More on Virginia Graeme Baker Act

[Vanguard]

Has anyone heard anything else about how the VGB act is going to affect portable spas?  I have been to see some folks from PoolCorp.  For those of you out of the industry, they are the largest pool equipment distributor in the world.  They also distribute the Garden Leisure and Shoreline Spas made by Dynasty.

They have directed their branches to stop selling spas until the drains can be retrofitted to meet VGB act standards.  

I know this is primarily a commercial regulation.  Where the portable spas are coming into play is the reasoning that a portable spa could be moved to a commercial location.  So, I am hearing, the industry is going to have to come up with a solution.

Other than PoolCorp taking this stance, I've not heard of anyone else going to this extreme.  Just wondering if anyone has heard anything else.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

We discussed this a bit at the Atlantic City show, although I did not take that particular seminar which may have been more imformative. What we were told is that the tubs with many pumps/jets may be going by the wayside because there is no way they are going to get enogh suctions in the correct areas. There are also some new products coming that will shut the pump down if it has something stuck to it and the suction exceeds a certain amount. The pool and spa ass. is working with this to try to get a reasonable resolution. This coupled with title 20 and now title 24 will make for many changes.

[MarKee]

I'm not sure how other manuf. are handling this, but the entire Marquis line just became compliant with the VGB act.  I don't really know what changed, but I did notice slightly different suction fittings in the 09 spas.  

[Spatech_tuo]

This should not be a major hurdle at all, just a couple extra parts and a change to the suction wallfitting.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

The issue is not just the fittings, it is that there has to be 2 for each pump and they have to be so far apart and at different levels, this becomes an issue with tubs, specially multi pump tubs.

[Spatech_tuo]

The issue is not just the fittings, it is that there has to be 2 for each pump and they have to be so far apart and at different levels, this becomes an issue with tubs, specially multi pump tubs.

Every spa should aleady have 2 suction returns for pumps so if they don't they're already behind the times. The VGB act calls for more than just that. It calls for those suction returns to have a release in case they get covered. Its kind of redundant on hot tubs that alreadty have 2 suction returns on different plains but the addition shouldn't be a major stumbling block.