Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: gores95 on October 12, 2006, 10:11:35 am
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Hi all. Spa is being delivered Sunday so I need some guidance. The Caldera Geneva has an odd alignment where the entrance would seemingly be on the side of the lounger. The main panel is also there and its on the bottom of the picture:
(http://www.calderaspas.com/Spa_Showroom_Hot_Tubs/jpgs/showroom_geneva_utopia.jpg)
The cover would lift up from the bottom to the top and would not be in the way of the deck. My alingment on my patio is as follows: Entrance is from the "bottom" of the picture, I have a deck adjacent to the right of the picture and eventually I will be removing the rails of the deck so we can enter from the deck directly so keeping the raised cover away from the deck is key. Here is a pic of the setup before tub:
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j307/gores95/Patiopics012.jpg)
I was actually going to position the tub exactly how the picture shows so the cover would lift up and be situated at the back of the house. The only problem with this setup is that we are entering at the lounger. Entering from the left of the picture is tough because the tub comes to almost the edge of the wall. If I had to do it all over again I would have made the circular opening a bit bigger. So entering at the bottom of the picture is the only option (besides the deck).
Questions:
1. Is it a big deal to enter at the lounger?
2. Rotate the tub 90 degress so that the main control panel is facing left (opposite the deck). I would leave the cover alignment the same with it opening from the bottom. The question is having the main control panel not exposed when lifting the cover...is this a big deal? I would have to open the cover more than halfway to see the panel on the left side.
Does any of this make sense or any other suggestions? ;) The electrician is going to need to know where to run the wires to and the entrance point is on either side of the main panel. I wa also going to ask the delivery guys for suggestions but I thought I would open it up to this knowledgeable group!
Thanks,
Marc
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I'm not so sure there is an official entrance to most spas.
Our Sundance came with spa cover and lifter. So when we move the cover back, one side is blocked by the cover and lifter. One other side is blocked by some plants we have set up for screening the neighbor. The other 2 sides are totally open and we get in and out of the other 2 sides no problem. Our spa is low, so we don't need steps so it really doesn't matter which side we enter from with the exception of the cover location and plants in our case.
Looking at the picture it looks like any side could be an entrance. I think the side you enter from might be controlled more by location of the cover and lifter and anything else that might be around the spa.
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However you place the spa, I would ensure that you have easy access to the control panel (temp, jet controls) from outside the tub.
With my tub, the lifter had to be mounted on a specific side of the tub. If this is true with your tub as well, given the cover must lift off in a certain direction. If you now consider the postion of the open cover, AND having the control panel being accessable, may reduce your possible polacement to only 2 positions. Personally I would recomend the cover lift towards the house.
Choose what works best, regardless of the lounger. Ensure that you have easy access to the motor/access panel too.
In a perfect world, I would think the best placement would be to have the louger facing away from the house,On the left hand side (non deck side) of the pic and the cover lifting towards the house, the steps right in front. OR have the tub placed in with the lounger opposite the house. Any other way looks like access to control panel and filter well would be severely limited. If there's a cover lifter mounting restriction, then I don't think you even have a choice.
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Very nice set up by the way. It looks as if the most logical set up would be as you said, just sit it in the opening exactly as you have the picture oriented now. That way you could enter from the deck or the patio. The cover would be at the back of the house and your controls would be in a good position to access and view. The only thing I warn my guests about is not to put their hand on top of the filter compartment cover when entering/exiting the spa to avoid cracking it. Mine is at the corner of the two most accessable sides of the spa as yours would be also if you use that orientation. Good luck!
-Law Dawg
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Good Morning
We just received and filled our C Series which is the Geneva shell Caldera Special for Canada. So far, so good. It heated up real fast. Turned it on at 7pm and it was heated and shut off by 3am. Water temp before start up was 60. Anyways. what we decided was not to enter over the controls and into the lounge chair. We have put the stairs on the left side seat. (If standing in front of the tub, facing the control panel.) What I suggest you could do if possible is to use the right side seat, which is higher and flatter than the left hand seat. For us the deck is in our way and we cannot enter into the tub from this seat. It is truly the best way to enter for us since we have two children. To enter into the tub through the lounger seat would mean putting your hands all over the control panel and entering onto an uneven surface. Even though that's where the handle to enter is. We even considered cutting away the deck so we could enter the tub through that level , right seat, but my husband was concerned that the kids would put pressure on the filter cover, located right beside that seat. Hope this all makes sense. We were happy to see cup holders on the tub, since we couldn;t remember seeing when we wet tested. Also, the lights are brighter than had remembered and we love them and the fountain. Ask away if any questions. After school we will finally get in the tub .... :-*
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drewstar just beat me to the punch. I think what is most important here is keeping your control panel on the most open side. Also to consider, what side are the pumps and other components on? In case of failure or repair, you're going to have enough room to open that side up and access it. If I were you and there were no mechanicals/electricals on the right side of the tub (where the naked cooldown seat is located), I would most definitely position it as you originally thought. You are going to remove the rails of the deck at some time anyway, which would then create the PERFECT entry into the spa from that higher seat. If there are pumps on the cooldown side, then I would rotate the tub to where the lounger is opposite the deck. That would be IMO the next best option.
We have a cheap spa up at our lake home and trying to enter it on the lounger side is difficult, awkward, and I think dangerous for some people who maybe are older or less coordinated. The surface is not flat and could lead to some falls, which you do not need as a homeowner. I would definitely NOT recommend anyone entering a spa from the lounger side.
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I would enter from any side except the lounger. Too much chance of slipping. However the seat on the right side seems to be the flattest and the shallowest, thus the easiest to step into.
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...and let's not forget easy access to the filter well. Every month you'll be taking the filters out to clean them, if you will be using a Nature 2 catridge, then you'll need easy access as well. Also, it's recomened that you fill the tub by placing the hose into the filter well.
So given access to:
Control Panel
Filter well
Motor compartment
Cover lifter mounting
What possible postions can you place the spa? Will the steps only fit in front of the spa? HAving the lounger opposite the deck would be best, and you could enter from the front, or the deck. Will that work?
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Thanks for the replies. The only two places to logically enter would be from deck and bottom. There is not enough room on the left and top although I guess you could jump in from the retaining wall. The steps would only fit on the bottom area.
As for lounger on the left I like that arrangement also but the cover would still have to be opened from the bottom to top which means control panel would not be under the cover when cracked opened. I would not be able to see the control panel on the left until the cover is just about fully opened. In order to have the control panel exposed I would have to open the cover towards the deck I do not want to have the opened cover blocking access from the deck.
I think we will just have to enter from the lounger at the bottom and have the cover opened towards the top (house).
Quite a quandary...but I guess its a good problem to have at this point!
Marc
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I'm not sure why you're so concerned about the cover and the control panel issue. So what if you have to open the cover all the way to see the panel. Don't you normally use the panel only when you're in the tub anyway? Your cooldown seat is the perfect choice for entry into this model. Do what you want, but getting into a spa on a lounger is a terrible configuration IMO. As an insurance agent, I see a liability claim waiting to happen on a trip and fall. Good luck regardless.
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I'm not sure why you're so concerned about the cover and the control panel issue. So what if you have to open the cover all the way to see the panel. Don't you normally use the panel only when you're in the tub anyway?
Nope.
Weekly shocking requires access to the controls, running the pumps when adding chemicals, setting temps, changing cycles or a dozen other little things that control panel allows you to do. You'll be using the control panel a lot.
Trust me. You most certainly want to have access to the control panel from outside the tub. :)
Wes, I'm not sure ...did you get your Artic yet? If so, don't you find it almost manadatory to have easy access to the Panel? I mean, even if you just want to check the temp?
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No, not yet, drew. Scheduled for delivery next week. That was good info by the way. Never having owned a tub personally, I'm not at the maintenance stage yet. In terms of your question about easy access, I will call my dealer and ask about that. I was planning on laying out my unit in such a way that the panel will be on the side closest to my house (a clearance of about 3'). That is the side where there are no motors, pumps, etc so it made sense to set it up that way. Plus, the highest cooldown seat will be positioned exactly where I want the steps to be. Thanks for the headsup. I will report back with more info.
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I enter my tub via the cool down seat, it makes a nice "step", and as other's have pointed out, steping into the lounger isn't the best alternatives, but i think it outweighs having to put your suit on and wade over to control panel every single time you wanted to do something to the tub.
Access to the control panel is important. I have tripped my motor switch once or twice on fill ups and being able to get into the equipment area without too much fuss to press the reset button is nice. Also, ozone units require maitence, and on my tub, it's where i'd gain access to change the light bulb. Little things to consider. ;)
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Gore,
Good luck with tub and enjoy no matter where you enter :)
We too have the Geneva which we received in July. We originally had the steps at the cool down seat. We switched it to where the lounger is. Believe it or not we found it easier for the kids to get in and out of the tub. It could also be the placement as it is on our deck and the way it is situated you can also grab onto the deck rail which assists in getting in/out. Very personal preference.
Tammy
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Hey drew, thanks for the help! I called my dealer and they agreed with you by suggesting I turn the tub a quarter turn so that the topside panel is exposed with just one flip of the cover, instead of removing the entire cover. My cover still retracts in the direction of the house, but makes the panel more accessible. I appreciate your good words.
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Gores,
I love your set-up! Your placement of the pad is well-thought-out and very tastefully done. Looks like that patio and wall are brand new; you can still see the sand on the bricks. Did you do it yourself? Looks like a pro job.
As everyone has mentioned before, you seem to be limited in your choices of position. Since you'll have only one "exposed" wall of your tub (the one not against the house, deck or retaining wall), shouldn't it be the access-panel side? Seems to me that's the only way it could be serviced easily.
Won't you usually get in from the deck anyway? It looks to be a more direct entry point - is it? And any time you need to access the control panel or filter from ground level, you'll be doing maintenance, not necessarily hopping in the tub, right? If this is the case, the lounger doesn't sound like the main point of entry after all...
One silly little thing that I did when I was planning my site: I set up 4 patio chairs in the position of the 4 corner seats of my tub to see what the view was like from each spot. :-[ Because of this, I ended up rotating my tub so that it's not square to the house. This way, nobody has to stare at a plain wall.
What's the view like from the seats in your tub the way it's oriented in your picture?
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Thanks again for the input! If we decided to rotate the tub 90 degrees left so we would enter in the "cool down" seat the control panel would face left. There is about 18" from the side of the tub to the retaining wall. The main equipment panels would be that distance from the wall as well. Is this an issue when trying to access them? If that's not a problem the only issue would be having to take the cover basically completely off to access the control panel. With the lounger below I would just have to lift the cover off about six inches to see the panel. With the spa installed you can walk all the way around it but it is a tight fit everywhere but the bottom of our arrangement. By the way we are having a Covermate III installed at delivery.
Caldera makes their control panels under the cover. Hot Spring for one has it on the side of the spa so the cover does not even have to be lifted.
I may mark off the dimensions of the tub on the pavers to see if that helps. I might be able to repost those pics tonight.
Marc
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Gores,
I love your set-up! Your placement of the pad is well-thought-out and very tastefully done. Looks like that patio and wall are brand new; you can still see the sand on the bricks. Did you do it yourself? Looks like a pro job.
Thanks...definitely a pro job. Almost 600 square feet of patio, retaining walls and paver path were built this summer. We used Techo Bloc and it was VERY expensive...more than we originally planned for. But isn't that always the case? ;)
OK one last question here. Let's say I decide to rotate the tub 90 degrees right so the lounger/control panel is on the left and leave the cover opening from bottom to top. As I mentioned I could not "crack" open the cover and access the main control panel which some have suggested is a problem when shocking, etc. But correct me if I am wrong, when shocking, removing filters, etc. don't you fully open the cover anyway? If that's the case then why would this be an issue? I can walk completely around the outside of the tub to access the panel on the left side. Again only issue is the cover would basically have to be fully up to see the panel. Make sense?
Thanks,
Marc
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Hi Marc,
I'd like to chime in to and congratulate you on the patio. It's a real nice set up. :)
Postioning the tub so that the lounger on the left seems ok to me. My concern was postioning the tub so that the control panel was againts the house or the deck side, would make operating the tub from outside difficult, and would make getting at the filters a pain. On the side seems fine to me and is exactly how i would postion the tub, given there's no problem mounting the lifter. (My dealer INSISTED that i had to mount the lifter only on the cabient sides). You'd have the filter easy to get at. The controls panel accesabl, the equitpment compartment unblocked, and not interfere with your deck railing plans. :D
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Hi Marc,
I'd like to chime in to and congratulate you on the patio. It's a real nice set up. :)
Postioning the tub so that the lounger on the left seems ok to me. My concern was postioning the tub so that the control panel was againts the house or the deck side, would make operating the tub from outside difficult, and would make getting at the filters a pain. On the side seems fine to me and is exactly how i would postion the tub, given there's no problem mounting the lifter. (My dealer INSISTED that i had to mount the lifter only on the cabient sides). You'd have the filter easy to get at. The controls panel accesabl, the equitpment compartment unblocked, and not interfere with your deck railing plans. :D
Thanks Drew. Actually you make a good point...if the cover lifter arms are mounted on the same side as the equipment panel does that prevent you from getting in the equipment panel? Picture the spa is now rotated 90 degrees right with the lounger/control panel on left. The cover will be lifted bottom to top and the cover lifter arms would be screwed in the left and right sides of this tub. In the new alignment the arms would be screwed into the lounger /control panel side. Just wondering if the panels can still be removed without having to remove the lifter arm?
Maybe I should just wait until intallation and ask the pros what can/can't be done.
Marc
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They guys doing the delivery, may not be pros in cover lifters. I'd ask the dealer, or maybe Chas can tell us. I'd think you'd want to know BEFORE they show up.
If the lifter can be mounted on any side, go with your plan with the lounger on the left. If the lifter must be mounted on specific sides of the tub, go with the lounger in front. Either way, you'll be fine. Keep you control panel up front, or on the left. Keep the filter well out of the far right corner, and have access to the equipmant bay (front or left)
I think we beat this one dead. :D :D :D