Attached spa, summer use - how much does it raise your water temps?

[Sunbaby]

Hey guys - I've got a pool with an attached spa. It isn't feasible for me to run the spa completely independent of the pool (except when in spa mode) because I have a huge waterfall that spills over into the spa, then into the pool.

I know it sounds crazy wanting to heat the spa in 100+ degree temperatures, but I hurt my neck and really want the heat & jets. My PB just warned me that heating the spa in this type of heat, will raise my pool temps significantly & I won't be able to cool them down.

Right now my water is about 86 in the AM (after running water features a few hours at night) and about 89 in the afternoon.

Does anyone have a similar setup where after you heat the spa, and are done, the water will mix with the pool? How much does it raise your pool temps? Am I crazy? Should I just leave well enough alone?

 

[Patrick_B]

Hate to say it, but unless you want to warm the pool higher than you want in peak summer you'll have to pick and choose.... Spa, or waterfall. If the pool is getting higher than you want now, I'm afraid this will be the case. In hot summer, 90 is really too high. Certainly, no higher than 92, but even there, it's a bit much. The big deal here to me though is how much more it's going to cost if you want thst temp and don't isolate the spa.

 

[Swampwoman]

Although I have spa/waterfall envy, I have long wondered how people with integrated systems manage this. I keep my hot tub at a therapeutic 104 which would be crazy in your set up.

Do they make such a thing as a spa overflow chiller?

I know for our saltwater aquarium we have one to protect the fish from higher temps -- it was godawful expensive so I can imagine at spa-size it would not be especially cheap, but I would think people who have a spa would occasionally want the water super hot...so maybe there is such a thing?

Why not ask your PB about it?

- - - Updated - - -

Hey guess what, Sunbaby, they DO have chillers for spas AND pools and not really all that much more expensive than the Aquarium one.

Ice Block (30 GPM) Glacier Pool Cooler 20,000 GAL | GPC-25)

So if you isolated the pool/spa, cooled the pool, let the waterfall run, it could drop the pool temp ack down.

 

[Sunbaby]

Hmm, that chiller might be the addition I make next spring!!! Thanks for the info!

 

[jojoman]

Have pretty much the same set up but without the water fall and here's how i deal with it. First is the spa is used only at night and usually it was the last thing used so i kill everything and let the spa water sit and cool some overnight. I have installed two Artic Rain pool coolers to help cool the pool water and so i let the pump run in the early morning for 4 or 5 hours. This seems to be working well because even with using the spa pool temps have stayed 88 to 90. Even before the pool coolers were installed i did not see huge upswing in pool water temps. from using the spa. Then again, my spa is about 600 to 700 gallons spilling into a 12k gallon pool and i only heat the spa water up to 99 or 100 so. YMMV. I say try it and see what happens. Maybe do it when there is a very good chance of rain and clouds so if it gets to hot, Mother Nature can cool it off for you.

 

[Sunbaby]

Good idea! I think I might try it just once and see what happens!