Why Kenmore leak repair calls look the way they do
Water loss in Kenmore has two innocent explanations — evaporation and splash-out — and a long list of real ones. The tape test separates them: mark the level, cover on, 24 hours. If it dropped more than a quarter inch, call us.
Kenmore tubs tend to be mid-size, mid-2000s units — Sundance, Caldera, Hot Spring — now at the age where heaters and circ pumps come due. The plumbing on those tubs is at the age where glued joints in the foam let go one at a time; in Kenmore we open the foam only where the moisture meter says to.
Kenmore sits at the top of Lake Washington, with Inglewood and Arrowhead on the slopes and Uplake and Lakepointe near the water, and it is the far southeast corner of our route. We work Inglewood, Arrowhead, Moorlands, Uplake, Lakepointe and the rest of Kenmore (98028).
What Kenmore owners describe on the phone
Wet pad under the equipment door
Nearly always a pump shaft seal, a union o-ring or the heater manifold gasket. All three are same-day repairs with parts off the van.
Damp foam, no obvious source
A jet body or a glued joint inside the foam. We find it with the moisture meter and dye, cut only what is needed, and re-foam.
Leak only when jets run
Pressure-side plumbing — a jet gasket, a diverter or a cracked manifold. The tub holds water when idle and loses it under pressure.
Level drops an inch or more a week
Beyond evaporation. We tape the level, confirm the loss, then isolate: pump off versus pump on tells us whether it is pressure side or suction side.
Kenmore note. Deck-mounted tubs with the equipment bay under the decking take longer; we book those as a half-day the first time.
How the visit runs
- A call half an hour before we arrive — about 20 minutes southeast via I-405 and Bothell Way
- Diagnosis with a meter, then one written price you approve
- Calcium and alkalinity checked for Northshore Utility District water
- Special-order parts arrive the next business day in most cases
- If the tub is not worth fixing, we say so
Scope, plainly: the spa and what lives inside its skirt. New circuits, supply plumbing and setting new tubs go to an electrician or a dealer.