Status:

After five %$&*^ leaks (see photo) I'm finally ready to re-foam the tub. I spray a layer of Great Stuff and then press in remmnants of foam pieces (I pulled out previously) on top. Then another layer of Great Stuff and so on. I hope that's the best approach.

I replaced the low flo pump and ordered the cover so I expect to be up in running in a few weeks when the cover arrives.

Thanks to everyone for their help and I will follow-up with a status.

Note: I do have one more leak that only appears when pump #2 runs and the diverter is to one extreme. Until Spring arrives I'll keep it that way. It is getting too cold here to try and continue with servicing this beast.

I put wood blocks beneath the tub (see photo) so that when it rests down I can more easily see the leaks. I then attached a hand held mirror to a long 1" x 1" so that I could slide it beneath and view up and into the dug out foam areas for those hard to find leaks.

The tub is now foamed back together. I have to set it down, get a cover on it and then fill it up and see if it comes up to temp.

Problem is that we are already in freezing temps and so I have to hope that more pipes don't burst.

To remedy this I poured antfreeze into the filter ports as well as each of the tub ports. Will that be enough to keep things in order or is there something else I should do to keep the water from doing more freeze damage?

Thanks!

Do you know those little heaters that keep your feet warm under an office desk? Get one of those and put in your equipment compartment set at 50 degrees.

In the last post, Pool Boy said to stick a heater in the compartment. Is that assuming that there's water in the tub and the mini circulating pump is on 24/7?

I ask because my tub is empty and there no cover on it.

Any thoughts?

Put the heater in there only with the thoughts of firing it up in a few days. It melts any ice in the components and can make for an easier start up when it's cold.

Thank you for everyone's help. After spending MANY hours and some dollars I was able to chase down all five leaks. I replaced one low flow pump and bought about 30 cans of Great Stuff to fill in what I dug out (I re-used the dug out foam by mixing with Great Stuff when I was re-filling the holes).

My tub cover arrived the day before Christmas Eve and I turned on the tub that afternoon. It was below zero with wind chill but by darn it I was going to get that beast working.

On Christmas Eve it reached 110 degrees. Yahoo! The guests to our little open house enjoyed the afternoon basking in the warmth.

Thanks again for all your help!

B

Hope the holidays are good to you...Enjoy it!

Hello,

I'm posting to get some help on a heater question. FYI, here's my specs again:

Make: Hot Springs, Grandee, 1996, G-361014
Power: 220V, 30 Amp and 20 Amp GFI circuit
Control box: Original (has no markings other than "HotSprings")
Thermostat: Pushbutton knob on side of the housing
Heater Type: Watkins No-Fault 5500 cartridge heater
Circulation pump: Watkins Silent Flow 5002

My tub will heat fine and has reached 110 degrees. There are times when I check it and it'll be down as low as 80 degrees. In order to get it back up to temp I have to reset my circuit breaker.

The low-flo pump is new and working fine. Any thoughts?

If it still has a Silentflo 5002 circ pump, check the low speed of the circ pump. Yes, it has two speeds. Occasionally, low speed dies, while high speed continues to work great. Turning it off and on again gets it going in high speed, where it heats fine. Once it reaches temp- goes back to low speed, dies, yet remains warm enough to ffol the temp sensors into thinking the tub is still warm.

If that's not the case, look for a bad flow switch/dirty filters, stuck relay, possibly an intermittent or slightly corroded control thermistor, or a bad heater breaker.

I checked the low-flo pump and it always seems to be running (not sure of the speed). The filters are new and so that shouldn't be the problem. I can hear the heater relay turn on and off when I bring the thermostst dial past setting 3.

The circuit breaker appears to be fine yet I'm not sure what could go wrong with it. Perhaps you can explain.

I checked the heater resistance and it is about 10 ohms at the lowest (it tends to read about 15 to 20 ohms). When I turn up the thermost past 3 and hear the relay kick in I check my home's electric meter and it spins quickly. When the relay is off the meter spins very slow. I know this is a cheap way of reading ampergae but I trust it gives a good indication.

That leaves the flow switch or the thermister. Is there a way to validate the flow switch? What about the thermister?

Thanks much!