Desperately need advice!! I am living in a hot tub nightmare.

[Yaknowjstone]

So we just bought a house here in Canada which came with a 3 year old Hydropool Serenity Hot Tub...exciting right? Well, not so fast!

The sellers of the house agreed to have it cleaned and serviced..pretty standard stuff.

The local company here in our town came to service it back on December 20th. The servicing entailed a full flush and drain, the running of "Ahh-some" pipe cleaner, shop vac the entire tub, and blow out the pipes/refill. Once the tub was drained, it became quickly apparent that there was some nasty gunk stuck to the suction pumps at the bottom, which looked like oatmeal(see photo links below).



After re-filling the tub and turning on the jets, more and more of this oatmeal-like build up kept coming out out the jets. So, we drain the tub again, suck everything out, and re-fill it. Day completed.

The next day after running the jets again, more and more of this gunk kept coming out of the jets. The local shop instructed me to super-chlorinate the tub, run the jets as much as possible, and keep vacuuming out the oatmeal. Fast forward 2 weeks and close to 50 times of running the jets, the shop returns to re-service it. 

We re-drained the tub(this is the third time), put some more ahh-some pipe cleaner in it (ran it for close to an hour with the jets on), removed all the jets and cleaned them, ran the hot tub without the jets for multiple cycles, shop vacuumed the tub, and blew out all the pipes. We proceeded to re-fill the tub and run the jets, the water looked spotless prior to this point. Almost immediately, the oatmeal continued to shoot out of the jets, and he is similar to me at a loss of what to do next.

This has been quite time consuming and frustrating especially after being told from a few people that we're doing everything right.

What would be the reason for all this build up from a hot tub that's only 3 years old and what would you guys suggest if anything else that I can recommend to the local shop here?

I just want to use this darn tub!


Please see photos below-


https://ibb.co/rFw8nZc
https://ibb.co/L8sQ0fb
https://ibb.co/QbKLPRz
https://ibb.co/n8MRFMW
https://ibb.co/Cs9jSxB]

[CanadianSpaTech]

Keep going with the Ahh-Some. Have had used spas that I have had to flush 5, 6 times. Where in Canada?

[Edo]

I have had similar looking issue and have been told it is white water mold - looks like skin colored slimy tissue paper - flat like - chunks floating. Came back even after we did full cleans etc., drained multiple times etc.,

Now that I’ve read about white water mold - I drained the tub again, and am doing a super chlorination to “kill” the mold which apparently lives inside the plumbing and flourishes (it literally grows and increases) - it’s like 4xs the chlorine usually used. I’m hoping this addresses my issue -

Yours looks similar to mine!

[CanadianSpaTech]

https://ahhsome.com/

[LondonChris]

Happy Easter!  New to the Forum and reading up on some of these issues, any resolution to this "oatmeal" issue ?

Curious about Ahh-some and will be running it through our hot tub this week.

[CanadianSpaTech]

It is a process and you need to be patient and get it right. You don't want to half ass it and make sure you end up with a healthy hot tub that's not going to make someone sick. I would have the water above 80 degrees and remove all the jets then lower PH closer to 6 and super chlorinate the spa. Set it to filter continuously and run jets on high off and on for a few days. I would use a Quick Drain and use it as a vacuum to suck up the "oatmeal" every few hours/as it accumulates in the footwell and around the pump suction returns as they get clogged up (turn pumps/spa off and clear oatmeal away from them without suction). With the quick drain you can keeps the spa full but vacuum away the oatmeal and not lose all the water. Just top up when needed. Next I would adjust the PH back up and hit it with the Ahh-Some. You may have to fill and purge a couple of times to get where you need to be.  Recommend visiting their website and read the instructions. Important to not let the brown goo dry on the sidewalls of the spa as it is drained. If it dries it will be very sticky and hard to remove and you will add to the workload. I would leave filters in and clean the debris out a couple times a day/as needed and buy new filters. Once the spa is no longer spitting out oatmeal and you have purged the plumbing I would super chlorinate again and run it until your numbers come back down and you should be good to go. 14-30 days I might soak my filters in filter wash and purge again.