Winter help needed after death of owner

[Durdels]

Hi.  My dad died a week ago and he owned a hot tub that he did not train my mom and I how to maintain or operate beyond flipping a switch.  We are getting to about freezing here, and I wanted to get the hot tub running to prevent damage but cannot seem to get power going on the unit.  I am attaching photos of the control unit inside the hot tub and the external GFCI on the nearby wall.  (My father removed the GFCI on the control unit due to malfunctioning, and it works with this external switchbox instead.)  I have tried flipping all of the switches on the external GFCI and pressing the "test" button on it (which didn't seem to want to go in).  There is a wall light powered by this same GFCI which is illuminated properly, so the GFCI is supplying power and not switched off.  I guess the two questions I have are:

1) Anyone have any ideas on how to get this going?

2) If we can't get it going, what sort of damage are we looking at if this freezes?

Thank you for any assistance anyone can offer.  Sorry we weren't better prepared...

[goneaway]

If it freezes the damage could be catastrophic.
If you have no intentions of using it until the spring, drain it down.
Then using a wet vac, try and remove as much water from the jets and pipework as possible.

[Durdels]

Okay, I'm editing this response because we took action and started draining the hot tub and I will be blowing out the pipes with a shop vac after it's empty.  Thank you for the reply, keat!


[Original reply:  Thanks for the reply, keat63.  Could you elaborate on the specific catastrophic damage you are referring to?  I'm only asking because my mother is the owner of the hot tub (not me) and I have to convince her this needs to be taken care of.  Having a specific description of what could happen would help a lot.]

[Jacuzzi Jim]

   First off condolences on your dad passing!   

 I wouldn't use the term catastrophic, but if you leave it as is and it freezes it's going to cost a bit to get it fixed, chance are it will not and there it will sit..     They way I look at it is say you get it up and running and it fails with out her knowing about it, that could be an issue if freezing out,  not to mention she might have to deal with it if your not around..     I think you made the right decision in draining it, least till spring, then you can come back get it up and running and have the time to teach her how to use it..  There are many here that would be willing to help with the questions.. 

  Question is, does she want to use it and or do you think she will use it?   If not one option would be to sell it, it appears to be an older spa with rusting control box and probably is failing frame/structure wise, may need a new cover yadda yadda.    Older spas that tend to sit will start to deteriorate very quickly, might be better to get it sold while you can??  I don't mean to offend but I see this as many other spa people here probably do as well.  Just some food for thought!   

  Also along with draining it, you should loosen the pump fitting and just leave them open till you refill it.. 

[Durdels]

First off condolences on your dad passing!

Thank you very much for that.

Question is, does she want to use it and or do you think she will use it?   If not one option would be to sell it, it appears to be an older spa with rusting control box and probably is failing frame/structure wise, may need a new cover yadda yadda.    Older spas that tend to sit will start to deteriorate very quickly, might be better to get it sold while you can??  I don't mean to offend but I see this as many other spa people here probably do as well.  Just some food for thought!

I mentioned your suggestion to my mom and she thought that she wouldn't be able to get much money for it given the structural factors you mentioned.  We are going to try to fix it in the Spring though. 

Also along with draining it, you should loosen the pump fitting and just leave them open till you refill it.

Yes, very good suggestion!  Luckily a pool guy was visiting today to winterize the pool and gave the same advice.  After doing that, I used a shop vac to blow out the remaining water in the pipes and air jets (at least as much as possible).  Gross aside:  when the hot tub drained there were a whole bunch of living and dead earthworms swimming around in the water that remained.  When I sucked that water and the worms out with the shop vac it smelled horrible -- of worm death!  Yechh!

Thank you Jim, for the good tips and questions!