Time to dump and fill -- aaak!

[Larry Becker]

Well, my D1 Sarena Bay's control panel tells me to dump the water, so I guess it's time. The water has been great -- no problems or issues -- but it's time, I'm sure. It was intitially filled on 9/25. So, a couple of questions...
1) What routine do you follow for your drain/fill? I'm thinking shut off the power, drain the water, scrub the sides of the tub (with what? Magic Eraser?), rinse, drain again, remove the silver ion cartridge, rinse the filters, take the bleeder valves out, put 500 gallons of H2O in, put some Metal Be Gone in, put some initial dichlor and MPS in, put the silver ion cartridge in a couple of days later... and get back to soakin' Any thing I'm missing?

2) I'm thinking I want to get a submersible pump to assist with this. Any suggestions on  brands/models. There's a local spa place that I get some of my chemicals from (my D1 dealer is kind of far away) who has a no-name pump for $50, but... any other ideas?

Thanks!

Larry Becker

[neocacher]

Sounds like you have your plan under good control.  I dont think the brand of sump pump matters much, if there even name brands.

Neo

[Chas]

I love this pump. "Little Giant" is the name brand. You may be able to buy it online, or a pool supply place, perhaps a local hardware store or home center.

Comes with a garden hose adapter, but you can also adapt it to a larger hose if you have the need for speed.

 8-)

[SugarBear]

Try your local Home Depot or Lowes.  Don't know if you will find anything for under $50, but it should be around it.

[drewstar]

Don't buy one of these:



I never had much luck with them.    Get a submersable pump like Chas suggested, they work ALOT better.

 

[Chas]

Don't buy one of these:  

Ooh - I couldn't agree more. Those things are junk.

 8-)

[Zep]

I like and use both kinds that are pictured however
both of mine are made by Little Giant so neither are "junk".

The submersible is great and drains 95% of the water.

Then I use the Little Giant non-submersible to get the last
5% and every last drop is gone, gone, gone!

That last 5% of water used to drive me nuts.....
it would be in the wells of the seats and at the bottom of tub.

I tried towels....Jezz what a mess that was.

I also tried the little manual hand pump....didn't care for that.

Hey I like my Little Giant non-submersible the best for that last
little bit of water.

You can find Little Giant pumps in stores or on e-Bay.

[size=8]http://cgi.ebay.com/Little-Giant-5MSP-18-1-6hp-sump-pump-utility-115V_W0QQitemZ170072089656QQihZ007QQcategoryZ42132QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170072089656[/size]

http://www.lgpc.com/

[nlittle]

So you actually get every last drop out when you drain and fill?!

[pg_rider]

Comes with a garden hose adapter, but you can also adapt it to a larger hose if you have the need for speed.

Chas, where would I get the adapter and the larger hose?  Lowes?

[Chad]

Chas, is this the same one you use? If so do you know how much they are? This baby seems ideal.
http://www.lgpc.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=398

[Chas]

Yup - that's the one.

I have gotten the larger adapter from my suppliers, but I bet you could find one at Lowes or a hardware store. Find the hose first, then get the adapter.

As far as the small pump being junk - I was not aware that Little Giant made a pump like that. LIVE AND LEARN!! The ones I have run across have been from Harbor Freight or Grainger and seem to be imprted from China. They look about the same, but are truly junk - they rust, corrode, the motors are not well sealed so if you splash them you have problems etc.

The one that LG makes is listed as Stainless Steel, and if it is half as good as the rest of their pumps I'm sure it would do just fine. I guess the ones I have come across were knock-offs.

[Larry Becker]

This forum is SO HELPFUL! Here I was feeling guilty/lazy for wanting to use a pump... but when I saw the installer use one on my first fill (I had a broken pipe so he had to drain it, repair the pipe, and refill), I was sold...

I'll check out my local spa supplier and write back. The Home Depot web site shows some by Wayne, Flotec and their own Rigid brand, but my local store just has the Flotec models. They seem to run $75-200 or so... I want to spend less than $100 as I don't plan to go into the spa draining business...

Larry

[Larry Becker]

So... I went down to my local spa supply people... and they will sell me a Chicago brand pump for $70 or $90, OR they will rent me one for a day for $5 -- sounds like a good deal to me!  Think I'll go with that...

Larry Becker

[Zep]

The two Little Giant pumps I use are:
(and i know it may be a bit over-kill)
[size=14]
Little Giant Model # 6-CIA[/size]

I use this pump to quickly get 95% of water out of tub.


http://www.lgpc.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=1250

The reason I like this pump is it's power and it comes with a huge
hose connection so that I can emty my tub really quick.

================================================

[size=14]
Little Giant Model # PPS-1 [/size]

This is the non-submersible one I use to get last 5% of water out of tub.
There is not one drop of water in tub after using this.



http://www.lgpc.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=1365

[mattNY]

I also tried the little manual hand pump....didn't care for that.

Are we all talking about the same thing?