Spa alignment question...where to enter?

[Silent Water]

Gores,
I love your set-up!  Your placement of the pad is well-thought-out and very tastefully done.  Looks like that patio and wall are brand new; you can still see the sand on the bricks.  Did you do it yourself? Looks like a pro job.

As everyone has mentioned before, you seem to be limited in your choices of position.  Since you'll have only one "exposed" wall of your tub (the one not against the house, deck or retaining wall), shouldn't it be the access-panel side?  Seems to me that's the only way it could be serviced easily.

Won't you usually get in from the deck anyway?  It looks to be a more direct entry point - is it?  And any time you need to access the control panel or filter from ground level, you'll be doing maintenance, not necessarily hopping in the tub, right? If this is the case, the lounger doesn't sound like the main point of entry after all...

One silly little thing that I did when I was planning my site: I set up 4 patio chairs in the position of the 4 corner seats of my tub to see what the view was like from each spot.  Because of this, I ended up rotating my tub so that it's not square to the house.  This way, nobody has to stare at a plain wall.  

What's the view like from the seats in your tub the way it's oriented in your picture?

[gores95]

Thanks again for the input!  If we decided to rotate the tub 90 degrees left so we would enter in the "cool down" seat the control panel would face left.  There is about 18" from the side of the tub to the retaining wall.  The main equipment panels would be that distance from the wall as well.  Is this an issue when trying to access them?  If that's not a problem the only issue would be having to take the cover basically completely off to access the control panel.  With the lounger below I would just have to lift the cover off about six inches to see the panel.  With the spa installed you can walk all the way around it but it is a tight fit everywhere but the bottom of our arrangement.  By the way we are having a Covermate III installed at delivery.
 
Caldera makes their control panels under the cover.  Hot Spring for one has it on the side of the spa so the cover does not even have to be lifted.

I may mark off the dimensions of the tub on the pavers to see if that helps.  I might be able to repost those pics tonight.

Marc

[gores95]

Gores,
I love your set-up!  Your placement of the pad is well-thought-out and very tastefully done.  Looks like that patio and wall are brand new; you can still see the sand on the bricks.  Did you do it yourself? Looks like a pro job.

Thanks...definitely a pro job.  Almost 600 square feet of patio, retaining walls and paver path were built this summer.  We used Techo Bloc and it was VERY expensive...more than we originally planned for.  But isn't that always the case?  

OK one last question here.  Let's say I decide to rotate the tub 90 degrees right so the lounger/control panel is on the left and leave the cover opening from bottom to top.  As I mentioned I could not "crack" open the cover and access the main control panel which some have suggested is a problem when shocking, etc.  But correct me if I am wrong, when shocking, removing filters, etc. don't you fully open the cover anyway?  If that's the case then why would this be an issue?  I can walk completely around the outside of the tub to access the panel on the left side.  Again only issue is the cover would basically have to be fully up to see the panel.  Make sense?

Thanks,

Marc

[drewstar]

Hi Marc,

I'd like to chime in to and congratulate you on the patio. It's a real nice set up.  

Postioning the tub so that the lounger on the left seems ok to me. My concern was postioning the tub so that the control panel was againts the house or the deck side, would make operating the tub from outside difficult, and would make getting at the filters a pain. On the side seems fine to me and is exactly how i would postion the tub, given there's no problem mounting the lifter. (My dealer INSISTED that i had to mount the lifter only on the cabient sides).  You'd have the filter easy to get at. The controls panel accesabl, the equitpment compartment unblocked, and not interfere with your deck railing plans.    

[gores95]

Hi Marc,

I'd like to chime in to and congratulate you on the patio. It's a real nice set up.  

Postioning the tub so that the lounger on the left seems ok to me. My concern was postioning the tub so that the control panel was againts the house or the deck side, would make operating the tub from outside difficult, and would make getting at the filters a pain. On the side seems fine to me and is exactly how i would postion the tub, given there's no problem mounting the lifter. (My dealer INSISTED that i had to mount the lifter only on the cabient sides).  You'd have the filter easy to get at. The controls panel accesabl, the equitpment compartment unblocked, and not interfere with your deck railing plans.    

Thanks Drew.  Actually you make a good point...if the cover lifter arms are mounted on the same side as the equipment panel does that prevent you from getting in the equipment panel?  Picture the spa is now rotated 90 degrees right with the lounger/control panel on left.  The cover will be lifted bottom to top and the cover lifter arms would be screwed in the left and right sides of this tub.  In the new alignment the arms would be screwed into the lounger /control panel side.  Just wondering if the panels can still be removed without having to remove the lifter arm?

Maybe I should just wait until intallation and ask the pros what can/can't be done.

Marc

[drewstar]

They guys doing the delivery, may not be pros in cover lifters. I'd ask the dealer, or maybe Chas can tell us. I'd think you'd want to know BEFORE they show up.

If the lifter can be mounted on any side, go with your plan with the lounger on the left. If the lifter must be mounted on specific sides of the tub, go with the lounger in front.  Either way, you'll be fine. Keep you control panel up front, or on the left. Keep the filter well out of the far right corner, and have access to the equipmant bay (front or left)  

I think we beat this one dead.