OMG you saved my life with this tutorial! I was ready to give up before I found this! Thank you! Straight forward step by step instructions, and each step labeled perfectly. Thank you!
Your welcome! We thought the same thing, which is why we made the video in the first place. Our first attempt had the cover floating installed as a seat cushion lol. Ours is still holding up strong a year later so enjoy!
I don't see the holes where the air bubbles come out. How many are there, how big, how many inches apart, do they go all around the full inside circle, at how much pressure, evenly spread out? How much electricity does it use, Cost of chemicals? Can you use it year round, heated cover? Can you squeeze it in a smaller space? How thick are the walls?
@nicolegoupil7179 great questions. Ours has probably 150-300 tiny holes around the inside perimeter that are a few milimeters in diameter maybe 15mm or 5/8" apart. We couldn't easily track the electricity cost and it would vary by area you use it. Chemicals for us are about $8/month and filters were about $12/month. You can use it all year but our winters are very cold so we put it away. It can fit anywhere that you could place it. The walls are about 6" thick.
It heats up about 2 degrees Fahrenheit per hour. Also, depending on your ambient air temperature, if you run the air bubbles, it will cool down a few degrees as well. Thank you for watching!
This video was super helpful, thanks! Do you have links to the chemicals you use? We just received this as a Christmas gift and I've never had to care for a pool or hot tub before.
Merry Christmas! What a great gift and we are glad you liked the video! Depending on where your located, a local hot tub or spa store would have everything you need. Or, a local Home Depot, Lowes, or others should have what you need (as will Amazon). We buy our chemicals at our local retailer in person and bought the Aquarius brand for all our chemicals, which also has a phone application to interpret the results on the test strips. The first thing to consider is choosing between chlorine and bromine as your chemical for keeping your water safe. There are a lot of good articles online for research. We went with Bromine mostly because research said it was more stable (works for a longer period of time and may be able to keep the water more balanced). I would start with chlorine or bromine tablets to fit in your dispenser, test strips, and then also get some spa shock to sprinkle in after each use. Your first filter will probably need to be replaced in 3-8 weeks as well depending on your use. Let us know if you have more questions or a specific retailer in mind for more specific information.
We had to buy all the chemicals and test kits separately. We have tried a lot of different things, but it's important to treat your water as the bacteria can grow really fast in these little tubs. I think we spend $150-200/year on chemicals for reference.
The bromine tablets we bought are so large we could only fit 1-2 in the chem connect dispenser. We found that they didn't dissolve fast enough to keep a high enough bromine level in the water to keep it safe. This is why we bought a separate dispenser that can fit around 10 tablets. You probably could get by with just filling the chem connect, but it sure would be easier if your tablets were smaller than ours. For reference, after three months, our spend on chemicals is about 8 times more than what we spent on the floating brominator. A downside of this dispenser was the paint on our ducks sunglasses has been rubbing off and staining the inside of our hot tub walls and the cover. If I was buying another floating dispenser I would opt for one without paint and one that has a built in light.
The electricity cost is about $30-50 per month. The chemicals and filters are about the same cost. We only run ours half the year but expect it to last us for 3-5 or more years. We haven't had any issue with use other than two times it shut down because the filter was fully clogged with residue. When it shuts down the water needs to be completely reheated.
@RussellTanner between the filters and chemicals, I'd say $10-20 per month. We stocked up and probably spent around $300 on chemicals and filters our first year. Some things like shock we had to buy more of twice. Bromine tablets, we have about 3 years' worth. I was surprised how much chemicals we ended up using to keep the pool clear but it depends on how often you use the hot tub and if you shower first and how often you cycle out the water with fresh water.
This error code may be from your filter being clogged or the water level being low. We find we have to change out our filter every month with daily use.
We have also been using Alk but not off the start of a new water setup. In the two months we've been using the hot tub, we've only had to add Alk in twice, but each time it was about 180g. Our local water has enough natural alkalinity but it seems to drop off over a few weeks. We use a phone application called Aquarius to manage the chemicals but any test strip should give you an alkalinity measurement. You typically want your Alkalinity to be between 80-120 parts per million. Our main chemicals consistently needed have been bromine, shock after use, and spa clear.
