So what started out as a “path to victory” post swerved into a nightmarish war of attrition between me and the tub. It was such a disaster, that I look back in awe at how it could all go so wrong. However, I fought back and I won. Let me tell you how...
Moving day and I had identified a few leaks around the top jet bodies. I pealed back the foam and tightened them with an oil wrench and figured I was set. $400 and a lot of cursing later the tub was up a flight of stairs and into the hole I created to sink the tub into. I wire the tub up and fill it after plugging the holes for the broken pump 2 inlet and outlet.
All heck proceeds to break loose. First night while prepping to fill, I step on the filter cover and crash into the tub. The cover is in 8 pieces and cost hundreds to replace. I decided to super glue, reinforce, and fiberglass it all together. The kids will be walking on it so why not fix it for good. Kinda a fun project, but messy.
Then, came the leaks in several spots all over the tub. It is in a 8' by 9.5' hole with a 7.5’ by 7.5’ tub and little access to the bottom. My only option seems to be to drain the tub, get some boss 802 silicon, and go to town on the inside of the jets. I refill and it seems to be holding. As I am finishing the refill, I snap the brittle plastic at the flow switch and at pump 1 to the flo switch. Both broken beyond repair, drain the tub because water is pouring out of Pump 1 and it needs to be removed and repaired.
Dispair edges in.
I order a new flo switch, change it out. Retap pump 1 so I can run a new line to the flo switch and rewire the Flo switch to the board. Refill #3 and all seems right with the world. The hut tub is running, it is 1 am, and I go to bed with a cocky smile on my face. Until...
At 3 am I hear a pop up thunderstorm, I race down to the deck because I haven't covered anything up. Too late, breaker is tripped and the circuit board is soaked.
I get back to it Saturday morning drying everything off and assessing the damage. I flip the breaker in the afternoon and get FLO error. I try the pumps and the breaker snaps. It is just a straight short from that point forward. Disgusted, I start googling the cost of a new circuit board. All the while, I hear dripping from what I assume was the gutter and AC condensate line. I go below deck and realize the silicone did very little to stop the leaks. Water is leaking from everywhere and I have zero access to fix anything.
Despair takes hold.
What have I done? I just built a $5,000 monument to stupidity. I put a 900 lb tub in a 30" hole 10' off the ground. The tub doesn't work and I can't even assess if it's worth fixing. My options are:
A) Chainsaw the tub out of spite and fill the hole with balls for a ball pit.
B) Go to a dealer and pay some stupid amount (+/- $8,000) to make all my problems go away.
C) Stay the course and repair it out of wounded pride. Not knowing how long or how expensive that might be.
Despair starts to lift and stubborn resolve begins to take over.
First chore, get the tub out of the hole without starting this process $400 more to the same movers. First I have to cut out part of the deck the carpenter just finished. I needed room on 2 sides and only left room on one. Me and another guy spend 6 hours jacking and winching the tub out. Blood. Sweat. Tears. It is now out on the regular (+/- 50 lb/sf) deck.
Second chore, I have to remove all of the foam sprayed under the tub. Not only do I have leaks everywhere, but I will have no access to get the foam out if a new leak springs forth in the sunken deck. All foam has to go. Straight mechanical removal. Fingernails and a wire brush on a drill. One contractor bag a day for about 10-12 days. I can’t even tell this part because of the horrible memories. It is awful. I can’t see how any heat savings would be worth basically making a tub a disposable product. {Shudders}.
Third chore, I am foam free, but far from free. I am now confronted with a tangle of manifolds, air hoses, jet bodies, and water hoses. It is all fairly rigid, so I am debating cutting it all out and starting over ($$$$) or trying to fix the issues (which aren’t even quantified). I opt for cheap, hoping that Murphy’s law will miraculously break on this decision. I begin work on the 14 smaller jet bodies with almost zero access. I am turning jet bodies 1/10” at a time, bloodying myself against fiberglass and hose clamps. Each body takes almost an hour to fully loosen. The threads all have foam jammed in them. The larger Jets loosen quickly. I scrape the old silicone off, check the o rings for cracks, and get to work. I have to silicone each jet body one at a time. The set up time is 15 minutes and it takes about 20-30 mins per to tighten them back. I do them front and back. Two large silicone tubes later and I am in business. Every jet is now resealed and re-tightened.
Fourth chore, I cannot refill the tub to check for leaks on the standard deck. It is too heavy. If the deck fails, I just doubled down on my Darn situation. There is no choice but to lower it back in and refill it in the hole. I gather two more people and ease (winch and Jack) it back down. It was actually fairly easy (thanks gravity). I fill it and pray.
I come back out the next morning and the deck is dry. It is a miracle. I have one tiny drip that is accessible and I can fix at any time I let the water out. Hallelujah!
Even if I have to replace all pumps, heaters, and boards at this point I am ahead of the game. I have about $600 in a tub that cost $8,000+ to replace.
Time to find out what damage my negligence caused. I unhook everything from the panel except the power and flip the breaker. It holds this time. I add back the panel and sensors and it still holds showing various errors. I add back the circ pump and it comes on fine but with a FLO error. I can see that the new flow switch is functioning correctly and water is flowing, so I try a sensor reset and nothing. I am thinking it’s the board or the new flow switch is defective (I don’t have the filter in yet). Google says only known cause is I have blown the K10 relay. I change the wiring set up on the circ pump as suggested, no more FLO.
I plug in the Air Blower and the breaker snaps. Blower comes off easy, but is rusty and the line is full of water (probably from moving the tub). Blower to trash can. I plug in Pump 1 and it works perfectly. I plug in the heater and FLO comes back. It makes no sense. The heater has nothing to do with the FLO error, it is only disabled by a FLO. I check the sensor harness and realize that I have pulled two of the tiny pins back too far by accident. I reseat them and FLO goes bye-bye. At this point, no one gives a Dang about what happened to the Ozonator.
We actually now have a minimally functioning hot tub.
Before anything else can go wrong, I heat the tub up and the kids and I go swimming in our “new to us” Hot Tub!!! Sweet is the taste of Victory!!!!
Updates to follow…
(I wrote this for me, so sorry for the length if you actually read this)
