Well, our hot tub has been a little bit neglected over the summer.  I went to put some chemicals in and noticed that the water was a bit low.  Added some and the next day we had a TON of water suddenly gone.  So, its time for some investigation.

We found 2 main leak problems with our J365 Jacuzzi hot tub – one of the pump hoses had come off from the pump and was leaking.  Easy enough to fix with a band clamp.  The other issue was apparently one that had been going on for some time – the little ‘waterfall’ pump had been leaking.  So, it was time to replace it.

Opening up the back panel revealed a lot of water-logged paper and a little bit of mold as a result of this long-time leak.  In order to get to the back of the waterfall, we had to take out a bit of the foam.  Here’s an image looking up:

This unit has 2 main connections – the main water connection, and the LED connection.  Since our hot tub was an older vintage, a small LED jumper was required, but luckily came with this kit we found at the Spa Store online.  Here’s a link to the item (Jacuzzi® J-300 Series 6560-125 Waterfall KIT Assembly Replacement (2007-2014). NEW VERSION):

So, in order to get that installed, we first had to get the old one out.  Digging into the foam was the worst of it.  A tool did help to loosen the large plastic nut.  We did end up breaking off the plastic connection joint from the old unit, so it took some extra time to get it out of the hose.

The next challenge was fishing the LED lighting connection to the front of the jacuzzi.  The panel for the LED lighting connections was on the other side.  While using fishing line helped, we ultimately ended up having to remove the side panel, since we couldn’t pull it through.

The LED power panel is located to the left of the main control panel (opposite side of the waterfall).  Ribbon cables are used, and are easy to remove by pushing the tabs out (similar to the connections for installing memory in your computer).  As you can see below, this panel wasn’t properly secured, so after we got everything working, we secured it to the wood behind the panel.

Since our hot tub was a little older, we needed to use the adapter cable the kit came with.  If your hot tub is newer, you may not require it.

All in all, this job took approximately 90 minutes, with both of us working together (Gary working on the waterfall assembly, me routing and connecting the LED power).  Not too bad for a nights work!