while I'm on heat... a question for you

[st18901]

In my search to figure out why my heater comes on in frequent one minutee bursts, I've become obsessed about heating the water - admittedly on a twenty year old tub, so the technology is certainly not going to be the same as on your new fangled Grande's, Latte's, Envoys, Convoys, Arctics, Alaska's and what have you.


Still, I have a question for you all. When you go into the equipment area of your spa, are the water pipes warm?

It may sound like a reeeeally dumb  question, but with all the talk of insulation, covers, etc. I noticed all my pipes - from the pump, the intake, the circ pump, were warm. I could feel the warm hot tub goodness inside them.

Which means, I'm losing heat this way.
The question of course is how much?

Since they were all fairly warm, and since there are about 6 to 8 feet worth of them, I'd say it's not nothing.

I'd be curious to hear what other people have to say about this.

For myself, I bought 1.90 cents worth of pipe insulation and have covered the pipes. I'm curious to see if there's any kind of difference in any kind of way whatsoever.

[rocket]

Your spa looks proteceted from the weather.  I would encourage you to invest in a spa blanket that you can place in the equipment area.  I know that there are dealers that sell these or you may find one on line.

Good luck.

[Brewman]

Some of the water tubing in our Optima (full foam) is exposed in the service bay, I'd say not that much, but several feet.  I suppose that some heat radiates out fromt this hose, but I'm thinking it's relatively small compared to what could radiate out of the water itself.
Putting on pipe insulation isn't a bad idea, I suspect you wont' see much of a savings, but for $2 and a couple minutes of your time, you can't go wrong.