Spa: Hairline crack in a tricky spot - additive repair possible?

[GreenLeaf]

I've had an annoying "One drip per two seconds" drip going on for a while now, in a spot that was impossible to access without flipping the spa on its side. I managed to get the spa sideways today, take the floor off, and after a few hours chipping off foam and dabbing paper with a magnifying glass found the culprit - a hairline crack in a very tricky spot.

It's connected to a manifold, no leeway to cut and replace. As the spa is apparently 20+ years old, I'm hoping you guys are going to suggest that I can repair the crack in place with something rather than have to perform major surgery. I am comfortable joining pressure pipe with solvent and cement but really don't want to open pandoras box here.

A friend suggested fibreglass, I was also thinking perhaps PVC solvent and then layer upon layer of PVC cement. Are these valid strategies? Any suggestions or advice on whether an in-place, additive style repair might be ok to get me by?

 

[HermanTX]

I have had great success with the following 2 products for issues just as you describe.
Hope you have similar products available down under. I have several friends living in Melbourne. We had a wonderful New Year’s back in 2017.

 

[GreenLeaf]

Thanks very much Herman! I have found a local stockists of the JB Weld Plastic bonder (repco), and will use that.

Great to hear you had a nice time here in 2017! If you ever come back give me a buzz and I will have a cold beer waiting for you!

 

[GreenLeaf]

Just looping back here to say that the JB Weld plastic bonder worked very well. However it was a little thin when working upside down. Gravity was pulling it away from where I wanted it to stay. I found it hard to get a nice thick amount on using multiple layers before it ran out. I mixed the whole lot at once on my first try, which was stupid in retrospect once I realized I needed to do multiple coats to get a nice thickness.

I then went to buy some more to do more layers and they were out of stock, but had "JB Weld PlasticWeld Epoxy Putty Stick" and I found that perfect, allowed me to put as much as I needed where I needed it. Seemed to work great.

Then as I never wanted to deal with this again as it required the whole spa flipped, I tried to do a layer of fibreglass which was a disaster. It wouldn't stick to the PVC, there was glass bits sticking everywhere and to everything including my gloves, it wouldn't go on thick, I couldn't bend it where I wanted it, absolute mess. I wiped as much of that off as I could and abandoned the whole fibreglass idea. I mention this in case anyone else has the bright idea to try and use fibreglass - not fun at all.

Long story short - no more leaks using JB Weld plastic bonder / PlasticWeld epoxy putty.

 

[DangerBoy]

I see I'm too late to offer a suggestion but I would've recommended using Plast-aid instead. It would've given you a stronger bond than JB Weld could. JB Weld just gives you a mechanical bond but on plastics like ABS, PVC and Acrylic, Plast-aid actually gives you a chemical bond which is much stronger than a mechanical bond. I used it to fix a hairline crack at a high stress location on my tub's acrylic shell and it has held perfectly for a few years now. If the JB Weld fix eventually fails, use Plast-aid and it will be fixed permanently.

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