Hot Tub Repair

After having the hot tub shut down for the winter, we drained, cleaned, and re-filled it... only to find the pump not working.  It wasn't much of a surprise - the tub is probably 10 years old and never had the pump replaced. give it a year of inactivity and it was likely frozen or rusted all inside.  So, after knocking it with a hammer to try and get it started, turning the motor shaft with a wrench, lots of penetrating oil, and no sense of it moving... we emptied it once again (it takes more than a few hours to drain... and lots of water).

Old pump and open side (hey, this at least gave us the chance to explore what our hot tub looked like inside)

So, I found a great website with lots of information and the best list of specs to compare to the old pump.  Plus, they had some great prices... so good that I found an excuse to order a new cover for the hot tub.

Here is the new pump installed... doh! less than an inch too short.




After 3 visits to the local hot tub shop (who were very friendly, even though they likely marked-up the plumbing parts 10 times more than they should have... but hey, I was in a bind and Home Depot didn't carry these parts)... I got it all together... and no leaks!

Overall, I made it extra difficult on myself because I wanted to eliminate a slice valve that seemed to have leaked before and was patched poorly, I didn't measure the pipes (hence the multiple visits to the shop because of a stealth reducer), and I didn't wire it properly to begin with (causing me to be challenged re-wiring it after it was installed and the tub filled with water).  The improper wiring wasn't all my fault - there just wasn't enough information anywhere, so I had to guess (and you would think that the common wire would be connected to the terminal labeled "c"... but no, that one just doesn't get used).

Now that it's done, we're happy campers - taking advantage of it almost every night since it came back online.  I learned a lot more about the hot tub and was relieved to not find a (literal) rats nest inside.  Plus, I got to use just about every tool I own.  Working on the hot tub is a crazy mix of plumbing, electrical, and other oddities.  The tools which were most valuable were:  an inspection mirror, multi-tool saw thingy (great for cutting the pipe inside the tight quarters), the ipad (camera and internet), and a circuit tester.

Latest House Project - funky remodels

Buying a house that has been remodeled will give you some surprises. A house that has had a remodel on top of an older remodel may really give you a surprise... and most likely not in a good way. While our house's first remodel (from the '50's or '60's?) is weird, it's not terrible on its own. When the second more recent remodel came along with new landscaping, it made for a bad situation.

The warning signs were the dogs sniffing and being obsessed with weird spots around the house. No wonder they use beagles for drug sniffers or hunting dogs! Well, our Moose is a hunter. The project started with Moose catching a rodent. It was living in a gap under the siding, as we found out when we started to take things apart. Other interesting things were found as well - an oddly cantilevered wall, exposed ducting for the HVAC, a small amount of dry rot (did we catch this just in time?!), and more. Without totally rebuilding the wall, we flashed it better and are patching it all back so it doesn't house rodents and doesn't allow water intrusion.

finished front/side and backyard bench

We finally (mostly) finished the front/side yard and, in the process, also finished the bench in the backyard.  Remaining to do in the front is to run drip lines, plant a tree, and put up some string for the hops.

In the course of working on the front yard, we had to take out some dirt.  There was a perfect place for it - in the storage bench.  They had a great idea, and put some thought into creating a storage bench, but it still just didn't work very well.  The smallest thing would clog the drain in the bottom (where does that drain go, anyway?!).  In the end, it was just a haven for spiders and mildew.  Now, it was a place to put the extra dirt from the front, and a place for the leftover stone from the wall/steps.  With an extra row of stone, we created a very usable bench by the fire pit - makes perfect sense.  And we've got another little planter area (to which I need to run some drip lines as well).