2 hot tub questions

[benalexe]

If I have the tub set at a just 80 degrees.  I may do that for the summer.  So it won't be a hot tub just a tub!  Should I and Can i leave the cover open or off the tub?

2  Just curious.  When is the official hot tub season?  Fall and winter or spring and summer? I have read a lot of posts where people leave the spas dry in the summer months.  

[hottubdan]

Official hot tub season is totally determined by the user.  For some people it begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st.  For others it is a "seasonal" thing.

You can turn the tub down to 80.  However, you should keep the cover on to prevent evaporation and debris blowing in.

[Zep]

agreed.....i would keep the cover on to keep debris out,
for it to just generally be cleaner water, and for safety reasons.

i have decided for the first time to drain my tub this summer.
for me the Texas heat in Jun/Jul/Aug/Sept is just not conducive
for me sitting in steamy hot water

i'll let ya know how it turns out

[Bonibelle]

If you are going to have water in the tub, you MUST have a locking cover in place for all of the safety reasons that we talked about before. Besides, the filtration in the tub isn't like a swimming pool. You would be cleaning your filters continuously because of all the debris clogging them up. So even if you turn the temperature down and use it as a small swimming pool, it is still built to be a hot tub.

I think other than the folks that live in very hot areas, most keep their tubs in operation year around. I will turn my temperature down, but the tub will continue to run in economy mode. (I have actually been able to run my tub all winter in economy mode and the water has been fine).

I have a feeling you are trying to find reasons to make your wife feel better about getting this tub.  :-/

[benalexe]

Correction,  I have children so I would never just leave it open all the time.  What I meant is let's say on  a Saturday we are going to be in and out of the tub throughout the day. Is it okay to just leave it open, (with total adult supervision) or should I just open it when it is being used?   Or, let's say I am having a party same deal.

It looks so much nicer open.

You brought up Econ mode in the winter can you give me more details? The instruction manual says that in econ mode the temperature can go up to 20 degrees below the set temp. Then it heats up twice daily when it filters.   Is this how they mostly work?

So if you were keeping it in econ mode set at 80 degrees it can get as low as 60 degrees.  I guess then you put it in normal mode before you are ready to go in?

[Bonibelle]

I'm not quite sure how your tub works in economy mode. In standard mode, my Epic typically circulates the water briefly every so often (maybe hourly) and if the temperature is below the set point, it will heat the water. When I switch to economy mode, I can manipulate the filtration cycles and prevent that hourly circulation.  The tub will then only heat during a filtration cycle. Since we weren't using the tub very often, I also reducted my filtration cycle to one -1hour cycle in the very early morning and one-2 hour cycle in the late afternoon. By setting my filtration and heating time like this, the tub would be at temperature for us to use at our typical soaking times.

How much did I save? I'm not sure ...but somehow having that control made a difference for me!! My pump ran less frequently and even through the worst of the winter, the tub was ready when we wanted to soak.  The down side, I guess would have been if we sporatically decided to jump in mid way between the filtration cycles and the temperature had dropped... :-/

[benalexe]

One question.

If you have the tub set at 100 degrees on econ mode.  Still the heater only comes on during those set time right?  If that were the case doesn't the water chill really quickly and not heat up in time for you to use it?

[Bonibelle]

Lots of things determine how fast your tub will cool...like the type of insulation, the volume of water in the tub, the cover and of course the air temperature. I don't know if I would have bumped the tub into economy mode if I didn't have the in house monitor. I was able to check my temperature during the filtration cycles from inside of my house. If I saw that the temperature dropped too low during a real cold period, I probably would have just added another hour filtration to the morning cycle. If it dropped drastically, I probably would have gone back to standard mode. My fear would have been  if the tub temperature dropped too low and I lost power. Maybe this worked because this was such a mild winter and we are pretty predictable about the times that we soak. I know the temperature of the tub dropped between the cycles, but the drop wasn't significant enough that the tub wasn't able to restore the set temperature during the filtration cycles.

If you think this idea might work, you will need to experiment with your tub this winter. I would love to know if I really saved any electric. In my mind it's kind of like my heater..I have an oil burner with summer winter hook-up. So if I am using oil to heat my house, I may as well heat the domestic hot water at the same time.. :-/