My girlfriend and I just bought a home with a spa included. However, we have no experience with spa ownership. The spa is a ~1999 Leisure Bay Carribean Isle. The spa seemed to be working perfectly until I emptied and cleaned it. There is now a steady flow of water coming from a small hole in the filter niche. I didn't notice the hole before cleaning the spa, so I don't know if it should have a plug in it or not. The filter looks like a Waterway top-loading filter, but I am basing that guess on diagrams I found on-line. The filter canister has a rubber tube that opens on top below the lid inside the canister and runs to a nozzle on the bottom of the canister. Another rubber tube connects to this nozzle below the outside of the canister and runs to a t-joint connector below the spa basin. One of the two branches of the t-joint run to openings in the bottom of the spa that are labelled the "manifold delivery system" in a brochure we received with the spa. The other branch goes to the hole in the filter niche.

I've spoken with a hot tub technician, and he wasn't sure about my problem. He said he vaguely remembered the niche opening being used in Leisure Bay spas for a short period of time and that they had discontinued them. He was going to look into the problem, but he still hasn't gotten back to me. Is there a simple explanation to this problem? Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Thanks,
Billy

Those "little holes" in the filter niche were never discontinued. On the other side of that hole is a nipple, with a tube stuck on there that runs to the venturi line on the "ozone" jet, where a vacuum is created. When working properly, it creates a vacuum, and will suck out any water that will eventually stagnate in the filter niche.

It's likely the problem is debris in the venturi portion of the "ozone" jet, ruining the venturi. In stead of creating a vacuum, it's now a pressure line, throwing water into the filter niche. My guess is the tech isn't that familiar with Leisure Bays, as this issue was common in virtually all tubs that incorporate the pressure filter. (Except for the few that just used a drain hose to leak all excess water onto the floor of the tub.)