Setting up a used hot tub

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santacruzpool

santacruzpool

Gold Supporter
Feb 24, 2015
844
Santa Cruz, CA
We are soon to be new owners of a small stand alone hot tub. We found a really good condition tub and hopefully will be getting it delivered later today. :splash:

So far I have a few things ready to go:
1 tub of Ahhh Some
Some rubber gloves
1 bottle of bleach
Muriatic Acid
My trusty TF-100 test kit

My plan for the first cleaning today is to fill it and run the first batch of Ahh Some in it and then clean and drain it after the 1 hour or so of the first purge...Hopefully I don't gross out too much! :puker:
I am not sure I will be able to do the second purge today...but I was planning on refilling, adjusting the PH to 7.2, and getting the FC up to 10 for the night.

I have my CYA, MA, and Bleach ready once it is all clean...so hopefully everything will be pretty easy to dial in.

On the wish list:
A small SWCG (Looking at the Solaxx CLG20A)
A nice step
Possibly a handrail/towel holder

-----------

Based on testing and running a pool for a few years I am sure I will be experiencing quite the new learning curve...

I will post any questions once I get things going and if I need any help.
 
Re: Getting a brand new to me - but a used hot tub

Santa,

We bought a used 200 gallon tub a couple of years ago and it has been great!!!

My wife bought a set of steps and they are just never used. Because the tub is small, it is only about 30" off the deck. We found it much easier to just swing our legs over than trying to use the step. You might want to see how yours works before buying one..

I would recommend that the first time you do ahh-some that you do at least two purges.

We love our hot tub and use it almost every night... More in the winter and a little less in the summer.

Ours was delivered by a couple of Firemen that have a spa moving business on their days off.. It was interesting watching them move it. Two guys, a sled and some leverage....

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Re: Getting a brand new to me - but a used hot tub

Thanks Jim,

I think steps will be probably be needed - for myself at minimum. Part of the reason to get the tub was to hopefully help with an injured leg that I am trying to rehab.

Plus, our family is on the short side!


The Ahh-Some treatments are done, and while gross, I guess it could have been worse. The insides are all clean now and ready for the real fill.

However, I ended up with a bigger problem underneath - a rat had taken up residence and it is a little funky under there. I am in the process of cleaning it out and spraying it down where there are some stains...which is certainly not what I was planning to do.

I also need to look at possibly replacing some of the foam that the rat used to make a nest...looks like it was only one rat and not the entire cast of Ratatouille so I guess that is a good thing!

There are a couple of areas that are picked clear down to the tub surface. Fortunately, all of the pipes and wires are in good shape.

In addition, the outlet closest to where I have placed the spa is on a 15A breaker - the tub needs 20A. I have a 20A circuit across our courtyard but that won't work long term. I am hoping the house was wired with big enough wire to upgrade this (it is a newer house). Looks like I need to contact the original electrician!
 
Re: Getting a brand new to me - but a used hot tub

Electrician is scheduled to come out tomorrow.

In the mean time I have totally opened up the lower cabinet and removed all of the skirt panels to be able to clean out the underbelly of this beast.

I am going to remove a wood panel that stinks from the rodent invasion - this has required me to remove the heater and pump as they bolt to this sad piece of strand board.

---

Anyone have any thoughts on the ControlOMatic SmarterSpa Saltwater Smart Chlorine Generation System?

I know ORP and other sensor systems don't work well in a pool setting - but with a spa having frequent water changes, and lower CYA I wonder if this device would work well.

I am also looking at getting a Cover Valet C250
 
Help is Needed! I have some chemicals that I inherited with the spa.

I don't have any idea what they are - but I also don't want to just throw them away.

Of course the labels on the 2 bottles of tabs are worn off or gone. So does anyone know what these are? I am thinking Bromine Tabs?

SPA-CHEMS.jpg

I don't think I need the scale inhibitor or the water clarifier - I don't even know what chemicals are in those two bottles...or if I should even keep them?

I also have no idea if I should use up these Bromine tabs (I just read the TFP link for Bromine) - until I run out of them - do a water change and then switch to bleach or a SWG.

I was planning on using the Dichlor/Bleach method to start out since that seems to be the most straightforward method that is similar to my pool experience.
 
New spa owner here too.

Not sure about those chemicals. Who knows how old they are, might even be expired?

I just did an aah-some purge and fresh fill on my used tub. Going with the simple dichor/bleach method for now. I've been having a hard time finding bleach though (everyone sells Clorox which has "cloromax" polymers added now), and my nearest walmart is 30 miles away. So I've been considering SWGs as well. The Saltron Mini and the ControlOMatic seem to be the best bet for small hot tubs. I think I'm going to order the ControlOMatic SmarterSpa with the automatic chlorine detection and see how that goes.
 
Thank for the reply tmm1...

Not sure how old these chems are either.

As I mentioned I am leaning towards a SWG and like the sound of the ControlOMatic with the sensor - it sure sounds like a good product.

After 3 days of cleaning, today my son and I repainted all of the side panels with a nice neutral grey. We have some touch ups still to do and the pump and heater are ready to be reinstalled.

After that I still have a new outlet to install after the electrician updated a breaker and told me how to hook it up correctly.
 
Got my SmarterSpa today and plopped it in the hot tub with some salt. Seems easy enough and it is happily generating chlorine already. Going to run some tests today to set the power level timer correctly and then hopefully it will be on auto-pilot while I'm on vacation next week.
 
tmm1 said:
Got my SmarterSpa today and plopped it in the hot tub with some salt. Seems easy enough and it is happily generating chlorine already. Going to run some tests today to set the power level timer correctly and then hopefully it will be on auto-pilot while I'm on vacation next week.
Click to expand...

Sounds good - update me on how it goes after your vacation.

The SmarterSpa looks like a great product - I have been figuring out how I might hook it up to my spa with the least amount of wires showing - thinking I will just wire it up inside to my spa controls as there is a 110v output section I can tie this device into. First I will just plug it into a wall outlet for testing, but I think eventually it would be nice to have it integrated into the controls and out of the way.
 

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Yesterday was an all day spa rehab day.

I was finally able to add a new outside plug that is a 20amp GFCI. We also moved the spa back to the final resting place...

Most of the panels are screwed back in place, but a few still need some adjustments. I purchased an adapter for our outside sink so that I could fill the spa with hot water. We have a super efficient gas water heater that can do endless hot water essentially. Even though it is a tank heater it is designed for our radiant heat in addition to our domestic hot water needs... It has never run out on us during 7 years of use so I thought it might be able to keep up, which it did without issue.

Starting with a full tub at temperature right away is pretty nice...

We adjusted the chemical balance 4 times in the first hour or two, adding bleach, MA, and then tiny bit of CYA in a sock (27.5g).

Biggest issue now is a tiny leak on one of the big 2" pipes at a T fitting glue joint...more work ahead. :hammer:

Then night came and while sleeping we could hear the motor hum, which for us was way too loud when it kicked on at 2 AM and 5 AM...

Placing this right next to the master bedroom might not fly.

I am thinking of putting it on a timer so that it can't turn on between 9PM and 7AM. Apparently the digital spa controls don't have a schedule that can be set which is a bummer.

Last nights final tests had the FC at 6, and PH at 7.2 - this morning it was FC 4 and PH at 7.3, so not a huge difference. So far so good :goodjob: on that side of things.

The leak and pump noise are my biggest concerns.

Today we will actually use it and watch the chemical balance...including doing a full set of tests.

edit: First Complete Set of Test Results
FC 4
CC .5
PH 7.2 (after latest acid addition was 7.5)
TA 90 - need to lower
CH 150 - need to raise
CYA 20
 
I found a silence mode for our controller - so I am pretty happy about that! I have it set to be silent from 9:30PM to 7:30AM.

I also found links to the Plast-aid stuff that might help fix our tiny leak at one of the PVC fittings. If it doesn't fix it I can easily remove a bit of pipe and solve it another way...

We even used the spa for the first time tonight. ONLY 2 weeks after getting this crazy thing...:brickwall:

Learned a few things that need to be worked through - with our high starting TA from our tap water we are getting pretty fast rising PH when the jets are on - I hope that we can get the TA down lower to help with this - once that is settled more I think it will settle down.

I need to get some salt in the water and potentially some borates.

Finally, we have had the "new" breaker on the circuit my electrician had me use trip at the sub panel a few times while using the spa - this is a shared circuit with our bedroom that has very limited things plugged into the other shared plugs - basically a couple of charger wall warts etc...so the load is probably less than an amp - I am not sure why the spa is tripping the breaker. I need to do some more research into this issue. It of course trips the breaker when the jets are on high, the heater is on, and the lights are on...

After we used the tub I checked the FC and PH an hour later and the FC was 1 and the PH was 8 - easy fix 19ml of MA and 39ml of bleach.
 
tmm1 said:
Came back after a week to an FC of 3ppm. Looks like the SmarterSpa SWG was a success!

Unfortunately the spa also lost 1/4 of its water so I guess I'll be spending the week looking for the leak...
Click to expand...

Thanks for updating me!

I have a leak too - but it is so slow I can barely tell. Plus, I overfilled the spa to start as I didn't notice this nice line molded right into the shell that goes almost all the way around the tub that just happens to line up with the skimmer...duh, you mean that is the fill line mark? Wow, so simple...

I am glad to hear that SWG is working - I am thinking I will "experiment" with my current regular water and get used to bleach and see how it behaves for a bit - once I get ready to dump this batch of water and refill I will look at purchasing the SWG unit then.

I still have a leak to fix, some panels need to be adjusted to fit a bit better, the power cord needs to be upgraded/replaced, my cover needs to be repaired, I have some steps to build, and I have to install the cover lifter I bought. At least I have been able to use the thing.
 
One additional problem has been solved!

I was still having some breaker trips at the main panel. This was even after I upgraded the cord to a much shorter and high quality 20 Amp cord with a NEMA 5-20P plug. I have two outlets right next to each other and one is 15A and one is 20A, so I figured having the special plug would be useful in case someone else was plugging it in or working on this besides me. Since I was getting the additional breaker trips I started thinking about why it was happening which got me to thinking about how the tub would run the heater on both the low and high speed jet settings. I think the pump is around 13 amps at high speed, and the heater is 13.5 amps also - so that is certainly more than 20 amps.

I checked the manual I have for the spa control pack and it has a "low power" option that wasn't configured properly. Now I can run the pump on high and the heater shuts off in that mode, which I think should eliminate the breaker tripping issues.

Of course having a 120V tub means some compromises like that are involved, but I don't really want to run a 220V outlet to this location.

I have also finally had the water settle down a bit, once the TA hit 50 the PH stabilized and is sitting somewhere between 7.5 and 7.8 - it has locked in at that reading for a couple of days. The Chlorine is also being somewhat predictable.

I have a few more things to work on including fixing a small leak, installing the cover lifter, re-fitting a few side panels, patching a tear in the cover, and finally building some steps. Once those are done I think I might flush the unit again with Ahh-Some and purchase the SWG unit and get it going starting with a fresh fill and some salt.

At some point I would like to repair some of the foam that is missing from the rodent problem...at least at this point I am finally forgetting about that problem!
 
I was able to knock off a few more tasks to complete this hot tub rehab project.

Today I opened everything up and did some evaluation of the leak on one of the 2" T fittings. I decided to try to use Plast-Aid on the fitting even though it would be dripping and wet which apparently isn't the best practice. I figured why not give it a try and if it fails because of the dripping water I can always attempt the leak fix when I drain it.

Here is the pipe before with the water drip:
Hot-Tub-Leak.jpg

I did a bunch of sanding and cleaned the area up - the leak luckily was on the side facing out, and was just above the middle point which I think helped out a ton because I could move the Plast-Aid around and push it upwards even as the water slowly squirted out from various spots while the Plast-Aid was softer and more liquid. Once it got a little harder I compressed it for a few minutes with my hand to seal it against the pipe right at the leak area. This finally stopped the leak - as the Plast-aid hardened no more water was able to bubble out of the Plast-Aid from the inside like it did when it was softer. For good measure I added a second coat 20 minutes later to make it a little bit thicker...
Hot-Tub-Leak-fixed.jpg


Hopefully it holds, I don't see why it wont. This Plast-Aid stuff is kind of cool and my son is already trying to figure out what he can mold with the stuff.

We also installed our cover lifter today. This works well and is a nice addition.

Hot-Tub-Cover.jpg

At the end of the day I added 3lbs of the pink Himalayan salt and enjoyed a nice long soak to finish off the day....:sleep:

We no only have a few projects left to do - I need to touch up paint where all the screws attach the panels, and we need to build some steps...After that I probably need to purchase the drop in SWCG.
 
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