thanks Golfgeek, one question. The skimmer isn't the same that's in the pool (that does have tile at the bottom), the one in the spa is just a white plastic square that looks almost identical to the one I've linked to below. The PB put a pipe in the center to raise up the water level, but that's what's causing the suction problems. Do you think if the PB could do something to keep the "flap" static that would have the same effect? I appreciate your insight, thanks!!! Luvh20 -funny, we didn't want the spillover b/c my husband hates the noise they make. oooops. Here is a link that might be useful: link to skimmer that is similar to one in our spa

How much water are you losing? The agitation of the jets usually throws water in to the pool, dropping the spa level, and if people are getting in it the water displacement will also flow into the pool. If you are running a control system, make sure your heater itself is set to the highest temp. It may be set to 90 degrees, and will cut it off before it reaches your control systems desired temp.

My take on spas.... I'm a stunt woman and my husband is a stunt man.....we do physical stuff like falling, fights and car stunts so we pretty much require a spa to take care of my sore muscles. We have thoroughly enjoyed our spa and even if I wasn't a stunt woman I would still have a spa. It's kind of funny when we have a party and they're are a few stunt people here, they always seem to be in the spa instead of the pool, lol. Our spa has 6 jets but, 10 people can comfortably sit in the spa. It's a large spa but, didn't cost me anymore than having a regular sized round spa. Had we put in more jets, that would have been a different deal. One side of the spa doesn't have jets which is great because sometimes I just want to feel the heat. I use my spa daily and if not in the day it's used at night. During the summer it takes 10 minutes to heat and during the winter about 30 minutes even if the temp. is at 55 - 60 degrees. Although I'm in So. Cal. and the winters are mild here, our pool water will still go down into the mid 50s. You don't have to heat the spa to enjoy it during the summer or during the day. I use it for the jets. I'll warm it up to whatever desired temperature I feel I need, if I heat it at all. It's nice because it's above the pool with a nice spill over so when the pool starts cooling down, we'll get a little heat spilling over into the pool. I have an above ground Cal Spa which was great when I was using it but, I personally don't like the smell of the chemicals which caused me to not want to even go in it. My bathing suit smelled and so did my skin. I even put fragrance in the spa and it would temporarily help hide the smell of the bromine chemicals. I basically lost interest in that spa. I've tried to sell it...and I can't even give that spa away. I've offered it to several of my friends to come get it. My pool spa doesn't smell of any chemicals what so ever but, I do have a SWG which helps. So with that being said.....If I were to build another pool someday (and I'LL BE THE BUILDER!) I wouldn't go without a spa.

With your setup I've found that the very low speeds prefer a spa at pool level, when the spa is raised you experience your dilemma. My suggestion is programming the computer to run the spa for an hour at the low speed in the morning, run the pool at low speed during the day, and then having the spa run again for an hour in the early evening. With this schedule you get maximum electrical savings and maximum sanitization for the spa. I disagree with mas985 on simply running at a higher speed for a half hour once daily, this body of water (spa) is the most susceptible to UV degradation of chlorine and escalation of the water temperature. If you choose his method run at least 45 minutes at high speed twice daily. I also disagree with racket too, to many avenues of return and bypasses will always seem to outfox the second fox. In other words, only the plumber and the original owner get it, and many times it's just the plumber because it outfoxed the pool owner too. Plus it costs for the prices of actuators and relay spaces. IMO your better served running the very low speed all the time and doing the spa, pool, spa daily cycle thing. Just my .02 See ya, Kelly