On an impulse (I know) I bought a really clean looking hot tub (1998 6
person lounge Saratoga Spa - Gideon) for $250 without actually seeing
if it worked. It looked great. The filters were pretty clean. The water
coming out of the tubing was clear. I was TOLD it worked fine except
for a broken gasket, but this was not from the owner but someone who
was hired to haul it away (owner was renting the home where it was and
did not want the liability). Now that my sensibilities have returned, I
beginning to fear I may have acted too quickly. Here is the probelm.

We do not have anything set up for it, which means we will have to get
a foundation laid, a electrician come in and hook it up, and pay
someone to move it once it is ready to go. All things we will gladly do
IF the thing really works. I would just turn around and resell it but I
can't imagine anyone doing such as hairbrained thing as I did like
buying it without knowing for sure if it worked or not (and I do not
want to lie). I did local deadler did have a record of the buyer (but
understandably would not divulge this info) and told me it had no
maintenance done on it, ever, even though it had a 5 years free
maintenance warrenty. She said this was a good sign.

Is there anyway we can check to see if it works without paying an
electrician an arm and a leg? I am told the electrical needs to be
hardwired into our home. Can I somehow jerry rig this for say an hour's
worth of testing just to check the jets/heater/ etc.?

Thanks.

Sure its esay to tempoprarily wire it into a panel box of correct
amperage and give it a check out. Its stillgonna need water in it
though, so make sure its setting on a suitable base like the ground,
slab etc......May not have to completely fill it, but that all depends
on where the inlets and outlets, skimmer and sensors are located...

Probably gonna need a 30 to perhaps evena 50 amp circuit, depending on
how its wired up with hetaers to run in conjunction with pumps and how
many pumps etc it has......Some can be wired to run 115 vac which only
allows heaters to be run without pumps at the same time etc, but it
may be a cheaper option for check out.

On 7 May 2006 11:45:21 -0700, wrote:
On an impulse (I know) I bought a really clean looking hot tub (1998 6
person lounge Saratoga Spa - Gideon) for $250 without actually seeing
if it worked. It looked great. The filters were pretty clean. The water
coming out of the tubing was clear. I was TOLD it worked fine except
for a broken gasket, but this was not from the owner but someone who
was hired to haul it away (owner was renting the home where it was and
did not want the liability). Now that my sensibilities have returned, I
beginning to fear I may have acted too quickly. Here is the probelm.

We do not have anything set up for it, which means we will have to get
a foundation laid, a electrician come in and hook it up, and pay
someone to move it once it is ready to go. All things we will gladly do
IF the thing really works. I would just turn around and resell it but I
can't imagine anyone doing such as hairbrained thing as I did like
buying it without knowing for sure if it worked or not (and I do not
want to lie). I did local deadler did have a record of the buyer (but
understandably would not divulge this info) and told me it had no
maintenance done on it, ever, even though it had a 5 years free
maintenance warrenty. She said this was a good sign.

Is there anyway we can check to see if it works without paying an
electrician an arm and a leg? I am told the electrical needs to be
hardwired into our home. Can I somehow jerry rig this for say an hour's
worth of testing just to check the jets/heater/ etc.?

Thanks.


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder.."Since my statements are
given freely, take em or leave em, I am entitled to
my opinion none the less. My opinion and $1 is still
only worth $1.....
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

I suppose you can set it up near your electric panel, fill it with water and
have an electrician make a temporary connection, provided no one is going in
the water
wrote in message
oups.com...
On an impulse (I know) I bought a really clean looking hot tub (1998 6
person lounge Saratoga Spa - Gideon) for $250 without actually seeing
if it worked. It looked great. The filters were pretty clean. The water
coming out of the tubing was clear. I was TOLD it worked fine except
for a broken gasket, but this was not from the owner but someone who
was hired to haul it away (owner was renting the home where it was and
did not want the liability). Now that my sensibilities have returned, I
beginning to fear I may have acted too quickly. Here is the probelm.

We do not have anything set up for it, which means we will have to get
a foundation laid, a electrician come in and hook it up, and pay
someone to move it once it is ready to go. All things we will gladly do
IF the thing really works. I would just turn around and resell it but I
can't imagine anyone doing such as hairbrained thing as I did like
buying it without knowing for sure if it worked or not (and I do not
want to lie). I did local deadler did have a record of the buyer (but
understandably would not divulge this info) and told me it had no
maintenance done on it, ever, even though it had a 5 years free
maintenance warrenty. She said this was a good sign.

Is there anyway we can check to see if it works without paying an
electrician an arm and a leg? I am told the electrical needs to be
hardwired into our home. Can I somehow jerry rig this for say an hour's
worth of testing just to check the jets/heater/ etc.?

Thanks.

wrote in message
oups.com...
On an impulse (I know) I bought a really clean looking hot tub (1998 6
person lounge Saratoga Spa - Gideon) for $250 without actually seeing
if it worked. It looked great. The filters were pretty clean. The water
coming out of the tubing was clear. I was TOLD it worked fine except
for a broken gasket, but this was not from the owner but someone who
was hired to haul it away (owner was renting the home where it was and
did not want the liability). Now that my sensibilities have returned, I
beginning to fear I may have acted too quickly. Here is the probelm.

We do not have anything set up for it, which means we will have to get
a foundation laid, a electrician come in and hook it up, and pay
someone to move it once it is ready to go. All things we will gladly do
IF the thing really works. I would just turn around and resell it but I
can't imagine anyone doing such as hairbrained thing as I did like
buying it without knowing for sure if it worked or not (and I do not
want to lie). I did local deadler did have a record of the buyer (but
understandably would not divulge this info) and told me it had no
maintenance done on it, ever, even though it had a 5 years free
maintenance warrenty. She said this was a good sign.

Is there anyway we can check to see if it works without paying an
electrician an arm and a leg? I am told the electrical needs to be
hardwired into our home. Can I somehow jerry rig this for say an hour's
worth of testing just to check the jets/heater/ etc.?

Thanks.


Hooking up electrical to it won't be a problem. Just get a long extension
cord. I got a 100' 10 ga. extension from HD that I use with my MIG welder.
It wouldn't be something that you would want to use for a long time, but it
will work for the short time you need for testing.

NOW, THE IMPORTANT PART - When/if you do fire this puppy up, be sure that
you crank open the bleeders. You may have to remove some of the side panels
to access them. Your spa could be fine, but if you don't bleed off the air
in the lines, it won't catch prime, and you will get a FLO error. Or
possibly, it could heat up enough to kick out the breaker or reset.

Bleeders are different flavors. Most all are on top of the lines they
bleed. They can be white or black. Even after you move this to its
destination, when you fire it up, you will have to bleed it again because
when you drain it, you could get air in there. For future reference, when
you get a FLO error code, it means something is plugged up, or it is
airlocked. Learning how to bleed and where the bleeders are will save you
time and aggravation down the line.

Steve

FLO error may or may not be applicable to a spa. I have had 3 spas
which we owned over the years and none have ever had a flow error on
any of the panels that came up.....

Bleeding is pretty esay on most spas a well......and a lot of the
newer models 5 or 6 years of age or so on up have pretty decent
autobleeders or methods of purging air from the lines out throught the
jets...YOur just interested in seeing if it works..If the pumps run
and do not leak fine, if the water gets warm fine.......no need to run
it more than necessary or fil it more than what is necessary, even if
it shoots water out of the upper jets..........lots of times yu can
put enough water in to fill up to bottomof where the water inlet to
filters pump is keep gardenhow running and turn em on, and if puymps
work will squirt / flow water out of the jets just fine.........air
filled here and there perhaps but if the pump did not work it owuld
not put out that water......Our 2 local SPA dealers here checkout hot
tubs they get in and none of them fill em up or worry much just enough
water to get into pump and enough to check heaters, which for the most
opart are checked with a multimeter.......I often see em check out
used as well as new tubs before installing them as I usually haul off
old tubs and other items like exercise equipment they want to get rid
of.......


On Sun, 7 May 2006 12:41:03 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

wrote in message
legroups.com...
On an impulse (I know) I bought a really clean looking hot tub (1998 6
person lounge Saratoga Spa - Gideon) for $250 without actually seeing
if it worked. It looked great. The filters were pretty clean. The water
coming out of the tubing was clear. I was TOLD it worked fine except
for a broken gasket, but this was not from the owner but someone who
was hired to haul it away (owner was renting the home where it was and
did not want the liability). Now that my sensibilities have returned, I
beginning to fear I may have acted too quickly. Here is the probelm.

We do not have anything set up for it, which means we will have to get
a foundation laid, a electrician come in and hook it up, and pay
someone to move it once it is ready to go. All things we will gladly do
IF the thing really works. I would just turn around and resell it but I
can't imagine anyone doing such as hairbrained thing as I did like
buying it without knowing for sure if it worked or not (and I do not
want to lie). I did local deadler did have a record of the buyer (but
understandably would not divulge this info) and told me it had no
maintenance done on it, ever, even though it had a 5 years free
maintenance warrenty. She said this was a good sign.

Is there anyway we can check to see if it works without paying an
electrician an arm and a leg? I am told the electrical needs to be
hardwired into our home. Can I somehow jerry rig this for say an hour's
worth of testing just to check the jets/heater/ etc.?

Thanks.


Hooking up electrical to it won't be a problem. Just get a long extension
cord. I got a 100' 10 ga. extension from HD that I use with my MIG welder.
It wouldn't be something that you would want to use for a long time, but it
will work for the short time you need for testing.

NOW, THE IMPORTANT PART - When/if you do fire this puppy up, be sure that
you crank open the bleeders. You may have to remove some of the side panels
to access them. Your spa could be fine, but if you don't bleed off the air
in the lines, it won't catch prime, and you will get a FLO error. Or
possibly, it could heat up enough to kick out the breaker or reset.

Bleeders are different flavors. Most all are on top of the lines they
bleed. They can be white or black. Even after you move this to its
destination, when you fire it up, you will have to bleed it again because
when you drain it, you could get air in there. For future reference, when
you get a FLO error code, it means something is plugged up, or it is
airlocked. Learning how to bleed and where the bleeders are will save you
time and aggravation down the line.

Steve



==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder.."Since my statements are
given freely, take em or leave em, I am entitled to
my opinion none the less. My opinion and $1 is still
only worth $1.....
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o