Never owned a hot tub new house buyer with a new hot tub... little help please:)

[serge183]

Ok so I bought a house in Decemeber that had a hot tub used it maybe twice before the heating went out on it . always was very dirty so I just tured all power off to it and finally just now got a chance to clean it up and everything cause the thing was a tad on the dirty side in my opinion and needed a good scrubbing .... I noticed an area where it looks like a hole/crack might of been attempted to be repaired not sure what he used but as I cleaned it alot of the repaired area was chiping away and also in cleaning i steped in one area made a hole and another and a small crack so now that I have the thing drained and cleaned I would like to know is there anything to repair cracks/holes in hot tubs or ideas on how I might do this. I took out the filter and it was just nasty as you will see in the pics I will add and the inside where the water sits I still need to clean it out cause it is also filthy. but my main questions I would like answered are as followed
#1 So my heating went out I read a little and saw that this could be something simple as just hitting a switch cause the tub got so dirty it kicked it off or something of this nature i'm hoping that is it and not call a tech for repair cause I read how expensive this can be and I have no clue what type of hot tub nor brand model anything to be honest hoping I can get that answered also
#2 how do you fix cracks/holes in your tub
#3 how do I drain this thing completly cause I know it's still holding water that I couldn't drain with the sump and the water coming out the hole is filthy
#4 what chemicals/how much of do I use i'm completly in the dark hoping with this and these pics I can get some idea of where to start to begin getting this thing back to running it was nice the first 2 times I used it lol

[serge183]

Well now i'm having issues with posting pics

[serge183]

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[Chas]

I would simply fill it to see if it still holds water. Buy a new filter, or at the very least buy a bottle of filter cleaner and give your filter a thorough cleansing.

Purge the system of any trapped air, and get the pumps running. You have an air blower (sounds like a vacuum) and you will want to run that to clear any dirty water from the air plumbing or air channel. Turn it on until you get air from all parts of the system, and then shut it off for a minute or two - repeat a lot of times.

By then you should have dirty water in the tub, but you will know if it will hold water, if the pumps run and don't leak, and if the heater now comes on. Drain, and refill if you think everything is ok to run the tub.
HTH

 

[serge183]

How would I know if the heat works before filling it up and id at least want to cover the hole and cracks whats a good materialcfor this?

[Chas]

I wouldn't waste time with any of that. Fill it to see if it holds water. Cracks like that are in the acrylic surface, and generally do not leak. However, a tub needs to hold water before you spend a dime on anything else, AND you mentioned that it had dirty water in it.

So =-

Fill it first to see if it holds water. Use that 'test water' to help flush out the system and begin the cleaning process. You can simply wait to see if the heater icon lights up, and then let the tub heat a few degrees (220 tub should do about 8 to 10 degrees an hour, 110 will barely do 3). You certainly don't have to heat up to 102, just see if the heater is working.

HTH

 

[serge183]

Ok so what kind of chemicals and how much and oftwn if it works