Anybody seeing glue joint issues on HotSpring?

[stuart]

I've recently worked on a slew of HotSpring’s With leaks.....These are all around 1998 to 2001 and all have bad glue joints (usually around the MotoMassage)

Is this a coincidence or is it something to do with pressure fluctuations or vibration of the Moto Massage?

Just wondering if this was anything like the Sundance issue of the mid 90's...

I don’t work on a lot of these however it seems these all have the same story, the customer is telling me that the HotSpring Dealer won’t work on it in the field but wants to charge them to bring it into the shop, this makes me wonder if there is a bigger problem and I’m not hearing about it.

So far it’s;
A 1998 Grande with leaks at the back of the moto jet
A 1999 Grande with leaks in the plumbing joints at the 45 going to the moto jet
A 1999 Landmark with leaks in the plumbing joints at the 45 going to the moto jet
A 2000 Grande leaks in around the same area but I traded it in and still haven’t got that far.
A 2001 Vangaurd (I think, that’s what the customer said although I don’t remember looking at the shell…I just fixed it) with leaks in the Y fittings on the back right hand corner.

These have all come in around the last 4 to 5 months…anyone else seeing anything?

Before you even start with the koolaide comments, I’m betting that 90% of the people reading this are industry people and I’m really looking for answers….HotSpring is a great brand and takes great care of their dealers and customers so I’m not putting them down in any way. I just want to get to the bottom of these.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

We have also seen many issues with leaks in the moto jet area on tubs of this vintage.

I know when we worked for Waters Edge, there were issues with tubs from 92-96 with glue failures. All they could figure is that they had changed companies that supplied the glue and that was the issue. As far as the hot springs, we were guessing as you that the moving moto jet puts extra pressure on the joints.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 Funny you mention this, we recently took one on trade (cheap) because the guy was tired of it leaking, this guy bought the home with it there. Sad thing is he called the HS dealer first and was told they had worked on that spa several times and was washing there hands of it, seems they tried several times to find and fix the leak but to no avail its on a deck with limited access.   But because they wouldn't help him at all or give him any advice (not surprising) he wasn't going to do business with them and bought a spa from us instead.

 We had to boom the spa off and the new one on, when our tech tore the HS apart it was in fact glue joints failing, we ended up fixing it and resold it for a profit not much but some, with a 6 month warranty.  

 It was a 2000 Grandee, strange thing was my tech told me someone had grinded the serial number off.

 In all fairness it still looked really good and ran fine, just leaked.    If the dealer had given the guy the time of day he probably would have bought one from them with out even looking elsewhere.   Some dealers just don't get it.  

[East_TX_Spa]

We had a customer with a 1998 Grandee that kept having a leak problem.  In 2005, my boss sold him a new one at cost.  He's a happy customer.

We've got some 20-30 year old HotSpring Spas that we've had to fix leaks on every once in a while, but we haven't seen any type of endemic failure on glue joints.  The leaks we've seen on the newer spas have been from (a) bad ozonator check valves (corrected) or (b) light lenses not being tightened enough.

I'll keep an eye out on my end for any problems.

Term

[The_real_Clown_Shoes]

We just took a 2000 Grandee in on trade with leaking glue joints.  I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet, but apparently a competitor of ours had it back at their shop for repairs for a couple months and either never made the effort to fix it or couldn't fix it.

[stuart]

We just took a 2000 Grandee in on trade with leaking glue joints.  I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet, but apparently a competitor of ours had it back at their shop for repairs for a couple months and either never made the effort to fix it or couldn't fix it.

Wanna bet that it's around the Moto Massage? Hillbilly, that is just about what I surmised...The moto is causing more fluctuation and vibration causing leaks however it's right in the joints!

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

In the other forum, there are people that are having issues with joint /glue failures showing up on this vintage also.

[stuart]

I guess the bigger concern here at this point is...Have they found what the problem was and fixed it? What was it and what did they do?

[Gary]

Could be undersized flex, that hit several manufactures. That is what prompted many to go with barb type connectors instead of glue joints.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

They found the first one, it was in the moto jet area. Now he has new ones and the teck said he needed to dig out all the foam and reglue all the fittings, the customer is having a fit. Its an ongoing saga in that forum right now.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

I guess the bigger concern here at this point is...Have they found what the problem was and fixed it? What was it and what did they do?

  Knowing Watkins it has most likely been dealt with, I guess we will know the answer if were having this conversation 5 to 10 years from now??