining the leak could be around the suction. Sounds like you have ruled out a leaking return, but did you check the area between the jet and the spa wall? Final item would be the electrical short. Is there a junction box under the spa? Is there any discoloration of the electric pump or any components? This could give a clue as to where the water is coming from.Just a few ideas that might help and wont cost anything.

 

[benavidescj]

When I notice that the water is gone, it has already stopped leaking. I have never been able to catch the water actually going down. Seems to always happen at night or when I am not around. All the pipes are dry and the water must be leaving pretty quick because I have been in the spa the night before and go to do my chemistry checks the next day and the water is gone. All the electrical components are under the spa in the case. There is a 240 volt wire that comes up from the bottom of the spa and connects to the spa controller. I will look for the discoloration you are talking about.

 

[Smykowski]

Bump.

Has anyone ever heard of this or (hopefully) solved this problem? My in-laws have a hot tub on their back deck with exactly this same problem, and they are at a loss as to what's going on, let alone how to fix it.

Thanks.

 

[jasonlmarsh]

Sound like the water is going back through your ozonator and leaking out, which would also explain the tripped breaker. I once had this happen and it was due to water leaking back through the blower motor.

 

[countspacula]

does your tub have a bottom drain fitting in the footwell? If it does, when they leak, they are known to only leak a foot or so and then stop til you re-fill. Water weight has this effect.

 

[Smykowski]

I think my father-in-law and I are going to try to do some sleuthing this afternoon. It's Hot Spring Sovereign (year 2000 model), and it's got the Everwood cabinet surround. Our biggest obstacle is going to be getting to the guts of the plumbing.

Does anyone have any experience with these, or can anyone give me any guidance as to how to disassemble/open up the cabinet? Or is it as easy as tipping up the shell? If so, how do you do this? Thanks in advance.

 

[gwenbrill]

We've been having water vanish out of our raised spa over night also. Drains consistently down to the bottom of the tile. Pool is about one year 2 months old and this has been happening for about 2 weeks now.