So at great pains, I squeezed myself into the tight side corner of the hot tub, managed to unscrew the fastenings to this access panel with an appropriate Allen wrench, only dropping it a couple of times, and, amazingly, refraining from swearing under my breath.
Here's what lies behind that faux cedar paneling. In the middle of the pink circle, there's a doohickey with wires attached to it sticking out of a screw-on gasket that is definitely dripping at a steady rate. But it's a really slow drip and based on the musty smells that emanated from this cavity, and the look of mold on the exterior of the PVC pipes, as well as some of the rot evidenced at the base of the unit where there is real wood, I kind of suspect this little tiny leak existed for quite a while. Especially since I can't imagine why it would leak causing this amount of water loss suddenly after I had changed out my filter back in 2020.
But perhaps, it could be due to the fact that just prior to me taking this picture, I flaked off a good quarter inch chunk of white compacted powdery residue that was surrounding this small gasket. No doubt, a collection of crystallized chlorine or other chemicals. Was that a buildup of a few years of a slow drip leaching chemicals onto the exterior of the gasket? Or did my aggressive chemical bombing, that I practiced on a regular basis (even staining part of the blue shell) back when I used this hot tub regularly throughout 2019, cause some corrosion?
If this really is the only culprit, then perhaps this fix a leak gunk that I'll be buying today might remedy this.
I also placed an arrow in the picture showing the approximate location of the bottom of one of the PVC valves that come off of the filter intake. Unfortunately, it's behind this barrier and is not at all accessible, not even to see if there is any dripping from it. But looking at the PVC piping that is exposed here, I can see it's all pretty sturdy and thick and joined together with PVC pipe cement, not screwed together like the cheap ass pipes under my kitchen sink.
The wires coming out of this doohickey look intact and insulated enough but it does make me a little leery. When I turn the motor on later today, well, let's just say, I hope that this isn't my last post, if you know what I mean.