Just Add Salt

You know, our hot tub has been on the fritz for some time now.  We've missed it.  Besides the obvious reasons that people love hot tubs (like comfort, relaxation, soothing sore muscles, etc.) it's our communication medium.  We like to sit out there and, with no interruptions except for a rare shooting star, talk about things.

Sometimes we just feel chilled and want to go out and "cook" for a while.  As most people know, when you sit in a hot tub, you get out hot.  It sort of re-calibrates our temperature regulatory systems I guess.

The bottom line is still the same:  We've missed it.

What happened to it?  Well, we went out to get into it one night, and before getting into it, checked the external thermometer that Suz bought for it.  It said something like 96 or 98 degrees.   That meant that it was "acting up" like it did when we first got it.  Again.  We had that problem after we got it, but we don't really know what caused it to start working right--It just did.  We assumed that it was mostly a matter of inactivity.  When we got it the heater was blown, so obviously the previous owners hadn't used it since that happened, and we had no idea how long that was.  So, we kind of thought that the same thing was happening again.  Sue called her "hot tub guy" (not to be mistaken for a "pool boy") and he came out.  He told her basically that it was one of two things:  The topside thermostat control, or the circuit board.

We decided to start with the cheapest thing first obviously, and put a new topside control on it.  No difference.  Durnit!  The hot tub guy cautioned people on replacing their own circuit boards, and quoted us $600 for a new one plus $200 or so labor.  Hmmm.  I found one online for $195 plus 8 bucks shipping.  After waiting for a week, it showed up today.

I went out and installed it (it really is a no-brainer).  I turned on the tub and it came on fine.  I noted the thermometer reading of 87.3 and went in.  I checked a little later and was surprised to find it off and reading even lower: 87.1.  I don't remember the exact chain of events at that point, but I think I went inside and told Sue.
"No!" came her exasperated reply.
I explained what it was (or wasn't) doing.  We went outside and played with it to no avail.  I stuck my hand in the water.  Hmm... It felt pretty hot to me.  I found a cooking thermometer that I had brought with me when I moved in here and stuck it in the hot tub water.  Being analog, I watched it quickly rise to... 103 degrees?!  Yep.

It turns out that the hot tub "kicked off" because it had reached temperature, not because it was defective.  It's like the old rule of thumb: Always check that something is plugged in before you call the repairman.

Even so, we don't feel that we wasted our money on the two components for a few reasons:

• It did tend to act up every now and then.  That's what prompted Sue to put a digital thermometer in it to begin with--So we could monitor it from the kitchen window.
• The new circuit board had improvements on it, like replaceable fuses.  I had to modify the old board to solder in a replaceable fuse holder. It also had better relays--They look sealed.
• We now have a couple of spare parts for emergency use.

So now we have to wait for it to cool before we use it.  When she stuck a new digital thermometer in it, it read over 105.  That's HOT.  No wonder it kept kicking off!

Sure we could get into it, but it would be more like we were cooking instead of relaxing.