At what point is replacement a better option than repair?

[gaines]

I've had an 8' Cal Spa for just over 10 years. It's been through a year of being mistreated by a renter before being moved to my new home, but has never had a leak. Now that we have the funds to repair it, I'm wondering if we might be better off just investing in a new unit.

Issues:

• My secondary pump started buzzing after the move so I had it replaced with a refurbished pump by a buddy who works on spas, but that pump didn't last long before it seized up so I just disabled it and have only been using the primary. Recently the circulation mode on my primary pump has been acting up, so it's looking like that one might need replacing as well.
• The jets don't adjust anymore, but I understand I can run some cleaner though the system to free those up. I've also read that those jets are easy to replace.
• The UV hasn't been touched since I bought it so I'm not sure if all it would need is a new bulb and cleaning. Either way, we normally don't have any issue with cleanliness by just keeping bromine tablets in the floater and changing the water out every few months (when it's getting used).
• The cover is also well beyond when it should have been replaced, so an easy fix but another cost to add to the pile.

So what I'm wondering at this point is, should I be investing in refurbishing my current tub since the bones seem solid, or should we be considering purchasing a replacement?

BTW, we did build a custom deck around the hot tub so swapping them out will be a bit more of a pain, however the deck was designed with removable sections around the tub in addition to a trap door over the spa pack so anything under 94"x94" shouldn't be a problem.

[wmccall]

Welcome to the forum.  There was a lot of people here who have worked on spas more than I have, but the one key thing in your post was that I know the type of jets your Cal spa uses and once one starts failing it will be a cascading effect. Cost wise it may be less significant that other peices, but its time consuming annoyance. I think that might have been the point that pushed me to buying new.

[jmk1234]

I hear you. I just bought a house with a reflections spa there with similar problems as yours and age too. Seller told me it would require a new motor(they still worked but sounded like can openers). I then discovered it was losing both pumps and the cover was garbage and dry rotted. I also noticed leaking coming from the plumbing but that came after my decision came to buy new but if I would have replaced all those parts just to discover that I am glad i decided to go new.  The point that put me over the top was not knowing whether the heater would need to be replaced and couldn't learn that until I replaced the pumps because that noise was just too loud and unbearable for the 15 minute duration of its automatic cycle.


Essentially I would have spent about 3000 to refurbish a tub that hadn't been run since at minimum fall of 2015.  Plus the combination of no warranty and expensive fees repair technicians charge just to show up. I decided to order a brand new Jacuzzi J-335. Now I will get reliability and warranty.