r/hottub

Got a Catalina Carlton installed on Thursday.

Day 1 Had 3 adults and 2 kids in it while the UV filter was running, it shut off at the breaker

Day 2 Had 4 adults and 2 kids in it while the UV filter was running, it shut off at the breaker

Day 3 Had 2 adults in it and rescheduled the UV filter to run at 2am, no issues

Day 4, back to 4 adults and 2 kids, UV filter not running, shut off at the breaker

It seems to us that maybe too much water is getting displaced with 4 adults in it and is causing an emergency shut off to happen...but it's designed to have 6 adults so that shouldn't be an issue.

The water is already below the jet level. I turned off the breaker so the jets don't run dry. I also read that I shouldn't just keep topping it off given how active the leak is. Is the right move to drain and purge it with ahh-some, and vacuum out the jet lines as much as I can and leave it empty and covered the next few days? I'm wondering what this is going to do for bacteria growth. Thanks.

Hot tub is also under warranty still. I got it originally in 2023, got it replaced because they couldn't determine the leak source a year later so the replacement was in 2024, now just over two years after that there's yet another leak.

I’m new to hot tubs as I’ve only had one for just over a year. The first few fills were fine, I never had any major issues with keeping the water clear and balanced.

In December of 2025, my TDS was high so we found a nice day and did a partial refill with a hose filter to refill the water. The hot tub was fine for the entire winter (other than a circuit issue that was fixed). In May, we did a flush, clean and entire refill with a hose filter. I also replaced the eco pure filter. Less than a month later, the water became very cloudy. I managed to clear it up with shock and clarifier and it was crystal clear. I took in a sample for testing, did the necessary tweaks and all was fine, until about a week later and it was cloudy again. I did a hyper chlorination as recommended by the supplier and managed to clear it up again, using quite a bit of chemical. Long story shorter, it went cloudy again! We did a partial refill last week after another hyper chlorination, balanced everything and it was good for about a week. I was in there Thursday night, tested afterwards and made sure everything was perfect. I opened the cover tonight (Sunday) to check it and it’s going cloudy again! I’m at my wits end! I don’t understand why it keeps going cloudy and I feel like I’m just throwing in chemicals now. Any advice appreciated.

Hi all!

Need help making a choice. My wife and I are blessed to be redoing our back deck and are planning a recessed hot tub. We've looked at the Jacuzzi 508L and the Hot Springs Prism. We want a larger capacity with a lounger. Do you all have any recommendations, pros and cons, etc to help with this decision?

Thanks in advance

I’m going to change the water. Chemicals are all where they should be for bathing. Chlorine levels are good. Will it kill the lawn or is it a good way to water the lawn?

Why does MasterSpa get shit on by everyone?

If you have a local dealer and avoid a roadshow is it a solid option?

Locally I have Sundance, MasterSpa, Hot Springs and Cal Spa dealers.

I have wet tested the Sundance and plan to wet test the master spa this week.

The Sundance is very nice but the hard foam insulation has me concerned for long term repairs.

We need to “scoot” the tub for a couple of days to do deck work.

I’ve watched all the usual PVC rolling videos, 2x8 runners etc, but they are usually for much longer moves.

Just wonder if anyone has any neat hacks/tips/methods I haven’t seen when it’s such a short and unobstructed move.

Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out what I need exactly to convert my hottub to salt after a clean and refill. Unfortunately my wife isn't doing so well with chlorine with her psoriasis. After research it seems I need these; Watkins Wellness 78503 FreshWater System Controller and FreshWater Salt Cartridge | Salt System Refill. Is there anything else I'm missing?

I've got an Artesian South Seas 748B that's been experiencing issues with one of the pumps. The pump that pulls water through the filter is making much more noise than normal. It's a strong low pitched humming noise - like the normal noise multiplied. Meanwhile the jets powered by that pump are about half the strength they normally would be.

Around the same time this happened we've experienced a couple of other issues. Half of the tub lights have stopped working consistently. Sometimes they're all on, sometimes just half. And couple of times after running for 3-4 pump cycles the breaker tripped.

I've tried removing the filter and running the pump without it but that made no difference. From my research it seems like a clog or impeller issues may be a possibility, or even a bad pump capacitor. I understand that if the pump is having performance issues due to either of those it could be causing the breaker to trip.

However, I'm not sure how the pump problems connect to the lighting issue, or perhaps they're two separate problems. Anyone have any recommendations?

When I go to do a monthly filter cleaning or change, and pull the filters out, the suction effect of pulling them up and out of the water dumps a whole bunch of the gunk the filter has trapped back into the tub in a nasty cloud. If I could only get the filters out without this and then clean it, it would be so much better. Design flaw, or am I doing something wrong?

Bought my hot tub June 1. Uses the frog system. They said put in the starter shock and then you are good shock once a week. Two weeks in it was gross looking and smelly. I took in water they said bromines not registering told me to heavily shock it the week. I finally gave up and drained it the other day. I did a lot of research on it and balanced everything properly. It looks good and smells good but the test strips show everything but still registering zero bromine. I even added powdered bromine per the recommendation and have the frog system in place,

Hey everyone. I was just asked by a family member about my hot tub and how I chose the one I did. I can’t find a decent unbiased and reputable website to send them to.

Hot Tub University, seems like a total joke and super biased towards the brands those jokers sell. At best, it’s a couple of guys opinions on what’s good, which seems always to be that jets don’t matter, only go with brands using easy to get off the shelf parts, just enough insulation (the method that happens to align with the brands they recommend), and fiberglassed shells do. They have an opinion about everything out there but don’t seem to do any independent testing or even disclose why they have those opinions.

Then there are reviews sites like Consumer Affairs that seem like they are just made to get brands to pay them. All the good brands on there have low ratings (probably cause they aren’t paying) and the crappier brands have good ratings. What’s going on there? It must be a pay to play situation, but it’s really misleading to customers looking for real reviews and good information.

I happen to have some knowledge because I’ve had several pretty good tubs over the years at my residence and because I had rental properties with tubs. I’ve done a lot of research and shopping and have a lot of firsthand experience, mostly good but some bad.

But if you’re just getting into hot tub research where do you actually go (other than brand sites and here on Reddit) to get good unbiased and fair comparison information?