Has anyone seen something like this before? Old house with 90s hot tub

[MountainRenovation]

Hi everyone, new user here and hoping to see if anyone has had experience with an old hot tub like this before. Thank you for any help!

My wife and I just bought a foreclosure house last year and have been working on renovating it in our free time. Since it was a foreclosure, we didn't have an opportunity to speak with the original owners so we have no additional details about this hot tub. We have finally been able to uncover and clean it out and it doesn't look like it has been touched for a very long time. From what I know about the house, the sunroom and hot tub were an addition that happened in the 90s so it could have been sitting since around that time. The entire sunroom is poured cement and it looks like the hot tub was inserted into the cement at that time. It is well below the ground level so it doesn't appear that there would be any pump or heaters inside the tub itself. Could it be possible that they were using an external pump/heater somehow? The second picture shows the only openings or pipes I can find that are connected to the tub, but it still doesn't look like what I would need for return and exit piping so I'm scratching my head as to how this thing ever operated.

[A.O.]

I like the looks and configuration of it. I'm thinking those are controls without the knobs on them.
Looking out those windows, is there an access panel out there somewhere to get to the insides?

[MountainRenovation]

There seems to be no sign of any access panels unfortunately. It is buried in cement and when I look from the outside of my house all I can see is the cement for the foundation. The controls pictured also don't have any electric components and I can't find any wiring that would have been run to the tub in the house... It's very odd but I'm worried the previous owner just sunk it in the cement and didn't think to plan for repairs or having access to the insides.

[CanadianSpaTech]

It's very odd but I'm worried the previous owner just sunk it in the cement and didn't think to plan for repairs or having access to the insides.

Maybe it's wifi controlled

This is 7/10 people that sink their spa into a deck.

[A.O.]

Well I hope you find out whats going on and can get it running, good luck and keep us informed please.

There is no control panel to turn it on is there???

[MountainRenovation]

I can't believe people would actually do that in a deck too! And no controls to turn it on anywhere unfortunately. The only tubing I can find (in the picture) seems to be for air in the pumps... I was really hoping they might have run tubes to connect everything externally but it's not looking like it...

[Tman122]

The equipment is under those areas under your compressor and the other side. There has to be a way to get inside those two corners. Does the entire panel come off, tiles and all?

[MountainRenovation]

The equipment is under those areas under your compressor and the other side. There has to be a way to get inside those two corners. Does the entire panel come off, tiles and all?

Unfortunately nothing seems to come off to access that area beneath. The tub has grout sealing it to the tile around it and the tile is just laid on the cement foundation of the room. I'm considering breaking the grout and trying to pry the tub open a little, but that might break it and then my only choice would be to remove the whole thing.

[CanadianSpaTech]

Use an inspection cam along the edge or even down the air control openings. Minimal damage to that beautiful tile.

[MountainRenovation]

Use an inspection cam along the edge or even down the air control openings. Minimal damage to that beautiful tile.

That's a great idea and I was thinking about doing that initially, I'll have to go buy one soon. I just feel fairly certain now that they were stupid and buried it in the cement with the pumps and everything. If they did, I don't know how I could easily pull it out to repair it without breaking it more in the process.

[Tman122]

Use an inspection cam along the edge or even down the air control openings. Minimal damage to that beautiful tile.

That's a great idea and I was thinking about doing that initially, I'll have to go buy one soon. I just feel fairly certain now that they were stupid and buried it in the cement with the pumps and everything. If they did, I don't know how I could easily pull it out to repair it without breaking it more in the process.

No evidence that it was plumbed to a heater filter outside? (pool type equipment) From those fittings you showed.

Or maybe it was plumbed to pool type equipment outside at one time and renovation cut off the tub?

Maybe they renovated and were going to eventually reconnect but never got to it?

It was the 90's, 30 years