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6/29/02: Well here it is a few hours before we have guests over to visit and relax in our spa. It is filled up, warming and NOT LEAKING anymore. Two days ago, I noticed squishiness in our patio carpet, that can only mean one thing - the spa is leaking. I pulled the access panel off the spa and could not see the leak, although I could see a one inch deep puddle inside the pump sump. I could hear the leak so I just poked my head around inside until I found the drip. It was leaking at the joint between an elbow and a hose. I took a most of the rest of the day to drain it. The next day, I went to Home Despot to pick up the supplies: 1 foot of 2" diameter PVC pipe, a 45 degree angle fitting, a coupling some PVC cement and primer...
4/20/03 Update: The repair lasted less than a year and then started leaking in the same damn place! Needless to say I was very pissed off about the whole thing. The leak was much smaller than last time, but it still needed to be fixed. This time, rather than disassemble the entire section, I tried a patching compound called QuickPlastik. It is an epoxy putty stick. I drained the spa, (even though this stuff can go on a wet, leaking surface) sanded, cleaned and dried seam. Then I rolled out a bead of this stuff and pressed it into and around the leaking seam. Only time will tell if this repair holds up. Well that didn't take long... I should have known better than trying to use a product with a misspelled name. The leak still leaks but it is now more of a weeping than a dripping. I will leave it for a few weeks so we can get some use out of the spa. The I will have to rebuild the entire section again.
As usual, click on the thumbnail for a larger image.
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This was the cause of the flood on the patio. The fitting leaked at the seam between the elbow and the hose. The yellow lines show where the fitting came from. On one end, I had to saw the hose from the fitting. On the other end, I had to disconnect the power, move the cable out of the way, and remove the blower to disconnect the fitting. This thing is as bad as working on a car. | |
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This is the dry fit of the new assembly. Always do a dry fit before the final assembly. Certain adjustments had to be made to account for the length of hose that had to be sawed off. Note the black lines for alignment of the hose and elbow. This was a critical angle. The so called hose is hardly flexible. | ||
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These are the old and new elbow fittings. The new fittings were cleaned and deburred, purple-primered and then cemented together with PVC cement. You can see that I needed about 4" inches of PVC pipe. Home Despot only sells PVC in 120" lengths. Anyone need 116" of 2" diameter PVC? | ||
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This is the new assembly in place. Much of the time on this repair was spent on deliberating the exact sequence of assembly because you only get one chance once the cement is applied. Then, BAM-BAM-BAM as fast as you can, assemble the parts in order, before the cement starts setting-up. The instructions on the can say; "Do not pressure test until the cement is cured." Nowhere on the can is there a description of what "cured" is or how long it might take. | ||
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We let the spa sit dry overnight. I re-installed the blower, reconnected the power lines ,filled it, fired up the heater and pumps this morning. There are no leaks visible after two hours of running. This is a good sign. Now if it holds up to 100 degree+, 4.5 horsepower pumped turbo-jet water; all will be well. I am going to leave the cover off until the spa is up to temperature. 89 degrees and counting... | ||
| The spa is up to temp, the cover is installed. No leaks, cross your fingers for the next few days... |
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 19:00:17 -0500