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Our house has a whirlpool jetted tub that my parents installed probably 22 years ago. My wife has used it regularly since we moved into the house 6 years ago. The other day the pump wouldn't turn on, it just hums.
She's bugging me to tear it apart and fix it, but my concern is that given it's age, I dont know if it would even be feasible to attempt to fix it. I'm assuming that either the pump or the motor locked up due to old dry bearings or a seal started leaking and then froze a bearing.
Should I try to tear into it, or would it be better to save our pennies and just replace the entire tub?
My concern about tearing into it is that a. probably can't get parts to fix it. and b. what if i tear into it and then cannot successfully get it back together leak free.
it seems that a person can get a new jetted tub on sale for under $500 and a replacement motor/pump for this one if it can even be purchased would probably be a good chunk of that cost.
wow, i should have researched the pump before i posted lol. i can get a brand new pump online for $120. So, i will probably just go that route. It doesn't look to be too difficult to do if I can get to the bolts holding it down. It appears my dad didn't build a door into the water wall on that end of the tub, so i might have to cut an opening so that i can get right to the pump. fun fun!
Do some research on that model of tub to find out about accessing the pump area. A lot of times it's not very obvious. On my old tub the entire skirt needed to be removed. You might be able to go in through the wall behind the tub.
We had such a tub in a house built with it in 2002. The access to the pump etc was through the back of the adjacent bathroom's vanity. Kind of clever, I always thought.
I can save you $120-
Access the pump; on the cooling fan end there is usually an access hole to the shaft. A large flat blade screwdriver, and a few twists you're good to go.
The ceramic seal between the pump and the motor will kinda seize up on the shaft- the motor itself doesn't have enough torque to break it loose. But a twist of the screwdriver will usually put you back in business.
Be sure it's not a simple fix of finding a reset button on the motor.
If it's humming (as stated by the OP) that wouldn't be an issue.
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