Newbie startup questions

[agh1890]

I recently purchased an SPA. It is a tropical Seas Spa Rio which made by Artesian spas.  I don't really understand all the branding and such as it seems kind of funny but whatever.

The tub was installed on Tuesday and I hope to get it wired up tomorrow.  I do have a couple of questions

1) I live in New England so it is going to be cold when I fill it.  Is there anything I need to watch out for when filling the tub in cold weather.  It will probably be just above freezing when I fill it.  I am a little worried that something will go wrong and I will end up with a tub of 40degree water that will not heat.  I assume with power in the house I could come up with some system to at least keep the tub from freezing if I hit a worst case senario and have a problem on start up.

2) The tub in on a slight incline. I was told by the delivery team this is not an issue and should be good for drainage.  We did make sure to make sure the filter skimmer was on the downhill side.  They did mention something about making sure the neck jets were above the water line.  These jets are also on the downhill side.  My question is why do they need to be above the water line.  Do they just work better that way?  I think I was told the backpressure of being underwater might cause an issue but that makes no sense to me.  I would assume that they could be submerged and it would not damage anything.  Also the water level will fluctuate as you add people to the tub so the water level will be higher with people in the tub.

3) How long does it take after filling to balance the chemicals and get the tub ready to use?  I know it is going to take a few hours to fill the tub and then the tub should warm up at 5-7degrees/hr.  So if it takes 2 hrs to fill and then I need to heat it 40 degrees that is like 14 hours to get up to temp.  Then I would assume I need to start working the chemicals to get the proper levels and make sure any bacteria is dead. 

Any insight is welcomed.  At the moment I am slightly overwhelmed by not wanting to mess up a brand new tub.  It it kind of scary like driving  you first born home from the hospital.  I don't want to mess up.

Andy

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

1.  Just make sure when filling you put the hose in your filter compartment so that you "fill" the pumps first to avoid any potential airlock.  If by chance you run into any issues when wiring/filing it, your worst case scenario would be to put a "trouble light" in the equipment compartment and a "cattle tank" heater inside the spa to keep the water warm while you fix the problem.

2.  how much incline? some manufacturers try to shy people away from shimming especially on the bigger models because a tub that is shimmed has a higher chance for a cracked shell down the road (in most cases, not all)...some companies will even void warranty if certain models are shimmed (if they can prove it of course)

3.  fill it up, flip the breaker(s), pour in a metal gon/metal out/etc. etc. if needed, use Taylor K-2006 test kit or take to dealer to test and find your alkalinity ppm out of the tap and adjust accordingly, same goes for calcium hardness (adjusting calcium will depend on your water source as well...ie soft, hard, well, lake, etc.) but your dealer will be able to provide "baseline" numbers so that you can adjust accordingly...once all water parameters are balanced, the next day you should be able to start your chlorine, bromine, silver ion/shock, or whatever system you plan on using

4.  good luck :-)