Too Warm Bullfrog

[YaesuGuy]

Hi everyone,

This is my first summer with a hot tub and am wanting it to run a bit cooler for the summer. I have a Bullfrog R7. The trouble is, no matter how low I set the temperature it continues to maintain 98deg F which is just too warm to be inviting in the summer. It's been hot lately here in Colorado, but not THAT hot. Highs usually in the mid '90s and overnight lows in the mid 60s. But this weekend it's only been in the low 80s during the day and low 60s/high 50s, along with a couple torrential downpour thunderstorms. Yet the tub has stayed right at 98.

I talked to my dealer and they said it was the friction/heat imparted by the pumps during filtration. I'm sure that's a thing - but would it really be enough to keep the tub 20deg over average ambient temperature? They advised me to back off the filtration cycles and I will since I should have been doing that anyhow, but I'm just not confident that's the issue.....but I guess that depends on the answer to my question.

Thanks,

Chris

[Sam]

That's almost certainly the issue.  You'd be amazed at how much heat is generated by the friction of the pumps running, especially if you are working with a 2 speed filtration pump rather than the smaller dedicated filtration pump.  As a matter of fact, some hot tubs use that as their only source for heat. 

When we get to the dog days of summer we get quite a few of these phone calls and about 99% are just due to thermal creep (the phenomenon we are talking about).  If you set the temperature as low as you can, back your filtration cycles off to about 2 hours twice per day, and you still may even need to put like a tennis ball or something between the cover and the shell to prop up the cover and allow some airflow through there, depending on how hot and how much sun you are getting.

[YaesuGuy]

OK, cool. Thanks Sam!

It does get quite a bit of sun this time of year and the sun here in Colorado is HOT due to the altitude. I'll back the filtration down when I get home tonight and prop up the cover over night and see if it start to drop a bit.

Thanks again,

Chris