Tag Archives: hot tub

Hot tub cover

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Much to my disappointment I found the Hot Tub in a bad state again; the air mattress inside the cover was again removed and this time intentionally stored under the hot tub deck.

The result is that with any rain, a pool forms at the center, and as the cover then touches the hot tub water, insulation is reduced to a thin sheet of vinyl.

So I engineered the following solution;

This frame is made from pvc charlotte pipe, connected with T and one Plus connnector, forming a dome tent frame.

Obviously that won’t do anything when on top of the cover, but the next picture shows what it looks like now.

Now, when there’s rain, the water will drop off to the edge, where it cannot touch the water inside the hot tub as the cover is a few inches above the water level. Besides lowering my electric bill, it should also keep the white Coleman logo cleaner, as water immediately drips off to the sides. That makes the hot tub a little more inviting than a muddy brown cover pool.

Glueing this frame together wasn’t easy; the charlotte pipe is much more rigid than European PVC pipe, as the walls are 3 times thicker. But using my stove I heated up the pipes to bend them into a curve.

As the great Hannibal used to say ; I love it when a plan comes together.

Hot Tub Gadget

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I treated myself to a new gadget. A man can never have too many gadgets. It’s a Bluetooth hot tub thermometer, that is linked to wifi using a base station with display and of course an app.

It has a little display on the thermometer (I’m holding it in place as the bubbles make the thermometer dance around) but the main purpose is that you can see from inside what the water temperature is. You can even set an alert when it reaches a certain temperature.

This was taken after I used the tub for about an hour. It only went down from 100F (37C) to 97 so still very comfy. The additional purpose of this gadget is to have a historic view of temperatures, both in the house as well as the hot tub.

That way I can keep better track of the temperature inside. I could already see the current temperature, but no historic data so now when a guest says it was hot, I can check how hot it really was.

Sadly, they don’t have an API yet, so I cannot link it to the smart mirror.

Hot Tub almost ready for use

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The Hot Tub is in place and I’m filling it with some water, to make sure it stays there. I made an extra outdoor outlet for the tub and for now used the hot water faucet that was already in place on the other side of the house. I will get an extra piece of PEC tube and run a cold water line to the west side, so that it’s easier to refill the tub with cold water.

As you can see, the deck leaves space to have chairs around the tub, and you’d still be able to easily walk around it.

Deck boards in

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It’s always surprising how many screws go into a project. The Hot Tub Deck took almost 300 screws, just for the top boards.

The sisal ropes are also in place.

Each post has its own solar cap light;

The wood (pressure treated pine) is still greenish,but today I bought a gallon of Federal Blue stain, to make it the same color as the rest of the deck.

I will do that tomorrow, after which the deck will be ready to get the Hot Tub installed.

As I was in Wimberley anyway, I did my groceries and checked out the PCR test facility. They have a 24 to 48 hour free test, so if I time it right, I can use that to fly back to Amsterdam. The result is emailed, so if I schedule my test 48 hrs before departure, I should be good. Luckily the 24hr rule only applies to flights into the US.

Coleman SaluSpa

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Of course I wanted to see how big the hot tub is and if all works, so I unboxed it and inflated it.

Don’t worry, it won’t stay indoors; that’s just for testing. It’s capacity is up to 6 people, but that wouldn’t leave a lot of legroom. But for two it’s more than large enough and four probably works too. It takes about 960 liters (254 gallons) of water, so it will almost weigh a ton. That’s why I built the deck on 9 piers. the center one being as thick as a tree. Before I can put it in place, I will need to strengthen the deck a little more with some 2×6’s in the center, going from the left pier to the right pier, to evenly distribute the weight to all piers. I probably let the concrete gain some strength before I fill it up; concrete reaches 70% of its final strength after 7 days, which means I will be able to use it before I leave.