Quick answers below:
Just got my first hot tub over the summer and love it. It's a Hawkeye Jupiter from 2005. It was used inside, is 220V, in great shape and was able to get it for $1000. A few questions from a newbie:
How often do filters need to be changed and the tub water drained? The local dealer said my town pretreats water so I only need to chlorinate 1X weekly and OxyShock when I use it. Do you need to put chemicals in daily?
Read your manual. If you don't have it, its available online. Most advice I've read says drain your water at least 3X a year, but your mileage will vary based on how often and how many people are in your tub. I use this test kit:
http://tinyurl.com/85eupak to monitor my tub. Took me a little while to read and digest the info, but its useful.
This is a loaded question that has a range of answers but whats an average kwh usage? My usage went up about 140kwh in August (the first full month it ran) but it went up 450kwh in Sept and 650 in October compared to last year. I know not all of that is spa related and there are mitigating factors but I just wan tot make sure the spa is 'ok'. The pump cycles for a few minutes every hour and comes on 2X a day for an hour to clean the water. I usually soak every other day for 30 min.
How does that usage translate to $? Most people here discuss usage in terms of average monthly cost falling somewhere around $30/mo I think. I chalked my tub up to a frivolous purchase (like a car requiring premium gas) and have tried to not worry about the relatively small incremental operating cost.
Do thermal blankets help or are they more trouble then it's worth?
I'm in the northeast where we get some pretty bad snow storms and loose power ocassionally. Approximately how long will it take for the tub water/pipes (400gal) to freeze if power went out. Would the power company be responsible if the pipes broke during an outage?
-Mike
Thermal blankets? Asked for one for Christmas. Concerned about the amount of evaporation I'm seeing and figure they're cheap so they're worth a shot.
http://tinyurl.com/cu8hcej I'm also in the NE and worry about pipes freezing. Best guesses I've seen are pipes can start to freeze up in 48hrs. Depending on the insulation in your particular tub of course. And the power company most definitely would not be liable if there was an outage.
