HoosierBuddy
Well-known member
Back in 2005, I put together a detailed drawing of my garage addition plan so I could sell the idea to my wife. Basically once I pointed out the deck that we would add to the house at the same time, and the hot tub we would have on the deck, she was "all in" on the whole addition.
So the spa I ended up buying (a 2-pump Jacuzzi rebrand sold though Sam's Club) ended up rolled into the project....and up until last week I've been able to keep it going with very little work. Last week I went out to turn it up a little so we could use it and found the temperature had dropped and Pump 1 (which pumps through the heater) was no longer working. So, instead of enjoying the spa, I ended up getting some tools, getting into it enough to determine the problem was the #1 pump motor, and draining the tub to keep it from freezing.
By Saturday, I had a brand pump assembly bought and started tearing into the project. Of course I had to disassemble most everything to get to the bad pump, get it out, get the new one in, and get the plumbing reconnected. Then I had to reassemble everything that was in the way and refill the spa to try it out.
Filled it with water and checked for leaks. One leak on a loose fitting at the heater. Easy job to tighten that up. Once it all looked good I kicked on the power. Pump 1 fired up. The heater came on. All looked great until I reached up and turned on pump #2. Once pump 2 came on it started leaking badly at the seal between the pump halves. Recall this was NOT the pump I just replaced. This is the other one that I thought was fine.
So, I drained 300 gallons and started taking it all apart again. Luckily pump 2 is in front, so I didn't have to take quite as much apart the second time. I got it out and noticed a lot of rust on 2 of the pump housing bolts. Looks like it had been leaking a little for a long time, and likely got much worse because I had to wrestle it out and back into place to have room to R&R pump 1. I checked the old wet end from the pump assembly I had just removed and it is visually identical, so I swapped the old wet end from pump 1 that had the bad motor to the old pump 2 assembly, that had the leaking pump, and then reinstalled that in the spa.
By this point, the temperature on the deck was in the high 20's and it was snowing on me and the sun was starting to go down. I'd been working on it all day. So, I packed it in. We're supposed to get back into the mid 40's later this week. I'll refill the tub and try it again.
I talked to a buddy that used to work at a Spa company Sunday at church and told him my problems. He laughed and said, "with a 16 year old Spa, I would have told you to just go buy a new one." He might be right. So far I've got about $700 in this repair and the spa isn't running yet. I could buy a similar unit for maybe 6K. I mean, I think I'll get it going again....but at some point I'm just throwing money at a 16 year old "appliance" that may end up having a lot more problems.
So the spa I ended up buying (a 2-pump Jacuzzi rebrand sold though Sam's Club) ended up rolled into the project....and up until last week I've been able to keep it going with very little work. Last week I went out to turn it up a little so we could use it and found the temperature had dropped and Pump 1 (which pumps through the heater) was no longer working. So, instead of enjoying the spa, I ended up getting some tools, getting into it enough to determine the problem was the #1 pump motor, and draining the tub to keep it from freezing.
By Saturday, I had a brand pump assembly bought and started tearing into the project. Of course I had to disassemble most everything to get to the bad pump, get it out, get the new one in, and get the plumbing reconnected. Then I had to reassemble everything that was in the way and refill the spa to try it out.
Filled it with water and checked for leaks. One leak on a loose fitting at the heater. Easy job to tighten that up. Once it all looked good I kicked on the power. Pump 1 fired up. The heater came on. All looked great until I reached up and turned on pump #2. Once pump 2 came on it started leaking badly at the seal between the pump halves. Recall this was NOT the pump I just replaced. This is the other one that I thought was fine.
So, I drained 300 gallons and started taking it all apart again. Luckily pump 2 is in front, so I didn't have to take quite as much apart the second time. I got it out and noticed a lot of rust on 2 of the pump housing bolts. Looks like it had been leaking a little for a long time, and likely got much worse because I had to wrestle it out and back into place to have room to R&R pump 1. I checked the old wet end from the pump assembly I had just removed and it is visually identical, so I swapped the old wet end from pump 1 that had the bad motor to the old pump 2 assembly, that had the leaking pump, and then reinstalled that in the spa.
By this point, the temperature on the deck was in the high 20's and it was snowing on me and the sun was starting to go down. I'd been working on it all day. So, I packed it in. We're supposed to get back into the mid 40's later this week. I'll refill the tub and try it again.
I talked to a buddy that used to work at a Spa company Sunday at church and told him my problems. He laughed and said, "with a 16 year old Spa, I would have told you to just go buy a new one." He might be right. So far I've got about $700 in this repair and the spa isn't running yet. I could buy a similar unit for maybe 6K. I mean, I think I'll get it going again....but at some point I'm just throwing money at a 16 year old "appliance" that may end up having a lot more problems.
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