Anyone have a Hot Tub?

CaptainRAVE · 14 Jul 2020 at 17:48

LiE said:
Which model do you have? Our water has been in there since Feb. We use ours every other day to avoid overwhelming the water with contaminants. Just 15g of non chlorine shock a week and a filter clean keeps the water in great condition. The fresh water salt system keeps on top of the sanitising.

Its a Nova Stream Hot Tub. I think the problem were the few days where we forgot to add chrlorine when we weren't using it - I also didn't shock last week, oops.

Usually we use a 30g non-chlorine shock weekly, rinse the filter every week with a long soak every 2-3 weeks and then top up the chlorine every day. However, I got lazy and paid the price

The fresh water salt system sounds good. That said, we bought our hot tub at the start of lockdown when there weren't many left or options to go see any. We also wanted two beds in it which reduced the options even further.

theone8181 · 14 Jul 2020 at 19:52

CaptainRAVE said:
Well our hot tub has started to eat chlorine which generally indicates a biofilm build up in the pipes. Its nearly 3 months since we bought it and we've used it almost daily for many hours, so it isn't surprising. So it'll be getting a flush tomorrow. I must say its probably the best thing we've ever bought.

Lots of alfresco has clogged it

.

Bickaxe · 17 Jul 2020 at 09:37

Ours arrives today. They've already been around to drop off a giant bag which is filling with water as I type.
They pump this in within 10 minutes as it should be at ambient temp by then so we could be lounging around by 5pm this evening.

I'll see if I can take some pics of everything when it happens if I'm not busy with work.

LiE · 17 Jul 2020 at 09:56

Bickaxe said:
Ours arrives today. They've already been around to drop off a giant bag which is filling with water as I type.
They pump this in within 10 minutes as it should be at ambient temp by then so we could be lounging around by 5pm this evening.

I'll see if I can take some pics of everything when it happens if I'm not busy with work.

If it's anything like ours (1400ltrs) it took about 24hrs to get to about 37c, but that was in Feb. Around 1c increase per hour.

Bickaxe · 17 Jul 2020 at 10:08

1300 litres. I think the temp today is around 22C here so I'm expecting it to heat up quicker than the Lay-z spa we currently have especially with the added insulation.

LiE · 17 Jul 2020 at 10:27

Bickaxe said:
1300 litres. I think the temp today is around 22C here so I'm expecting it to heat up quicker than the Lay-z spa we currently have especially with the added insulation.

Let us know how it gets on. The heaters are good, but the initial heating up of such a large amount of water is a slow process. The insulation is great at retaining heat.

CaptainRAVE · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:29

Ours takes a little over 12 hours to heat up from around 14C tap water temperature to about 37C. It’s surprisingly quick.

Cleaning it out wasn’t too bad in the end. Flushed for 30 mins. Stuck in my pool pump with a pipe to the drain to empty it, about 10 minutes. Cleaned the whole thing by hand as it emptied. Scooped out the final bucket of water by hand from the bottom. Amazing how much rubbish came out of the system, or was just already in the water, but became more obvious as the water level fell. Took about 90 mins to fill back up. Our water is crazy hard and alkaline, so we need about 4x the recommended ph reducer and softener. It’s glistening in there now.

LiE · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:31

Yea I imagine this time of year it's a good bit quicker, in winter the water was pretty cold!

CaptainRAVE · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:34

LiE said:
Yea I imagine this time of year it's a good bit quicker, in winter the water was pretty cold!

Yup, the heater doesn’t even come on when we’re in there in the sun at the moment.

I don’t fancy doing hot tub maintenance mid winter. Hopefully as I go along I’ll learn to better maintain the water to avoid having to do so.

That said, I always wondered how you’d know it needed changing. Oh, you know when it does!

LiE · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:37

CaptainRAVE said:
Yup, the heater doesn’t even come on when we’re in there in the sun at the moment.

I don’t fancy doing hot tub maintenance mid winter. Hopefully as I go along I’ll learn to better maintain the water to avoid having to do so.

That said, I always wondered how you’d know it needed changing. Oh, you know when it does!

The guidance on mine is that when it stops holding chlorine or the water is 'tired' then it needs a change. Right now it's still lovely even after 5 months. Not looking forward to the first water change! I may do it early to avoid doing it during winter.

CaptainRAVE · 17 Jul 2020 at 11:40

LiE said:
The guidance on mine is that when it stops holding chlorine or the water is 'tired' then it needs a change. Right now it's still lovely even after 5 months. Not looking forward to the first water change! I may do it early to avoid doing it during winter.

That’s basically what happened to ours. We use it every day pretty much and it takes between 12-15g of chlorine daily. Suddenly it shot up to 40g plus and was all disappearing!

Bickaxe · 17 Jul 2020 at 12:30

No pics as I was helping get it into the garden. Just unwrapping now

Firestar_3x · 17 Jul 2020 at 13:00

Our water is OK, but i always refill using an inline charcoal filter, just makes life easier in the long run.

Will empty the tub when winter approaches, have done a water change mid winter before and will never do it again.

Oh and i run a flush through before emptying, used Swirl Away last time.

LiE · 17 Jul 2020 at 13:05

Firestar_3x said:
Our water is OK, but i always refill using an inline charcoal filter, just makes life easier in the long run.

Will empty the tub when winter approaches, have done a water change mid winter before and will never do it again.

Oh and i run a flush through before emptying, used Swirl Away last time.

Our hot tub came with pretty much one of these - https://www.raceglaze.co.uk/race-glaze/400-litre-0ppm-car-washing-filter/

You can just recharge it with table salt every now and again.

Bickaxe · 18 Jul 2020 at 10:51

First use this morning, was gently pummeled and very happy with it.
I wasn't sure if it was too big for the garden (much longer than it is wide) but I no longer care.

the shadow · 18 Jul 2020 at 11:50

.................... :eek:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ers-new-5-000-hot-tub-crashes-60ft-earth.html

CaptainRAVE · 18 Jul 2020 at 11:52

Yikes.

Gibbo · 18 Jul 2020 at 14:39

the shadow said:
....................
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ers-new-5-000-hot-tub-crashes-60ft-earth.html

Not good, hope they use insurance for the deliveries.
Thankfully a truck can drive round back of our house, so be a simole installation.

Firestar_3x · 18 Jul 2020 at 18:41

Nightmare, imagine if that went through the roof of the house!

We have large double gates at the back of our house so the tub was simply offloaded from the truck and slid into place.

chaparral · 18 Jul 2020 at 20:46

the shadow said:
....................
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ers-new-5-000-hot-tub-crashes-60ft-earth.html

Loved some the comments

The baths now on ebay for 50 quid .

Guaranteed working but no returns. Lol

In kit form only.

In kit form only

I wonder how much the next door neighbour had to slip the crane driver? At least they''ll get a few more nights peace...