Fixing a dead hot tub, thoughts from the group

[EvilTwin]

Just thought I would follow up this thread since a lot happened after I put the new electronics in.  As it turns out there was a leak in the plumbing and it turned out to be pretty significant.  So the tub sat for close to a year till I got up the gumption to either fix it or pull out the new controller and scrap it.  Being kind of stubborn I took the first route.  

The cedar that I had put on the tub during its first refurb was in poor shape in spots, so I removed all of it not sure if I would keep it or not.  There was a ton of mouse chewed up insulation which was pretty disgusting with the smell.  I used a shop vac to pull out as much as I could, it took several fills and I still didnt get it all.  I figured the leak had to be on the bottom since that the lowest part of the plumbing and probably froze over one winter when it was empty.  So to get to the plumbing I had to get the thing standing on end.


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Check out all the chewed up insulation once the bottom pan came off:


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If you have mice, they you have...


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I got him out after a couple of tries and let him go out in the yard.  A day or so later he came back.  After the second go around he seemed to get the message.

As it turns out the leak was in a cracked check valve on the bottom of the tub.  Not quite sure how I did it, but I managed to cut it out without loosing too much of the pvc pipe and fitted in a replacement about the same size.  Sorry no pix.  I used about 6 cans of foam to try and seal it up and some pink fiberglass in addition.  The frame was fairly compromised, but I still managed to get the bottom back on and then started on replacing the sides.

I went with some 3/8" pvc sheet and kerfed some shorter panels to get around the curves.  I also used a heat gun to soften it up a bit.


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I eventually painted the tub gray and since these pix were taken last year have rebuilt the deck it was sitting on along with composite decking and pvc railings.  Tub works well and does not leak.  Some of the air valves aren't 100% but the tub does still work and isn't doing too bad for being about 20 years old.

If I had to do it all over again, I probably would not have bothered with the new electronics, but once I had that money in it, all I had to loose was time and effort.  



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