Creating a home for my Hot Tub

   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #1  

EddieWalker

Epic Contributor
Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
25,114
Location
Tyler, Texas
Tractor
Several, all used and abused.
After casually looking for a used hot tub, I saw this Calspa on Craigslist for $250

The owner said the heater was out and that the pump leaked, plust there might be some other issues with it. They had it for about five years and never got around to fixing it. My main thing was that the tub itself was in good shape and didn't leak. The rest is easy to fix.

The heating element was burned out. A new one cost $110.

The heating pump didn't work and was probably the reason for the heating element burning out. I found the upgrade pump for $80 on ebay.

The circultion pump leaked at the main seal. A new giant O-Rring was $3

The drain valve leaked. I replaced it with a standard brass water spicket for $5

My Dad suggested that I run two electric lines. One for the heater and one for the circulation pump. Each will be on it's own dedicated 20 amp, 110 line. From what he told me, when using the hot tub, the heater turns off to give the circulation pump enough power to move the water. After some time, the water will cool with a 110 volt system.

The wood was in fair condition, but ugly. I replaced the bad pieces, patched the holes and gouges with bondo and then painted it. Steph wanted dark brown, which turned out GREAT!!!

Eddie
 

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   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub
  • Thread Starter
#2  
One of the problems I had with getting a hot tub was where to put it. Steph figured that if I took out some trees in our yard, that I could build a home for the gazebo there.

I had to move her birdbath before I could do anything, then it was a matter of taking out a few trees. The backhoe worked good for this as it was only a small area. I had just built my debris forks for my FEL, so it was a good oportunity to give them a try.

Eddie
 

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   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub
  • Thread Starter
#3  
It took awhile for the ground to dry out and to pick up all the loose branches, but after that happened, I dumped ten yards of clean fill to build up a pad. Then it rained on me before I could spread it and created a real mess. It's taken two months to dry out enough to get it to compact!!!

This week, I set the forms, dug the footings and put in the utility lines.

I wanted to have drain lines for the hot tub and the pad. My parents have had hot tubs, but this is my first one. Maintaining their's over the years, I've realized how nice a drain can be. I'm also putting in a water spicket on the back wall to make filling the hot tub easy. No hoses here!!!

I mentioned the two dedicated lines for the pump and heater. I'm running 8/2 wire from the house to a sub panel on the back wall. Then from the sub panel, I'm running two 12/2 lines under the slab to the front of the hot tub. They will each be GFCI outlets and hidden under the step in front of the hot tub.

I'm also running a water spicket to the side of the door for future use. Water plants and Steph's bird bath type stuff.

I put 3/8s rebar on two foot centers with two lines through the footings. No pics of the rebar as I tied it Friday night with a huge storm dumpin in Tyler and lightning flashing near the house. I really expected to get rained out, but figured I could get the rebar in place and see what happens.

Saturday morning was cool and dry out. No rain, no mud!!!! I had a buggy reserved from United Rentals already, so first thing Saturday morning I got started. I've done two yard pours on my own a few times, and figured this was right under two yards.

Concrete was $140 a yard!!!!

The first yard went out pretty easy. I filled the footings and spread the rest out. The second yard didn't do as much as I'd hoped. This yard had me feeling it. The third yard kicked by but!!! I had to spread it and smooth it out during the heat of the day. It was only 90 outside, but it still felt pretty hot with the concrete curing on me. hahaha

The pad is 12ft by 12ft.

Eddie
 

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   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #4  
Great looking work as usual from you Ed. Your entire family will have a great time with it. Ours is on our patio, close to the house. I was going the Gazabo route but decided to keep it closer to the house. I didn't want to hoof it in the snow 100 feet to the tub where I would have like to put a gazabo. Not only do they make you feel good but they make a great focal area as well. :) Can't wait to see the finished product,EL.
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #5  
Nice looking work... It looked like that tlb was just on the large side for that little pad! But they sure do make quick work of trees... The end product will look fantastic in that location!
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #6  
Hey Eddie, looks like another good project. I am not familiar with your brand tub so this may be a moot point. Our tub is convertible from 110v to 220v with a few jumper switches on the control circuit board. That is done for the very reason you mentioned, so the heater and main pump can run at the same time. It also allows the heater to run at 6000w as apposed to 1500w. Don’t know if that conversion is possible on your brand tub but I thought I would mention it before you got to far along.

Hope you are running ground fault breakers at you sub panel. Can’t be to safe when mixing water, electricity and family.

MarkV
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #7  
EddieWalker said:
It was only 90 outside, but it still felt pretty hot with the concrete curing on me. haha

Maybe consider adding a cooling unit in the hot tub for those scorching hot Texas days. :D

Nice work. I like the underground drains. :)

Don
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #8  
Looks good Eddie. :D :D

It sure must be nice to be able to work with some real equipment!:D

You could have had our Hot Tub for free. It's a little larger than yours and resides in our master bedroom collecting junk. Only problem may be removal as it was lowered in with a crane before the rafters were placed!:D
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #9  
Looks nice. Amazing the deals that you can find that only need relatively minor attention.

Our tub has only one line going to it; as others have mentioned, some tubs have switchable input. Our could run off 110v, but only the heater OR the pump could operate; not both at the same time. It could run low power 220v, with the heater on and the pump at low speed. Or, as in our case, there's a 220v connection that runs high current and both the pump and heater at thier highest settings.

A friend of mine used to have a 110v tub. As soon as you turned on the jets and the bubbles at the same time, you could feel it start to cool off... It could not drive the heater if the pump was on. And, adding the bubbles really cooled things.

Our tub is set up a little differently. We have a wooden deck off the back of the house, that is about 5' off the ground. We has a hole the size of the spa cut in the deck, and then a second "deck" was built below by about 2'. The tub sets on the lower deck or platform. It sticks half out of the deck; the seat bottom in the spa is level with the main deck. Makes it really nice getting in and out.

We have really enjoyed out spa. We installed it in '99. It gets used almost every day.
 
   / Creating a home for my Hot Tub #10  
Eddie

In this type application my preference is to use GFCI breakers in the sub panel. The way you describe it you'll have unprotected voltage running over to the hot tub. GFCI breakers are more expensive I know but everything down stream of the sub panel will be protected.
 
 
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