Older CalSpa - Leaking

[bbdude]

Hi All - We have a 6-person 450 gallon CalSpa Avalon A857L the previous owner left at our home. It's at least 15+ years old, but in otherwise good condition.

I closed it over the summer, not realizing there's a 'process' to follow, and now I've filled it for the winter months and it's leaking. It leaks at random rates. Usually 1-2" in the first few days after a fill and then randomly loses water at 2"+ per week. After 3 weeks the water is lower than the filter so maybe losing 7-8" in that time overall.

We had a local hottub service guy out. Unfortunately, all the jets in this tub are sealed by insulation under the tub. To make matter worse our tub is in a plastic outdoor shed so access is extremely limited. He said the leak is coming from one or more jets and we have around 40 jets in total. He said it would be ~$1-$2k to manually check each jet and account for access restrictions. He suggested Seal Marlig Fix Spa Leak Sealer first. We did 2 rounds and it really slowed down the leak, but we still find ourselves adding water every week, which isn't easy when it's freezing.

What do you think? Is it worth paying to fix the leaky jets or time to move on from this tub?

 

[Gebo]

Well, it ain't my money but "15+ years old" is old. IMHO, I would move on.

 

[Mdragger88]

Ahhsome - which we totally recommend to remove biofilms, ain’t gonna stop any leaks.
@RDspaguy has rehabbed many tubs so will likely have some pointers if you plan to diy. This may well involve removing the tub from the shed so you can access everything.
Personally I wouldn’t throw much money at a really leaky 15 year old tub. Aside from the jets there’s the other likely obsolete components that will eventually fail.
You can use that $ towards a new tub or even a used one that’s newer & in better condition.

 

[bbdude]

Ahhsome - which we totally recommend to remove biofilms, ain’t gonna stop any leaks.
@RDspaguy has rehabbed many tubs so will likely have some pointers if you plan to diy. This may well involve removing the tub from the shed so you can access everything.
Personally I wouldn’t throw much money at a really leaky 15 year old tub. Aside from the jets there’s the other likely obsolete components that will eventually fail.
You can use that $ towards a new tub or even a used one that’s newer & in better condition.

Sorry I misspoke and have edit my original post. We did two rounds of Seal Marlig Fix Spa Leak Sealer. It did help significantly, but small leaks persist.

 

[Mdragger88]

That makes more sense
Hopefully our spa hero will be back soon for pointers on chasing down leaks.