I recently bought a house that has a rather old (yet pretty well maintained) hot tub. I've been getting ready for winter and have started a thorough cleaning. In the process I removed every jet to clean and keep the jets maintained.
Each jet has 2 o'rings near the end of the base of the jet. It looks like these o'rings have never been replaced. The hot tub was installed all the way back in 1998, and just from removing the jets most of them just crumbled, and the ones that didn't crumble were all cracked and just stuck in place.
I have began replacing several of them (could only get my hands on a few to begin with and wanted to ensure I was getting the correct size o'ring). The problem is that I'm not sure what these o'rings are for. I don't mind replacing them if needed, but it seems almost that they just create a more snug fit in the jet cavity making it harder to rotate the jets to the on/off positions. The jets that don't have the o'rings rotate easily and aren't leaking so I'm wondering if I remove all the o'rings what problems could arise, or if they are just to make the jets more snug.
Here is an example of the type of jet.
The o'rings aren't shown on the jet, but they are located in the creases of the jet.
So any info on the purpose of the o'rings would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
