Did I cover every searchable tag?
2007 Artesian Island Bahama 52, Serial 75777, Built 2/23/2007, 2-pump, 7 button display pad, 450 gallon, Bromine, Boric Acid, Bleach. 99 degrees. Covered.
All my jet diffusers (the white plastic back side of the jets) are failing / failed. The fronts are stainless steel / grey plastic, and they all look fine. The diffuser plastic is turning into white dust. The roto jets won't spin. The roto jet bearings have 12 stainless steel ball bearings in each roto jet and the 12 ball bearings are supposed to stay evenly spaced inside a black plastic keeper "cage", but they're not anymore, so all the bearings are stacking next to each other and the roto jets won't spin. Some Googling indicates this may be normal wear and tear, but here I post.
I notice on SpaParts123 Spa pumps hot tub parts spa jets they have an entire spa jet kit to replace every jet for some spas, leading me further to believe this might be normal for this material. Stainless steel faced jets kit running around $1000. I"d like to avoid that price tag, but it may be inevitable.
Meanwhile, I'm piece-mealing by rebuilding my old jets with diffusers purchased from Amazon and other online spa shops, as well as "rebuilding" by buying the cheaper plain-grey plastic jets that have the same diffusers and rotors, and then cannibalizing the new jets by cutting off the fronts and using the new back half of the jets on my old stainless steel faces.
Not fun. Very time consuming.
Hence, this post for input from others to determine if this is normal for a 10-year-old spa, or maybe I'm doing something wrong with my water.
The spa was already here when we bought the house two years ago (May 2015). The house was a rental property, so who knows, the spa may have been doomed from the beginning. However, as neglected as the spa seemed to be when we bought the place, I did not have any problem with deteriorating or inoperative spa jets or chalky white failing plastic diffusers when we first got here. (Just green water and slugs in 1/2" of water under a spa cover that sat empty and neglected for a year)
My jet issues started out with a few of the plastic tabs on the diffusers that keep the jet inside the jet holder were breaking off, so the jets would not stay in. Now, two years later, (being religious with TFP and all it's info using BBB) I've got chalky white deteriorating diffusers and dead rotors.
I use a Taylor K-2106 Complete FAS-DPD bromine test kit. SpeedStir. Digital scale. TFP pool calculator. Getting my boric acid from dudadiesel. Clorox bleach 8.25%. Leisure Time chemicals: sodium bromide, brom tabs, up, down, defender, bright & clear, and foam down.
I rotate through two sets of filters, soaking the dirty uninstalled set in 1 cup TSP / 5 gallons water and leave them in the bucket soaking until I do the next water / filter changes 1-3 months later. When ready to use them, I pressure wash with lots of fresh water prior to re-installing.
Huntington Beach, California, with hard water. CH = 175 - 225 out of the tap.
My normal chemical routine every 1-3 months on a drain and fill and swapping in the cleaned-up filters on my 450 gallon hottub looks like this:
1. Drain water, remove filters, scrub any scum ring if needed with Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner + Bleach, and check jets for any that got sand / debris lodged in them.
2. Rinse out tub with fresh water after scrubbing and flush fresh water through removed filter inlets to get fresh water through entire system. (Unfortunately, Pump 2 is an unfiltered pump with intakes placed low in the spa where the heavy stuff like sand end up and therefore I get sand on the back side of the jets on occasion- which makes it hard to hand-turn the adjustable volume jets---bad design to me but probably a limit on filter flow is why)
3. Add 450 gallons of 100 degree water (instant hot water tank).
4. Add 4.5 Tablespoons of Leisure Time Sodium Bromide (NaBr) to establish a 30 ppm Bromide Bank.
5. Circulate pumps 15 minutes.
5. Add 12 oz (by weight) spa down.
6. Circulate and aerate 30 minutes in preparation for the boric acid / TA setting.
7. Add 17 oz (by weight) granular boric acid. (I went on borates July 2015 after getting tired of chasing pH all over the place all the time)
8. Circulate pumps 15 minutes.
9. Check floater and add Leisure Time Brom Tabs as needed.
10. Add bleach to activate bromine (typically 1/2 tablespoon of bleach gets me a Br- setting of 0.5 - 1.0)
11. Test with Taylor kit and my typical readings are: pH 7.4, Br- 1.0, TA 30, CH 200.
BTW: I notice that the new white plastic diffusers that I'm getting appear to be a different plastic than the original ones which were sorta yellowish-white. These new diffusers seem like the same kind of white plastic as the female side that is permanently built into the spa plumbing. I'm hoping this is a sign that the new diffusers will not deteriorate. The white spa plumbing plastic has not deteriorated. Only the plastic on the original spa jet diffusers has deteriorated so far.
The spa jets I'm replacing are 4" and 4.5" faces. They are Waterway. The diffusers are all the same. Waterway 218-4000. I acquired diffusers on Amazon and stuck them on the non-rotating jets. To rebuild the roto jets, because new stainless steel roto jets were pricey and the whole spa needs new jets, I ordered a bunch of cheap 3-3/8" Gray Poly Storm Spa Roto Jet Waterway 212-8017 from Spa Parts Online - spa parts and hot tub supplies. It takes time to take apart the new jets because you have to carefully cut away gray plastic tab locks on the new jet without damaging the diffuser. The old jet diffuser can be simply broken off quickly and tossed. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a way to order only the bearings and races. If I could buy just replacement bearings, I'd only need new diffusers.
(I replace water every 1-3 months depending on use, foam, etc. since the water is $1.99 for 100 cubic feet = 748 gallons. A little over a dollar to change the water. It gets foamy pretty soon after the first use. We usually don't shower-off first, and the water is super hard.)
- - - Updated - - -
chalky white stuff
- - - Updated - - -
ball bearings jammed up together
- - - Updated - - -
diffusers. old on left. new on right.
2007 Artesian Island Bahama 52, Serial 75777, Built 2/23/2007, 2-pump, 7 button display pad, 450 gallon, Bromine, Boric Acid, Bleach. 99 degrees. Covered.
All my jet diffusers (the white plastic back side of the jets) are failing / failed. The fronts are stainless steel / grey plastic, and they all look fine. The diffuser plastic is turning into white dust. The roto jets won't spin. The roto jet bearings have 12 stainless steel ball bearings in each roto jet and the 12 ball bearings are supposed to stay evenly spaced inside a black plastic keeper "cage", but they're not anymore, so all the bearings are stacking next to each other and the roto jets won't spin. Some Googling indicates this may be normal wear and tear, but here I post.
I notice on SpaParts123 Spa pumps hot tub parts spa jets they have an entire spa jet kit to replace every jet for some spas, leading me further to believe this might be normal for this material. Stainless steel faced jets kit running around $1000. I"d like to avoid that price tag, but it may be inevitable.
Meanwhile, I'm piece-mealing by rebuilding my old jets with diffusers purchased from Amazon and other online spa shops, as well as "rebuilding" by buying the cheaper plain-grey plastic jets that have the same diffusers and rotors, and then cannibalizing the new jets by cutting off the fronts and using the new back half of the jets on my old stainless steel faces.
Not fun. Very time consuming.
Hence, this post for input from others to determine if this is normal for a 10-year-old spa, or maybe I'm doing something wrong with my water.
The spa was already here when we bought the house two years ago (May 2015). The house was a rental property, so who knows, the spa may have been doomed from the beginning. However, as neglected as the spa seemed to be when we bought the place, I did not have any problem with deteriorating or inoperative spa jets or chalky white failing plastic diffusers when we first got here. (Just green water and slugs in 1/2" of water under a spa cover that sat empty and neglected for a year)
My jet issues started out with a few of the plastic tabs on the diffusers that keep the jet inside the jet holder were breaking off, so the jets would not stay in. Now, two years later, (being religious with TFP and all it's info using BBB) I've got chalky white deteriorating diffusers and dead rotors.
I use a Taylor K-2106 Complete FAS-DPD bromine test kit. SpeedStir. Digital scale. TFP pool calculator. Getting my boric acid from dudadiesel. Clorox bleach 8.25%. Leisure Time chemicals: sodium bromide, brom tabs, up, down, defender, bright & clear, and foam down.
I rotate through two sets of filters, soaking the dirty uninstalled set in 1 cup TSP / 5 gallons water and leave them in the bucket soaking until I do the next water / filter changes 1-3 months later. When ready to use them, I pressure wash with lots of fresh water prior to re-installing.
Huntington Beach, California, with hard water. CH = 175 - 225 out of the tap.
My normal chemical routine every 1-3 months on a drain and fill and swapping in the cleaned-up filters on my 450 gallon hottub looks like this:
1. Drain water, remove filters, scrub any scum ring if needed with Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner + Bleach, and check jets for any that got sand / debris lodged in them.
2. Rinse out tub with fresh water after scrubbing and flush fresh water through removed filter inlets to get fresh water through entire system. (Unfortunately, Pump 2 is an unfiltered pump with intakes placed low in the spa where the heavy stuff like sand end up and therefore I get sand on the back side of the jets on occasion- which makes it hard to hand-turn the adjustable volume jets---bad design to me but probably a limit on filter flow is why)
3. Add 450 gallons of 100 degree water (instant hot water tank).
4. Add 4.5 Tablespoons of Leisure Time Sodium Bromide (NaBr) to establish a 30 ppm Bromide Bank.
5. Circulate pumps 15 minutes.
5. Add 12 oz (by weight) spa down.
6. Circulate and aerate 30 minutes in preparation for the boric acid / TA setting.
7. Add 17 oz (by weight) granular boric acid. (I went on borates July 2015 after getting tired of chasing pH all over the place all the time)
8. Circulate pumps 15 minutes.
9. Check floater and add Leisure Time Brom Tabs as needed.
10. Add bleach to activate bromine (typically 1/2 tablespoon of bleach gets me a Br- setting of 0.5 - 1.0)
11. Test with Taylor kit and my typical readings are: pH 7.4, Br- 1.0, TA 30, CH 200.
BTW: I notice that the new white plastic diffusers that I'm getting appear to be a different plastic than the original ones which were sorta yellowish-white. These new diffusers seem like the same kind of white plastic as the female side that is permanently built into the spa plumbing. I'm hoping this is a sign that the new diffusers will not deteriorate. The white spa plumbing plastic has not deteriorated. Only the plastic on the original spa jet diffusers has deteriorated so far.
The spa jets I'm replacing are 4" and 4.5" faces. They are Waterway. The diffusers are all the same. Waterway 218-4000. I acquired diffusers on Amazon and stuck them on the non-rotating jets. To rebuild the roto jets, because new stainless steel roto jets were pricey and the whole spa needs new jets, I ordered a bunch of cheap 3-3/8" Gray Poly Storm Spa Roto Jet Waterway 212-8017 from Spa Parts Online - spa parts and hot tub supplies. It takes time to take apart the new jets because you have to carefully cut away gray plastic tab locks on the new jet without damaging the diffuser. The old jet diffuser can be simply broken off quickly and tossed. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a way to order only the bearings and races. If I could buy just replacement bearings, I'd only need new diffusers.
(I replace water every 1-3 months depending on use, foam, etc. since the water is $1.99 for 100 cubic feet = 748 gallons. A little over a dollar to change the water. It gets foamy pretty soon after the first use. We usually don't shower-off first, and the water is super hard.)
- - - Updated - - -
chalky white stuff
- - - Updated - - -
ball bearings jammed up together
- - - Updated - - -
diffusers. old on left. new on right.
