Hot tub electrical question

[Don Y]

Moving here was the first time I ever encountered that sort of evaporative cooling! Getting out of a pool typically just left you *wet*. No big deal to get out and walk around to some other point and reenter. Or, sip a beverage, etc.

Here, getting out was like stepping directly into a FREEZER! A completely unexpected experience. Drove home the principle of evaporative cooling (perspiration, etc.) in a way that a text book could NEVER explain!

Ah! I've only ever seen the spa as a sort of "wading pool" attached to the "real pool" (different pump/filtration/heater). So, you "soak" (heat soak) in the spa, then slide over a little dividing wall into the pool (which is typically much cooler)

[J]

Thanks for all the replies. It'll take me a while to look through them all , but I got the answer I was hoping for pretty quick. So thanks. I love t his group!

Some of the hot tubs I was looking at that come as 120v plug-n-play can als o be purchased as 240v (hard-wiring required, with a more powerful heater a nd maybe some other additions - for an extra price). Other tubs appear to be sold as 120v only. My personal preference is to pay the extra $$ for a

240 model, but I did not want to be constrained when looking at tub, so it' s nice to know that the wiring should be simple for an electrician.

As for converting a 120v to run on 240v, I guess you could do it if you mad e sure all the components could handle that, but I wouldn't want to risk it . For the tubs that I was looking at that come in both flavors, they often say that you if you have the 240v model, you can easily rewire it to run o n 120v (but clearly, if you did that, you wouldn't be making use of the bee fed up heater element that you payed extra for). However, the reverse is g enerally not true; you can't convert the 120v model to run on 240 - at leas t that's what the manual says.

Cheers.

[trader_4]

ll, but I got the answer I was hoping for pretty quick. So thanks. I love this group!

lso be purchased as 240v (hard-wiring required, with a more powerful heater and maybe some other additions - for an extra price). Other tubs appear t o be sold as 120v only. My personal preference is to pay the extra $$ for a 240 model, but I did not want to be constrained when looking at tub, so i t's nice to know that the wiring should be simple for an electrician.

ade sure all the components could handle that, but I wouldn't want to risk it. For the tubs that I was looking at that come in both flavors, they oft en say that you if you have the 240v model, you can easily rewire it to run on 120v (but clearly, if you did that, you wouldn't be making use of the b eefed up heater element that you payed extra for). However, the reverse is generally not true; you can't convert the 120v model to run on 240 - at le ast that's what the manual says.

I'm not sure there is actually a beefed up heater element at all. I think it's the same element, they just put 240V across it instead of 120V. It's fully surrounded in moving water, the temp rises across it's not much.

[gfretwell]

I always thought it was ironic that they call those evaporative cooling units "swamp coolers" and they don't work at all here in the swamp ;) They should be called desert coolers.

That is the normal design (called a spill over spa). My spa was already built, up next to the bedroom when we built the pool out in the yard. The code required a "vent" to prevent entrapment (basically a pipe from the main drain to the atmosphere) I "teed" off of that, ran a pipe to the overflow pipe from the spa and had a way of swapping water. It did involve a 25 foot directional bore under the garage but that worked out OK using the garden hose method

[clare]

On Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:17:21 -0400, [e-mail] wrote: Snipp

They call them swamp coolers because they turn anything short of a desert into a swamp

>

[clare]

Up here there use is pretty well restricted to "cooling stations" at summer public events.

[gfretwell]

When I was there in 1980 the big gripe was that the developer at Havasu had an air conditioned beach and it was screwing up the humidity in the whole town.