Last night, the temperature outside was 48°. The water in the hot tub has been too foamy for the last month (my daughter and her friends) so I used it as my opportunity to change it out.
It went well, I used two hoses; one attached to a pump out to the street and a 2nd hose draining in the yard. It drained in record time and it melted some of the ice out on the street. I completed the usual stuff, wiping out the tub and then replaced the filters and cartridges.
OK, now here comes the learning experience. The water temperature from the faucet (city water) was 43° and after it was filled, when I turned on the breaker, I soon saw the message ICE flashing on the display and both pumps were working (normally, it's just pump 1).
I've never seen that before so I went to the manual and found it indicates freeze protection is on and that I should call for service. :O The manual didn't have much else to say about the ICE message so I went to the ultimate source of all things hot tub related and did a search on freeze protection on this site.
I was relieved to find out it was nothing to panic about. I read on one of the threads that once the water temp warms up to 55° (it started out at 43° out of the tap), freeze protection (and the ICE message) will go away, pump 2 will turn itself off and the tub will continue to heat the water to the desired temperature. That's a relief. I was afraid I'd have to call for service.
I checked the water at 5:30 this morning and, at 93°, it was still working it's way up to 102°.
By tonight, I'll be in clean hot water once again!
Phil
