In foam leak detection - Tiger River Siberian

[EZcyclone]

Ok so hears the deal.  I got this from a foreclosed home sale for a great deal.  I got it home and set up in the garage for testing and what not.  All the electronics work great and all, but there is a leak.  I figured I would let the leak go until it stopped and then find the leak by the level of the water.  Seems simple enough only problem is the entire tub drained out completely!  I would say it leaks between 2 and 3 inches a day, so not a slow leak by any means.  On problem is it's been so damn cold here I can't really do water testing as it would freeze even in my garage.  I figured it must be the bottom most suction port (it has three) as that's the lowest thing in the tub.  Either that or a line connecting that port to wherever it goes.  So after about dying getting the thing tilted up far enough I can dig away at the foam, I decided to check online and see if anyone has any plumbing diagrams for this tub.  I feel like it should be simple fix as it's indicated that it has to be a very low pipe or something.  It's freeze damage I'm sure, I figure it's a cracked PVC joint somewhere as I think that flexy hose is pretty robust, but who knows, maybe I'm way off base here. 

I'm thinking of building a set up that would hold the tub 3' off the ground and let me crawl around under it and see whats going on.  I would only need to put in a small mount of water as it's a low leak.

Ok, I'm at your mercy, any advice here?

Evan

[Tman122]

Tip it up on it's side with the equipment side down. Lay a blanket on the concrete to prevent scratches. Dig out the wet foam. When you find the leaky part and cut it out make sure to clean the mating surfaces real good before you glue in new fittings.

[EZcyclone]

There is no wet foam.  I let it drain and dry out for a month before I flipped it on it's side. 

[Tman122]

Well then start with your low fittings and find them they will be close to the surface anyway. Hopefully the damage is obvious, it's not always.

[Pers Onal]

I'm thinking of building a set up that would hold the tub 3' off the ground and let me crawl around under it and see whats going on.

Tip it up on it's side with the equipment side down.

Definitely tip it on it's side. I'm uncertain of being able to feasibly build at reasonable cost something that would hold the whole tub up 3 feet, with zero chance of it coming down on you and crushing something. Would likely not be as bad as a car coming down on you, but would probably send you to the emergency room and spoil your day.

[Chas]

There are two things to check before you dig:

1.Drain caps. They are regular garden hose threads, and sometimes people replace them with pipe thread. Doesn't work. Also, they have rubber gaskets - regular garden hose type stuff - and very often those go bad. Get some new gaskets, be sure the caps are the right type of cap, and see if that's it. You would be AMAZED at how often we tell people to check the caps on the phone, and they are so very sure that couldn't be the issue. As you can imagine, there's not much they can say if it turns out I was right. Other than, "That will be 68 cents for the new gasket, and a hundred bucks for labor, please."

2.Ozone system. This system has to handle ozone when operating, and that tends to make the plastic tubing and the check valve(s) brittle. These little devils can crack, and then you have a leak only when there is no suction in the system. But that is usually only when the tub is powered down, or if the circ pump is not functioning correctly: if your tub has ozone, follow all the tubing from the injector to the ozone generator and see if that is your leak.

3.Bonus: check the light lens. I have run into three lately in which the o-ring behind the lens was just wasted away. They sell a lens AND oring together. If your tub is older and the light lens is glued in it's a bit more work, but much better than digging for a leak which you will not find... You don't have to fill the tub, just get a bright light and look around the back of the lens. If there is calcium built up, you have found the leak.

HTH

 

[Tman122]

Ok so hears the deal.  I got this from a foreclosed home sale for a great deal.  I got it home and set up in the garage for testing and what not.  All the electronics work great and all, but there is a leak.  I figured I would let the leak go until it stopped and then find the leak by the level of the water.  Seems simple enough only problem is the entire tub drained out completely!  I would say it leaks between 2 and 3 inches a day, so not a slow leak by any means.  On problem is it's been so damn cold here I can't really do water testing as it would freeze even in my garage.  I figured it must be the bottom most suction port (it has three) as that's the lowest thing in the tub.  Either that or a line connecting that port to wherever it goes.  So after about dying getting the thing tilted up far enough I can dig away at the foam, I decided to check online and see if anyone has any plumbing diagrams for this tub.  I feel like it should be simple fix as it's indicated that it has to be a very low pipe or something.  It's freeze damage I'm sure, I figure it's a cracked PVC joint somewhere as I think that flexy hose is pretty robust, but who knows, maybe I'm way off base here. 

I'm thinking of building a set up that would hold the tub 3' off the ground and let me crawl around under it and see whats going on.  I would only need to put in a small mount of water as it's a low leak.

Ok, I'm at your mercy, any advice here?

Evan

Good advice Chas but I assumed freeze damage right away as mentioned.

[EZcyclone]

Well, so here's what went down.  I got really frustrated with the whole "tilt it up on it's side" direction and called over a bunch of guys and lifted it up on top of 4 15 gallon plastic drums.  Poured in one gallon of water and crawled underneath. It took all of 30 seconds for the drip to start.  Five minutes later I had the foam out of the way and found the crack.  And what a crack it was!!  Here's the damage, I'll upload my floating hot tub image in a bit.

[EZcyclone]

WOAH!!  Sorry about the size! 

[Tman122]

Yep, pretty typical freeze damage. Now you have to find that T fitting a coupler, a chunk of hose, and some spray foam. Got a hot springs dealer near by? Chas can probably help you identify the fitting and send ya one.

[EZcyclone]

And here's the set up.  Worked like a charm!

As far as the part and what not, I do have a dealer 60 miles away, but they are not great help.  I will check with them tomorrow, but if I get the run around still, I will surly be glad to send my business Chas!

[goneaway]

I'm glad you found the leak, but there's no way on gods earth i would have crawled under that.
Not in a million years.

[Tman122]

So how many hours and thousands of dollars did it take to find the leak. The non full foam guys on this forum and others will have you believe it takes hours even days and thousands of dollars to locate leaks in full foam..

[rosewoodsteel]

So how many hours and thousands of dollars did it take to find the leak. The non full foam guys on this forum and others will have you believe it takes hours even days and thousands of dollars to locate leaks in full foam..

If that thing fell on him it would indeed be many, many hours.     
BTY, I don't recall a single full foam guy commenting on this.

[Water Boy]

I hear what you're saying Roger, but the spa is still sitting in his garage on drums empty and not fixed yet. He found the leak fast, but that was after draining the spa, recruiting a handful of his neighbors and buddies to hoist it up on plastic drums. (glad no one got hurt). Then once the spa is repaired, it will have to be re-foamed back in, and then moved back into place.

If that had been a non full foam spa, it would have been repaired in less than a hour, and hot and ready to use later that night.

Im not saying TP spas are the only way to go, but I have never had to take a spa off site nor tip one up on its side to do a leak repair. And if you are paying a service company to do the repairs, that does save the homeowners significant amounts of money in repair bills imo.