Weir Gate vs. Pressure Filter

Yesterday a hot tub manufacturer called me soliciting me to sell their brand of hot tub. I had received a call the day before by one of the owners of this company asking the same question, and did not expect to hear from them for awhile at best. Anyway, the first question I asked her to was this: Does your hot tub use a weir gate (pic coming soon) or pressure filter (pic coming soon)? After her response and quick justification, I rattled off the top 5 hot tub manufacturers and explained that non of these companies use pressure filters. Here is why: Pressure filters still require a separate skimmer to be plumbed in to deal with floating stuff like body oil, leaves etc. Even still, the small hole (1.5 diameter max) does not really do as effective job as a wide mouth weir gate or weir basket. Next, filter media size. There is a pressure canister that holds a 1oo square foot cartridge, however, while I was doing some 3rd party warranty work (whole other blog material) on a brand that used them, I found them to be VERY problematic and susceptible to cracking. The typical canister is 25/50 sq Ft and does not have those types of problems, however that is pretty small. Next, pressure canisters require an o-ringed lid and locking ring in order to pressurize. These lids are VERY susceptible to hair line cracking resulting in a depressurized system. Systems that also use a pressure switch for the heater, there will be a "flo" error and no heat. ((pressure switch vs. Flow switch is a whole other blog episode)) Also, the o-ring requires lube in order to seal properly, guess what happens to this lube when water washes it away, a very hard to remove lid!! As for skimmer filtration canisters (middle picture) they are difficult to get the filters into, and require small and or stacking filters. In conclusion, top manufacturers do not build hot tubs that used pressure filters, and I will not sell ones that do. I could not look my clients in the eyes as I remove the filter lid that they can not remove themselves. -Gary www.spafixer.com