Hot Springs Spa - I'm back in the saddle again!

Soon after my Labor Day party I decommissioned my inflatable Spa 2 Go hot tub in a fanfairless ceremony attended only by my dog and I. Actually the dog left half way through the events. However this was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to begin working on the abandoned hot tub that came with the house.

When we moved into the house, a none functioning hot tub made by Hot Springs Portable Spas sat in the yard. I am not sure about the "portable" part of the name, this thing is not going anywhere, easily. The only information we were given on its condition was that they thought it needed a new heater element. Opening up the access panel I found that the heater element housing was coated with a patch material that looked like plaster. With some help from my father in law, we poked around the electrical controls and concluded that everything was functional. I filled the tub and fired it up. The heater element was getting power and after several hours a noticeable increase in temperature was observed. However the heater element housing repair was not holding and was leaking. Thus the system was shut down and the tub drained so that additional sealant material could be applied to the housing. Once the system became water tight a tub of 102 degree water was produced. I was slightly troubled by this success, since the thermostat control was maxed out. I did not complain too much as I enjoy a beer in the tub after our first snow storm of the season. A weekend of hot tub soaking was all the spa would muster and soon the temperature dropped to 95 degrees.

Upon opening up the panel I was quickly able to identify the various components of the spa. I was greateful that the spa system was pretty simple. The experiance gained from the S2G was very handy.

1-Flow sensor

2-Jet pump

3-Heater

4-circulation pump

5-high limit sensor

6-temp control sensor

7-tub light

8-controller

Cracking the control box I was greeted with a slew of electronic components. Once again it was a relatively simple controller. Rather than have an all inclusive circuit board that does everything, this controller was old school; a bunch of relays, switches, potentiometer, and a few circuit boards made up the brains of the spa system.

1-sensor inputs

2-relays

3-thermostat controller

4-light switch

5-power in

6-power out to either circulation pump, heater or jet pump

7-power out to light

8-power out to either circulation pump, heater or jet pump

9-jet switch

10-jet on indicator light

My first inclination was to change out the heater element, since that is what the previous owners thought was wrong with the system. However based on some of the "johnny homeowner" repairs I found around the house, I was not so sure that PO thoughts were very reliable. At that time the voice of my old boss popped into my head. He use to say: do not use the "shot gun" approach to repairs. Shoot blindly and hope to hit something. Instead of just replacing parts and hoping that one of them solves the problem, you should figure out what is wrong with the system. I never thought the term "shotgun" approach was very appropriate, instead I think "machine gun" approach paints a more accurate image.

The first thing that I wanted to check was to make sure that the heater element was functioning properly. Messing with the temperature controller yielded clicks from the relay. A relay is a mechanical switch that turns power on and off. Signal voltage from a sensor is very low, and can not power the desired device, thus a relay is needed to handle the power demand of the device when a switched signal indicates it to do so. Tracing the wires back from the heater, I found the particular relay which powers it. This typical relay had six leads, or three pairs. In each pair a lead is for the positive terminal and one for the negative. One pair was for the signal voltage, one for power in and one for power out. I approached the system at a steady state with the thermostat set to max and temp of the tub at 95 degrees. I then took a volt meter and probed the leads. One set of leads showed 120 volts (the spa is a 120 volt system), and the other two showed nothing: the relay was off. Wiggling the temp setting switch around would result in a click. At this time two sets of leads showed 120 and one set show something like 12 volts: the relay was on. Setting the thermostat lower and allowing the system to reach steady state yield a 85 degree spa, turn the controller up would click on the relay. This meant that the heater was turning on and off and that most likely the heater could heat the tub past 95 degrees if the controller told it do so: the heater was good.

When my Spa 2 Go was not able to sustain temperature, the culprit was a failing temperature sensor. So I went to pull the two sensors. However this was a little more involved since I recently epoxied the sensors in place to stop the leaks. So now I had to remove the entire heater housing and bring it into the shop. Once inside I took a Dremel with a small cutter, and with the precision of a dentist went forth cut the the sensor free. With both sensor out I proceeded to test their resistances. Experience from the S2G told me that both sensors of a two sensor system do not fail at the same time and the same rate. The resistance of the sensors were the same at room temperature, a few hundredths of an ohm off, but that is nothing to worry about. Placing the sensors in a bucket of hot water yield an identical drop in resistance. The senors were most likely good. However I eventually found a graph of the sensors that plotted resistance vs. temperature. There was an off chance that the sensors were failing at the identical rate and was causing my problem. But based off the the graph my sensors appeared to be in great shape.

The next logical component that might be the source of my low resulting temperature was the thermostat controller. I however did not have a good test to identify if the current unit was functioning properly or not. All indications pointed that this was the culprit: consistent temperature (I was able to set it to a lower temp and have it stay at the lower temp), wiggling the switch would cause the relay to turn on. Though I was not 100% confident in my diagnosis, base on the process of elimination I was 90% sure. I found a replacement part on-line and speaking with the very helpful tech support, made me feel even better that the part in question was bad. All said and done a new thermostat controller was in the mail and my bank account was $80 leaner. I was taking a risk by not confirming the part was bad, since electronic parts are non refundable, however a house call from a spa repair person would typically incur a $200 bill for the first hour without the cost of parts. A few weeks had also elapsed and the need for the hot tub to be functional was beginning to become dire.

http://www.backyardplus.com/proddetail.php?prod=71340

A few days later the part came. I finished epoxying the heater housing and reinstalled all the various components. In a day and a halve's time the tub was filled with 108 degree water.

Bang bang, mission accomplished.

I felt quite a sense of accomplishment and the punch line for old joke about the enigneer and the chalk came to to my mind. One dollar for the chalk, $499 to know where to put the "X".

Now to get the tub up onto my deck.

Spa 2 go - Back In Action - 7 of 7

Since moving to my new house, the S2G has been off active duty. However at the request of some visiting friends, the S2G was reinstated into active duty for the Labor Day weekend. The spa was in rough shape though fully functional; here is a list of some issues.-The top tube developed a leak at a fold.

-The new sensors has some corrosion on it (maybe I should not have given away my extra sensor).

-The lower fitting finally blew out, and is leaking

-air biscuit cover does not hold air

-cover is shredded so bad, it is barely even effective at holding the biscuit in place.

Even with all these issues the S2G still heats a tub full of hot water and brings smiles to many a faces. At one time we were able to get six friendly bodies in the tub. A new personal S2G record.

The key to S2G that is often over looked is the chemical levels. I once had someone tell me that she did not like using chemical in her hot tub. Instead she changed out the water once a week or so. Though she didn't add any chemicals, the fact the she and her family went in the tub daily changes the chemical composition of the water for the worse. In a year or so, the internal working of the spa pump had completed corroded due to the acidic water.

I too am guilty of not having perfectly balanced water chemistry. Though I try, the S2G has had organic growth occur on several occasions. The following is what I do to attempt to maintain proper water chemical levels. I have to admitted that I am no pro, and spa professionals reading this might gaff at my ignorance.

Since I was starting with a fresh batch of tap water, the first thing I needed to do was to add some shock. "Shock" is usually a mixture of chemical which attempt to establish a chemical base. Remember that because of the PVC composition of the inflatable tub, non chlorine based chemicals are a must. I use a bromine based shock. Instead of adding it directly to the water. I use a small container where I dissolve the solids into first. I imagine that this helps mix the chemicals and prevents the solid bromine granules from chemically burning the tub material as it sits. A note of spa chemicals; when possible buy solid granule type chemicals as oppose to liquid type. You get more for your money, as liquid based chemicals are simply a dissolved or diluted version; this is per a professional spa man. Next I filled my floating bromine feeder with tablets. You do not need to have a floating feeder, but I find it to be quite necessary in maintaining adequate bromine levels. Without one you would need to add bromine after every soak in order to maintain the desired levels. The bromine is key in keeping the spa sanitary and preventing organic matter from growing. Without it you will have a tub full of nasty bacterias from which infections might be spread or be caught from.

Update: I was adding some chems to my tub this morning and forgot a very important thing. It has to deal with dissolving chemicals in a little container. Always add power to water not water to powder. Though not too important with bromine and PH up, it is a good general rule to obey. If the dry chemical is to have a violent reaction with water it is safer to add small amounts of reactants (dry) to the water, then the other way around.

Testing the water is the next step. There are two types of water test kits. The dye drop kit and the test strips. Having used both, I find that the test strips are much easier to use. Each test strip has the ability to test several water chemistry attributes: bromine levels, PH, and water hardness are the ones I look out for. Simply swrill the test strip in the tub, and compare the resulting colors to the chart to read the levels. I can usually tell with just my nose what the bromine level is, however PH and water hardness are not discerned with a simple sniff.

From what I learned in high school chemistry, PH of 7 is neutral. A fresh tub of spa water should read close to that. However body sweat is very acidic and after a few soaks the PH will most likely be a lot lower than 7 (less than 7 is acidic, more than 7 is basic). Thus when buying PH solutions it is almost never necessary to buy PH down, always get PH up. Acidic water is the main contributor to corrosion of pump parts and sensors.

The final element of spa water chemistry is water hardness. I only recently began monitoring and adjusting my water hardness levels. Though hard water in not good, water that is too "soft" can leach electrons off the metal components further degrading sensors and spa components. This chemical I was only able to find in liquid form.

For the list of shortcoming I posted early, here are my resolutions.

-The leaking top tube was patched with a sealant. This is my new favorite sealing product. Bonds to most things. Dries quickly. Resist oil and gas. And remains flexible when dries. I did not empty the tube completely when I applied the sealant, thus a air channel was formed within the sealing agent. Therefor the repair only helped slow down the leak, and not completely stop it.

-The cracked and leaking lower fitting was very bad, for it happened the night before the guest were to arrive. I was kicking myself for not repairing the lower fitting when I did the upper one. The water had taken 2 days to heat, and to proper repair the fitting would require the draining of the tub. Even if I used the caps to seal the power pack intake and exhaust holes, I would have had to removed the power pack which means disconnecting the air jet intake, which water would have flowed out from . My new favorite sealant was of no help and was not able to patch the large leaking crack. Instead, at the suggestion of my wife, I wrapped many length of duck tape around and fitting. And guess what it worked. The leak was reduced to a small drip and after a week has completely stopped.

-The leaking air filled cover and the torn cover is more of an annoyance than anything else. I still use both, and flip a section of ridge foam insulation over it to keep the wind from blowing the air biscuit away and to help with keeping the water warm.

-Upon closer inspection, the corrosion on the sensor is from the spring coil part at the top of the sensor. I think the spring coil is there to support the sensor wires. This part must not be made of the same stainless steel as the fitting, for they do not see any rust. The cause is most likely due to water left in the S2G power pack when the unit was stored. This is noted and water will be drained out of the power pack at when the unit is taken down and stored next.

Soon the S2G will be replaced with a more permanent hot tub. At that time all or parts of my S2G will be up for sale. Please contact me for any presale request.

Hope this series of Spa 2 Go articles have been helpful to you all. Please leave comments or your own S2G repair tips, "how to's", and stories.

Soak ON!

Time 2 go - Spa 2 Go - 6 of 7

I have a feeling that the days are limited for the Spa 2 Go. I will be moving into my new house and it already has a spa. One that is not inflatable too. Don't worry the new-to-me spa is currently broken, so it not like I have it that good. From monitonring this blog, I see that the Spa 2 Go repair articles have drawn quite a following for all over the world. Cheers mate.

But before I go I will at least write a bit on spa chemicals. If I had my chemical levels correct I do not think that I would have had the temp sensor corrode on me.

If you have a question you want to ask, feel free to e-mail me.

I also have an extra temp sensor. Remember I thought that only one was bad, but I changed out both. I hacked the plug but you can reuse yours in the same fasion that I did mine. Contact me if anyone wants this sensor.

The extra sensor is GONE! I just sent it off to the reader that posted the temp resistor sensor fix.

Spa 2 go - Insulation - 5 of 7

This is how my Spa 2 Go looks on a snowy day. Not quite the poster child the advertisements portrayed. However there are three key improvements made, that makes my tub work so much better, then when it came from the factory. These are: pump hard cover, floor insulation, and top ridged cover.


Floor Insulation. Not long after I installed my tub did I find myself under the deck. It was a cold winter day and I reached up and touched the decking right under the tub. The wood was warm. That could not be too efficient I thought, so I went to insulate the floor. My first attempt was to use fiberglass insulation. I unrolled and cut sheets of insulation and tacked them to the deck joist. This did not last long, and the moisture from the winter soaked the paper and the fiberglass. The wet paper was not able to hold the weight of the wet fiberglass and it ripped through. A week later I found 90% of the insulation on the ground. My next attempt was to use ridge foam insulation. I bought three sheets of 4'x8'x3/4". Using two and a little of the third sheet, I was able to trace out a patterned for the tub and the power pack. This works great.

During snow storms I found that the tub could not keep its temperature up. I decided that the stock doughnut cover was not insulating enough to protect it from the heat drawing snow. The extra sheet of ridge foam on top of the tub provided an extra barrier to the elements to keep the tub toasty.

After the first snow storm with the S2G, I noticed that the power pack unit would become completely buried in snow. This could not be good for it, so I went about building a wooden cover. I figured a cover would keep the power pack working better if it was not buried in snow. I also felt that the UV protection was good for its longevity. Two requirements I had was that I could access the control, and that it could support a humans weight. Below are is original "napkin" sketch.

Internal framing and a hinged door made my requirements a reality.

Spa 2 Go - Filter Maintance - 4 of 7

Maintenance is the key to keeping your Spa 2 Go healthy and working. There are only two primary components of maintenance: Filter and water chemistry.

Let's talk about filters. The S2G uses a special filter, it is primarily composed of a pleated paper filter element with a foam filter ring. Because of this special feature the filter is not universal. Instead special filters need to be purchased from S2G or its distributors, at a cost of approximately $50 for two. If you are a new S2G owner, buy a set. The filter pictured to the left is NOT the one you want. Instead you need the two stage filter pictured to the right. The proper orientation of the filter is as shown, foam ring down. This is a very crucial aspect of the filter and I will explain later.

Set a filter replacement schedule. Two weeks is ideal, a month at the maximum. Follow the instructions that came with your hot tub. The filter fits within a protrusion, both in the filter tank and one the filter cap. Make sure it is seated before attempting to screw down the lid. If not you can crack the filter foam clip ring. With a new filter in place, the old filter can now be cleaned. I usually use a handled shower head for the cleaning. Be careful of using too strong a sprayer that might tear the paper element. The paper element is fairly tough material and can withstand many washings. You just need more than one filter so that you can swap out the current filter. Do not run the spa without a filter. It is very easy to jam the impeller with debris.

Most filters should be cleaned from the inside out, or back flowing. This filter however is difficult to do so, due to the small inner orifice. I however will still start from the inside, then move to spraying down and dislodging material from in between the pleats. I always finish off with a final spray from the inside out. Next comes the foam ring. Actually I unusually clean this off first. Be careful trying to remove the blue ring which clips to the filter body. Though it holds the foam ring in place, this blue clipped ring easily breaks. Try your best to clean the foam, but you will most likely find out that the foam just falls apart. If it does just throw away the foam. This is the reason why most people just buy new filters. Finally I fill a small bucket with water and put a dollop of bleach in it. Sink the filter and let it soak over night. Spray the filter off before allowing it to dry.



If you suspect the foam ring to be deteriorating at all discard it. Bits of the foam ring can easily become lodged in the pump and jam the impeller. Go to a fish tank supply store and purchase a sheet of generic filter foam, pictured to the right. A sheet can be had for less than $10. The picture above shows the "stock" filter and foam ring at the left, and homemade foam section in the center. The replacement foam ring is quite dirty in the picture. Take the fish tank filter and cut a strip of foam material, and Viola, new foam filter!!

With three filters you can rotate between them, and always have a clean filter ready to go. Final, a note of caution. After a filter change, it is easy to forget to turn the system back on. If you live in sub zero climates, this could be very bad for your tub. Also when the system is shut down it resets itself of 100 degrees. This is usually a tad cool for most, and you might go a few dips before you realize that it is at its default temp setting.

This next section is extra credit reading on why S2G changed there filter design and it has to deal with pump cavitation. Now if you are into pump tech, you might disagree with some of the following details. I did not go back and reread chapters in my Fluid Mech book before I wrote this. How ever the logic is basically sound.

To put it in a nut shell, the old filter design provided too much flow resistance for the pump. So a foam ring was added to insure that enough water reached the impellers of the pump unit. Since the suction is located at the center bottom of the inner filter tube, the foam, needs to be at the bottom so that the water can reach the pump.

The term used is available head. Which is the available amount of pumping medium for the pump to draw from. I forget why the term "head" is used, but I always think of, head of foam on my beer, as an indicator to the available amount of beer there is in the glass. The resistance of the paper element, might have increased due to the washing. The paper membrane could become clogged and flow less, then when it was new. However it is common practice to wash spa filters, and thus suggest that there was a design flaw, which S2G corrected by a new filter. Without the proper available head, the pump can and does cavitate. Cavitation is commonly thought of as a water pump, pumping air. I have heard the term incorrectly used to describe a boat propeller when it comes out of the water and spins in the air. A pump impeller however can cavitate even if it is submerged in water but does not have the available amount of head. The reduction of pressure, or vacuum created by the pump can actually draw gases out of solution. If you fill a syringe halfway full of water, plug the end, and pull back hard on the plunger, you will see gas bubbles appear in the tube. Same thing happens on the leading edge of a pump impeller. These gas bubbles form violently and can cause pitting and damage to the impeller blade. But the real damage cavitation does is the vibrations. It destroys the pivot that the bushing or bearing that the impeller shaft rotates about. The S2G pump can cavitate if the filter tank is not bleed properly, or if the filter is installed with the foam ring towards the top, and the pump is not supplied with the nessary amount of head.

Spa 2 Go- Fitting repair - 3 of 7

I am on a roll with the spa 2 go repairs. I'd figure since I shared some of what I know/did, might as well share more. And since I was never able to find any repair information, this might be helpful to others.

One of the first things that broke on my spa was the water intake interface between the tub and the power pack. Due to vertical misalignment between the tub and the power pack extra loads were placed on the threaded section of the connector. They then cracked and leaked out water. This happened within 6 months of owning the tub. I am sure I could have sent it in for warranty, but for $90 and the down time, I decided to repair it myself.

You might be able to see the crack that has formed in this picture. This fitting is still usable, and has not totally failed yet. Shame that such inferior plastic was used. Almost like CLP intended this part to fail.

The good thing however is that this fitting is a standardized part. It is simple a garden hose thread, so replacements can be found. The bad part is that the original fitting is bonded to a short rubber hose, and this bond can not be undone. You can get (theoretically) a new fitting/hose section from CLP and make the repair cleanly, but...

A trip to the hardware store should yield you a garden hose female fitting, and a 3/4" coupler.

First take a ruler and measure the distance from the body of the power pack to the end of the broken fitting. Next, two careful cuts need to be made in order to achieve the correct finial dimension. One is across the black dotted line of the new fitting (as seen in picture 2), and one is across the white dotted line of the original fitting (picture 1). I used a hacksaw to make the cuts. Mix up a batch of your favorite 2 part epoxy, and slather it on the body of the new fitting and the stub of the old. Slide the new fitting into the coupler, and apply extra epoxy to the receiving end of the coupler. Now slide the coupler/new fitting onto the old.

PVC cement can not be used in this application. Maybe for the interface between the new fitting and the coupler. But the old fitting is not 3/4" inch stock. Therefor the epoxy is required to fill the 1/16" of an inch gap. Let it sit for a couple of hours and you should be good to go.

I would perform this repair to both intake and output fittings. If one has failed the other will soon follow (though mine is cracked, is has survived 8 months). The vertical misalignment was most likely caused by low tub pressure. Make sure that the tub is inflated correctly, and hopefully you can avoid this failure and repair.

Spa 2 Go Repair II - 2 of 7

The first year I quit my job to be a full time ski bum, I moved into a house with a great hot tub. It was located (both house and hot tub) in Tabernash, a small town just outside of Winter Park Colorado. I'd spend many hours sitting looking at the western slope of the Continental Divide.

When we moved to Tahoe and were looking for our first place to rent, a house with a hot tub was selected. A year later when the landlord wanted to turn his rental into a vacation rental, we found another house with a hot tub. By this time we had become seriously addicted to our daily soaks.


This most recent (year and a half) move, found us in a house without a tub. OMG!! We thought we could get by without one, but who were we kidding, we were junkies by now. The thing with hot tubs are they are rather permanent installations. With my rate of moving every year or two, this fix was not going to be easy to come by.

Enter the Spa 2 Go. Made by Comfort Line Products (CLP), the inflatable hot tub holds 250 gallons of hot water, seats four, sets up and take down in minutes, and cost about $700. PERFECT!! http://www.clpusa.com/spa2gochecklist.html I did question the durability of the tub, but my sore muscles silenced my doubt.

The tub arrived, and as promised, 250 gallons of hot water was soon produced. But it is not without it share of problems. So here goes my list of issues:
-weak heater, will take about 2 days to get 40 degree tap water hot, about a degree an hour
-in cold weather, while in use with cover off, it drops about a degree every 15 minutes
-the inflatable tub developed a "bulge"
-pump unit clogs and stops spinning, needs clearing
-connector fitting breaks and requires some rigging
-cover not UV resistant and tears
-can not keep temp when snow accumulated on it or cold rain

-jets are worthless. Pump cold air into water dropping tub temp even faster
-temperature sensor corrodes and sends an OVERHEAT warning, and shuts system down

This last issue was terminal. I contacted CLP, if under warranty (12months) they could send me another power pack (heater/pump unit) for $89 shipping and handling. Mine was past due (15 months). A refurbished unit was about $300 with no warranties, and a new unit was $400. I ask for a schematic, and was denied. So I took the thing apart to see what was wrong.

The power pack comes as a sealed unit. It looks rather intimidating but it is not. If you have found this blog and are reading this to look for repair help, keep reading. First off, before you start to take things apart, most issue arise because of low or no flow. Check CPL's website and customer service contact for a list of trouble shooting techniques. The pumps impeller can easily jam, and a simple push with a wire can get it going again. Back flowing with a garden hose can also help clear things up.

Enough with the salad greens, now let's get to the meat and potatoes of this article. If you do not have a broken power pack, NO NEED TO READ ANY FURTHER. The details might bore you.If you flip the power pack over you will notice the barrage of screws. To access the components you need to remove the cover. You do not need to remove all of the screws. Though I do not have a picture of the underside I can talk you through it. I did not know what was what so I removed and took apart everything. There are four screws holding the water pump unit, the pump unit is the one with the cable and small ridged hose going to it. This does not need to be removed, you can see it at the very far left of the picture. There are two screws holding the filter tank in place. These can be recognized by the two large bosses the screws sit on. These do not need to be removed either. The pump and the filter tank is held together by a black plastic pin spanned nut accessed from the inside of the filter tank. Several small screws, which sit flush to the bottom of the case hold the air pump to the case. The air pump and screws do not need to be removed. In the picture the air pump is removed and is sitting inside the cover, out of view. The screws holding the cover in place are the ones that are sitting on the small raised plastic bosses. The cover should wiggle free, the two air pipes have snug fitting rubber fittings. The only thing that connect the cover to the rest of the unit is the white ribbon cable seen connected to the control circuit board.

I added two more pictures of the power pack with its cover off. These two pictures show the air pump and the curicut box in place. This would be how the pack looks with just the cover removed.

The water flow path is as follows. Water enters from the white fitting on the left/top. The white garden hose fitting is a repaired item. Traveling across the hose the water enters the filter tank outside of the filter (not shown), goes across the membrane to the center, down into the pump, across the ridge pipe seen from the outside bottom of the power pack and up. This is where the water encounters the first temperature sensor, of the two sensor system. What is strange about this system however is that both sensors are right next to each other with no component in between them. Usually a dual temp sensor straddles a heater element to inform the controller if the heater is working or not. The sensor is what is known as a temp/limit sensor, meaning that is design to give an error message if its output is outside a preset working range. The sensor is a ceramic shielded thermocouple. Taking a resistance reading across the connections showed that the two sensors recorded different results; I would assume they need to be the same. Also one sensor's resistance jumped a magnitude of 100x when submerged in water, and the other didn't. I suspect that the water in the tub was too acidic, and eroded the sensor's shielding element, exposing the inner thermo couple unit. It then gave an erroneous temperature reading. When the reading became too high it shut itself down. The day prior to the "OH" error code the tub temp read 106 but couldn't have been more than 96. Before I continue with the sensor, let me finish the travel path of the water. The water then touches the 2nd temperature sensor. I believe that this sensor monitors the condition of the heater element due to it proximity but is a little redundant. The piping then goes down, and turns into a stainless steel tube. Housed in this tube is heater element. It has three wires connected to it and lies horizontally. The final component in the control system is pressure sensor. I assume it monitors the effective of the water pump, and shuts the system down if the flow rate drops below a certain pressure reading.

CPL use to sell parts to outside vendors. But now they do not. All service is done through their partner company/shop http://www.oceantis.biz/services.html. This is a good site with many trouble shooting info. The customer service rep, Candy, would not sell me a temperature sensor. I finally found a company that use to service CPL products. They however stopped since they can not get parts anymore. I did however find that they had a few sensors in their back stock. You might want to check with http://www.novacompanies.com/. They provided me with a part number: stg-1120, $26.50, I ordered two. The part that came however did not look like my original. It even came with it's own fittings. The electrical plug on one of them did not fit my control circuit board either. But I cut and soldered the old one in place. This makes me think that any two wire temperature senor will work. As long as you figure out how to make a water tight mount. http://spapartsnet.com/Electronic-Temp-Sensors/32016_1424_1_1.html

I installed the temp sensors and tested the unit in my tub. Everything seemed to work. I then proceeded to replace all the parts. I however was not able to fit the cover back on properly. The final 1.5 inches or so is blocked. I just left it as with the cover sitting. I do have a wooden box I built around the power pack to protect it from the elements, so I am not too concerned. I can not however use the air jets (which i don't use anyways) with the cover half on. Oh well. At least I got my tub of hot water again.

Spa 2 Go Repaired -1 of 7

Last night I got to soak in my hot tub again. After being down for two weeks, I finally got the parts and fixed it. What a major PITA. Details to come.