Hot Tub Leak Repair

Having a leak in your hot tub can be a real pain, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for and how to find it. Following a few simple steps, you should be able to find the source of the leak and be able to decide how to proceed with a repair, without a lot of headache.

Before beginning your search for a leak be sure to disconnect all power to the hot tub. Once you are inside the equipment compartment, most leaks can be sourced to certain parts of the tub such as:

  • Pump Wet End Seal

  • Heater Assembly Manifold

  • PVC Plumbing Parts and Tubing

  • Jet Bodies

  • Slice and Gate Valves

  • Connections

  • Pump


Once you are in the equipment compartment the first place you will want to check is the pump, often a bad pump seal can be the cause of the leak. If you find the water to be leaking from the pump you will want to determine whether just a new seal is needed or if the entire wet end should be replaced. Replacing your entire wet end may save you a lot of headache as new seals can be somewhat difficult to install without breaking them or other components within the wet end.

Unions


You will want to check all of the union fittings located around the pump and the heater. Even in brand new spas unions can become loose due to vibrations during shipment. Do not use a wrench to tighten hot tub unions. Unions should be fairly simple to tighten by hand, if not you may need to remove them realign parts for a straighter fit and then tighten by hand. Do not use a wrench to tighten hot tub unions.

Heater


Your heater assembly manifold consists of your heater assembly, pressure switch, and other components of the heating unit. If you find the leak to be within any of these parts you will need to proceed with replacing the necessary parts.

Valves


Next, check all valves in your hot tub as they can be a common source of leaks. On knife style valves, there is a gasket between the two halves that are bolted together that could be causing leaks. Also, some manufacturers build hot tubs with valves installed on either side of the pump so that water does not need to be shut off to allow access to the pump for repair or replacement. In theory the idea is a good one but often owners will choose to remove these valves as they are a very common source of leaks and can be more of a headache than they are helpful.

Connections and Jets


At this point, if the source of the leak has not been located you will want to move on to checking all of your jets, pipes, and connections. Leaking jets can be caused by a bad gasket in the jet body but it is also possible for jets to go bad overtime and they may need to be replaced. When checking connections they may need to be tightened or resealed with PVC glue.

If you do not want to tear into your equipment and spend the time and headache of trying to locate a leak, a great first step repair option is Fix-A-Leak. Fix A Leak is blended concentrated material designed to seal leaks in virtually any material and can be applied for leaks in the shell and works equally well in the plumbing. It is made specifically for hot tubs and can fix leaks up to 1/8” in diameter.Trying Fix-A-Leak first may save the headache of trying to locate the leak in your equipment, if the use of fix-a-leak as directed does not work you can then proceed with the above mentioned steps in attempting to find the leak.

Fix-A-Leak is very simple to use, just complete the following steps:

DOSAGE:
USE 8oz PER 1,000 GALLONS OF WATER FOR MINOR LEAKS. A SECOND BOTTLE CAN BE ADDED FOR LARGER LEAKS.

Steps:
1. First determine water loss in a 24 hour period
2. Fill to original level, mark water line
3. Remove all cartridges or filtering devices
4. Slowly add Fix A Leak with pump running through skimmer
5. Recirculate for 6-8 hours. Shut system off
6. Check water level the following day
7. If level remains the same the leak has stopped
8. Allow 48 hours before resuming operation
9. It's recommended not the use spa till leak is fixed and the remainder of Fix A Leak is filtered out.

If Leak has slowed and not totally stopped you may add more product to increase strength of solution already in spa.

Stir Fix A Leak in the spa with soft broom to get solution back into suspension.

Follow steps 5-8 as before.

Product Note:
Normally Fix A Leak will seal holes 1/8" in diameter. The product requires pressure to ensure it's impacted into the area of the leak. Leaks created by a crack in a pipe in all probability will be sealed. The leak may reoccur due to vibration which in turn will migrate in size, recreating the leak. Most spas are foam insulated, and when saturated with water, will greatly delay the cure time of Fix A Leak. It would be best to drain spa, immediately wipe down shell with a damp cloth to remove any residue of Fix A Leak. Allow 3-5 days before refilling, in most cases this will allow the product to cure.
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Comments

Kasey (Staff)
October 10, 2016

Leaks can be very difficult to pinpoint. Resealing around the drain with silicone certainly can’t hurt, so if you think that is where it is leaking and haven’t done so already, we’d recommend sealing it. Fix a leak usually only works on small leaks in plumbing, so I don’t know that it’s the best option for the main drain. If you do silicone around the main drain and it still continues to leak. Fix a leak is a small investment that could work and may be worth a try.

John
September 11, 2016

Hi. I have spent many hours this week putting my HOT SPRINGS Tiger River Spa up in the air (several Angles then up on its side) and dug out the blown in insulation around the area I thought was leaking - the BOTTOM DRAIN, where the Heat also BLOWS UP. It has been leaking for 2+ years. I can’t seem to get any of the REPAIR PEOPLE located around me to show up - guess they don’t want to get into something like this. QUESTION – Do you think FIX A LEAK might work ? And, it is a good idea to RE-SEAL with Silicone, the area around the drain on the INSIDE of the Hot Tub. Thank you for your comments.

Mike
August 7, 2016

I have a leak in a plastic PVC 4-way fitting. It’s not leaking out of a connection but the actual fitting is cracked. Can I repair that with some type of an epoxy crack repair or do you have any solutions? This is for a hot tub. Thank you for any advice.

Kasey LaRose
June 15, 2016

I doubt that Fix A Leak will work for this issue you have described as it is recommended for plugging small holes in plumbing, cracks, etc. If you have a large leak happening between the jet and shell of the hot tub, I think the surface area of the leak is too much for Fix a Leak to cover.

Angela
June 8, 2016

I have a Jacuzzi Echo Z120, it is leaking around the back side of a jet, we have tried using silicone without any luck. Will fix a leak work for this? We don’t want to try replacing allt eh hoses and parts just yet.

Kasey LaRose
May 16, 2016

Hi Nika, it is very difficult to diagnose this problem without being there in person. Since it sounds like the entire spa won’t even turn on, it’s likely to be more than just a pump problem. I would recommend asking a spa service technician to come out and take a look. Then you can decide if it’s worth fixing the issue(s) or not. I would think you’d be able to find the needed parts on our website, so it may not be too expensive to get it up and running again.

Nika
May 10, 2016

I have a laspa hot tub (prodigy 1995). It came with a home that I purchased. It was working and then began humming and shut down with no power coming through, after someone cut on the heater, air and jets randomly. It collected trash, so I drained and refilled. It still doesn’t power on, and now water is leaking from underneath the control panel areas. What do you suppose is going on?
Thanks in advance

Kasey LaRose
April 26, 2016

Hi Chris! Let me try to answer your questions the best I can and invite anyone reading this that has used Fix A Leak on their spa to share your experience and tips as well.

(1) Fix A Leak does not require foam outside of the plumbing to stop the leak. But I would recommend adding foam back in the places where you have removed it.
(2) We would recommend running the jets as much as you can in that 6-8 hour period. It may not be possible to run the entire 6 hours, but do what you can to keep the Fix-A-Leak moving through the plumbing to repair the leak(s).
(3) You are correct. The filter will collect the remaining Fix A Leak. If you spray the filter off well in 24 hours or so after applying the Fix A Leak treatment, with something like the Filter Flosser, you should be fine.

Hope that helps! Anyone else have any experience out there with Fix A Leak? Let us know in the comments.

Chris
April 25, 2016

Great forum! We have 17 year-old 485-gallon Sundance Optima spa: a flex PVC pipe is leaking wear it joins a solid PVC coupling. Three questions:

(1) In trying to identify the leak, we removed much of the foam around the leak. QUESTION: Does Fix-A-Leak require foam against the outside of the leaking pipe to work? Will it work if the leak is simply exposed to air? If so, I plan to apply Froth Pak or “Great Stuff Big Gap Filler” to recreate the foam the was surrounding the leak. Advice?

(2) I understand that the water needs to circulate for 6-8 hours. Does this mean that the jets need to be running (so someone needs to turn them back on after each 20-minute cycle)? Or just the regular intermittent “standby” circulation?

(3) After sealing, the replaced filter collects the remaining Fix-A-Leak product in the water, right? Does this not quickly clog the filter? Is it easy to remove from the filter? Is it better to drain and re-fill ?

Many thanks for the helpful information!

Kasey LaRose
April 19, 2016

It would seem that the leak is probably coming from the plumbing since it only leaks when the pump and jets are circulating. Finding a leak in the plumbing can be a big job, which usually requires digging out the foam inside of the cabinet. It can take hours and be expensive if you hire a tech to do it. If the leak doesn’t appear to be that big, I would recommend trying Fix a Leak

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