Save The Spa! 15Feb21-17Apr21

Yep, Kala and I raced home from Summit Co in mid-Feb hoping to be in time to assure our Blodgett spa was going to survive the deep freeze. We got home in time to still see liquid but the water was cold and I could not get it to flow. We tried hot water and I installed a heater under the cowling (sketchy) but ultimately there was little we could do as the temps dropped to -22° and the pump would not turn over. I wasn't alerted in time as I didn't have instrumentation on the Blodgett spa as I do in Summit... a lesson.

The spa went into a very hard freeze and we began the search for a super-freak spa tech who would take on a likely massive rebuild. We found one, Chris Sawyer! We hired Chris by the hour hoping for a $2K rebuild. Ultimately though, massive PVC removal & replacement, including all manifolds, a pump replacement, the heater/controller replacement (went with Gecko), some jets and other parts yielded a $4.5K job. Don't get me wrong - this is so much better than having to buy new and we can't imagine there are many people capable of doing what Chris did. It did take 4+ full days to demo everything, rebuild everything and test, the rest was waiting for parts;  Chris even stayed over night in his camper on the street to complete some of the work. It was amazing and rarely was it as "nice" a day as the one shown here.

Wow, it took 2 months but we are completely back online! Chris said it was the most extensive freeze damage he's ever seen (and I believe it). I dialed in the chemicals and installed a wireless instrumentation system that can control the spa remotely as well as alert me on issues. This option plugged directly into the Gecko controller and uses an iOS app. Now both spas are part of my IoT networks.

Spa time for COS is back, and that's great as we are experiencing another 10 days of snowfall and cold temps here in mid-April and Kala's elliptical workouts deserve some back soothing and my arm is sore from hauling in pigs.

 

UPDATE 26Apr21 - No warranties were ever expressed or implied by Chris and Gecko tech support responded negatively to my request to be alerted/notified on a low temperature condition via their app - I though it had the capability when purchased, but it didn't; it's mainly a control app. Anyway, these led me to crack open the spa again on this gorgeous 72° Saturday and check for leaks and make some final hookups. I installed a separate temp sensor by taping it to the filter section. I modified it to run off of a 110v transformer and ran an extension cord to it. Noticing wetness inside I ran the jets and found some leaks - I fixed them on one of the manifolds by tightening and adding more hose clamps. Finally, I traced down air supply issues to some of the jets and got them going again. The spa is now running great and leakless and my Accurite sensor is alerting me to any temperature issues. It's buttoned up tight and true.

UPDATE 25May21 - The temp/humidity sensor connected to my Accurite wireless network was unreliable as to regular reporting - I couldn't effectively count on it to monitor and alert on low temperature in my spa really. I upgraded to an Aeotec Water Sensor 7 Pro for ~$45 today. This is a modern generation (700 chip) ZWave sensor which reports on temperature, humidity, and wet/dry state. I directly replaced my Accurite sensor; I velcroed it right to my filter area. It's connected directly into my SmartThings IoT network and there's automation there to alert me on wetness or low temps. A little more expensive but reliable and effective.