Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought the Lay-Z Spa Miami in November 2015. After running gloriously for two weeks, it started throwing the dreaded error code E02. After doing mighty battle with the plucky little hot tub, here is what I learned about diagnosing and fixing E02. These are roughly in the order of how likely they are to occur. First, ALWAYS START WITH THE FILTERS. If your filters are old or dirty, it makes all the other problems worse. In particular, because the plumbing between the filter and the pump is a low pressure system, it's prone to drawing air INTO the tubes. So, if your filters are dirty, the pump has to pull harder against the filters, causing even lower pressure and drawing even more air in. Once enough air starts getting in, it can form bubbles that are big enough to interfere with the water flow sensor, which trips E02. ===== Reason #1: Dirty filters ===== To diagnose: - Unscrew filter assembly, open it up and have a look. To fix: - Hose that bad boy down. Bestway says to do this daily. If the filter is clogged with goo and algea, I haven't had any luck cleaning it out, you just have to change it. ===== Reason #2: OLD filters ===== To diagnose: - If your filters have been submerged for more than two or three weeks, the paper-based material gets soggy and congeals together, significantly restricting water flow. You REALLY DO have to replace them every two or three weeks, even if they don't look dirty. - To confirm this is causing problems, remove one filter and run the pump, putting your hand over the return inlet to feel the jet of water. If the water stops flowing as soon as you reconnect the filter (and you then get E02), it means the filter is the only thing obstructing water flow. To fix: - Replace the filters! Amazon has a pack of 12 for $40. ===== Reason #3: Air leaking in at the connectors near filters ===== To diagnose: - With the pump off, bleed all of the air out of the transparent vinyl "side hose" by slowly loosening the connectors on either side (some water will drip out) - Re-tighten connectors - Turn the pump on, and watch for bubbles to gather in the hose, or listen for a faint hissing - Elevate middle of hose gently to cause any bubbles to gather in the middle of the tube where you can see them To fix: - Tighten the connectors; consider wrapping threads in teflon tape - Be sure to hold filters underwater until all air is purged before screwing them on, otherwise it migrates into the tube ===== Reason #4: Air leaking in at pump connectors within the egg ===== To diagnose: - With all other sources of air ruled out, turn the pump on and listen for air going through it (sounds irregular and gurgley, like when you first start a garbage disposal with a big chunk of food). You can also look for bubbles EXITING the egg through the short transparent bit of hose behind connector C. - Gently twist the "T" connector (B) going into the egg by lifting/lowering the side hose. If the air sounds get worse, one of the two seals inside is broken. (You really have to baby this connector otherwise, especially when the water is cold and the vinyl is stiff). To fix: - Flip the egg over and remove the bottom panel - Loosen the hose clamps on either side of the short piece of vinyl tub within - Heat both ends of the tube up with a heat gun or blow dryer - Re-seat both ends on the external connector and the pump, and tighten the hose clamps behind the barb on the fitting ===== Reason #5: Side hose is too short, pulling a kink in short hose behind elbow connector ===== To diagnose: - Examine the short tube behind the elbow connector (embedded inside the tub) to see if it's collapsed badly enough to restrict water flow. To fix: - Buy a foot of vinyl tubing (1" ID, 1.25" OD) from Home Depot ($2.50) - Cut the side hose in half (voiding your warranty, of course), and splice it back together again with the new hose, but with 2 or 3 inches extra in the middle - To do the splice, heat up the new hose with a heat gun (or blow dryer) and work it over the cut ends of the side hose (I was able to get 5 inches of overlap on either side, making the side hose 2 inches longer total) - Fit two wormscrew hose clamps (<$1 each) over the middle of the overlaps while the vinyl is still warm. Be careful that they don't have any sharp edges near the tub wall. ===== General thoughts ===== - It's not good to run the pump dry, so when you first turn it on, either let is soak for an hour (to allow water to work its way in through the filters), or unscrew a filter to let water rush in all at once (albeit unfiltered). If you don't do this, you'll almost certainly get E02 a couple of times before the pump fills up enough to support water flow. - The tub deflates a bit after first inflation, because the warm water works all the wrinkles out - The vinyl side hose and second filter are a design afterthough from Bestway. The early setup videos and product photos don't show it or mention it. I believe that's why it causes so many problems, it needs some redesign. The biggest issue is that moving the side hose around can really torque the T connector going into the egg, loosening one or both of the seals within. - I believe rubbing and brushing the filter when you wash it just packs the gunk into it further, recommend water only. - When installing the tub in a location, don't allow the egg to get squeezed against a wall, which will push on connector C and crush the pump supply tube inside. Remember that the tub walls expand as you fill it, so allow a couple inches between the egg and any walls or railing. This was probably my biggest mistake of the whole adventure. - I didn't get to this point (thankfully), but if you get really desperate and give up on the whole thing (after voiding your warranty), the component parts of the spa are in high demand on ebay. You can part out a Lay-z spa for as much as it's worth, if you're patient and don't mind shipping things. - As with any hot tub, there's a significant cost to operating the thing, almost entirely because of the heater. Running the pump flat out to keep the tub at 104 degrees cost us about $100/month. That was in the winter, with an ambient temperature of ~40 degrees. Electricity is 11.8 cents/kWh for us, so I think the 2kW heater was on about two thirds of the time. By bringing the temperature down to 102, and turning the heater off completely on days we don't use it (about half the time), the cost dropped to ~$35/month. I think I'm losing a lot of heat through the slab it's installed on though, despite a foam pad, so I may put it up on a short platform to see if I can decrease cost further (I am very cheap).