SO 10 months ago, I bought a "barely used" hot tub on Craigslist, and being the handy guy I am, I figured it would be easy to maintain and fix if it had any problems. The previous owner had it drained and winterized properly when I started talking to him about buying it, and said it worked fine before it was drained. I wanted to see it run with water in it and look for leaks, but made the deal anyway since it was such a new tub. Turns out, it was 10 degrees the night before I was to pick it up, and the dolt filled it about 1/4 of the way before I told him nevermind - I didn't want to see it full since I had already scheduled a mover for the next morning. So, other than a broken coupler going into the heater from freezing, which I replaced with a 2 piece, I had no problems for about 6 months. A few months ago, I noticed a small amount of water coming out of the low side of my concrete slab I have it on. No noticeable water level decrease really, but a small leak for sure. Well, I put it off most of the summer, but about 2 weeks ago, I finally drained it, tilted it up on one side, and started looking for leaks. After removing the protective plastic covering on the bottom, and digging out lots of foam, I found the source of one leak (I think) and replaced a segment of flex pipe. I also noticed another leak dripping off of the 6 way water manifold under the cool down seat area. I thought it was coming from above there somewhere, but couldn't tell for sure since the tub was on it's side and the water trail was drying up.
I decided to get smart and actually see where the leak was coming from, so down to the auto parts store I went, and I am now the proud owner of 10 2-ton jack stands. The tub is about 14" off the ground and half full of water and now I have 5 wet spots under there! So for the last 2 days after work, I have been digging out foam and tightening the large nuts on the backs of jets. It seems this is where my leaks so far have been coming from, although I have still not found the one near the manifold - been too busy with other faster leaks.
Lessons learned so far include:
1) CalSpas are very nice to sit in and relax, but also suck arse and leak for no reason...even if they are only 2-3 years old and you maintain the chemicals perfectly.
2) Always start high in the foam and work down...chances are that the leak is at a jet way up near the body.
3) Never use a super long screwdriver to turn a nut behind a jet...you will split the nut and curse ALOT because now you have to replace an entire jet assembly.
Questions I have for the experts are:
1) Is there an easy way to replace the broken nut on the back of this jet? It looks like there is only one way - remove the water and air fittings from the assembly and patch in new air tubing with couplers and new flex pipe. Is it possible to get flex pvc pipe out of a jet assembly, or should I save myself the pain and buy a new one? Do they make some kind of 2 piece nut for these like I used on the heater coupler?
2) Do CalSpas really suck this badly, or am I just lucky and got some Mexican that can't tighten nuts that put mine together?
3) Should I go ahead and dig out every jet and tighten them, even if they aren't already leaking?
4) Should I spend $300 to buy expanding foam to replace all the foam I have dug out or leave the pipes exposed for now? Of course they will be under the side panels and I have some normal fiberglass insulation I could put in there for the time being.
Thanks in advance folks!
Striider |
