Natural Hot Tub co

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Well I have started my adventures with the All Natural Treatment by the Natural Hot Tub Company.

I have done the spa Penetrating Cleanser. I am draining the spa today while here at work and will refill when i get home. The spa is sqeaky clean, granted it is only 3 months old, but I was having issues with foam. When I added the cleaner it made a goo foam, but that soon went away. This stuff is not foamy at all like the swirl away or jet clean. I pulled all the jets and a few had some white residue that was making them a bit hard to turn(an issue I am trying to get Brillance to figure out what it is, seems to be a risidual salt byproduct) the cleanser got them freed up and clean again.

I am draining right on my lawn as this is part of their advertising that all is safe. I soaked and cleaned the filters with their filter soak which is also safe to just dump on the lawn.

Tonight when tub is up to 90, I will add the water treatment and dichlor as the directions say. If you follow their directions, you only need dichlor 1x per week, but in talking with them I will need to add it more often. They suggest adding a small amount when you are done soaking, then leave the jets on full for at least 10 mins. with the cover open to gas it off, leaving you a virtually chlorine free tub.

I hate the idea of having to go back out to the tub to shut the cover after 10 mins. or so, specially in the winter, we will see if it is worth it.

I will keep all posted on my adventure. please if anyone else uses this seeweed based product, let me know.

[Vinny]

Is this the stuff that Doc sells on his web site? I know you're a spa retailer but if it is, some people there have had good results.

A question to you though - if you adding small amounts, I would assume you are talking 1 PPM why do you have to leave the cover off for 10 minutes? Typically dichlor users tend to only leave the cover open when they shock and we add 3 PPM as a normal dose.

What info I've gotten from enzyme companies is that chlorine and enzymes seem to be counter productive ... enzymes will be eaten by the chlorine you've added so as you add chlorine the enzymes become less. Less enzymes means less effectiveness which causes to either add more enzymes or more chlorine.

I sometimes wonder if adding the enzymes is like adding good bacteria to a fishtank - you want to establish aerobic bacteria in a fishtank to outnumber anarobic which would be devistating. The more colonies of aerobic you have the better the fish will flourish.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Is this the stuff that Doc sells on his web site?

Vaguely similar, but no. As I understand it the All Natural Treatment by the Natural Hot Tub Company is the original formula, while what we offer, "The Natural", is a reformulated, improved version with the same basic ingredients. I should note, NEITHER are EPA approved sanitizers.

[Vinny]

Vaguely similar, but no. As I understand it the All Natural Treatment by the Natural Hot Tub Company is the original formula, while what we offer, "The Natural", is a reformulated, improved version with the same basic ingredients. I should note, NEITHER are EPA approved sanitizers.

I had some communication with the Eco One people when I first got my spa and they claimed to be the original as well.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

  I'm rather confidant that I've been selling the stuff we have for longer than Eco One has been around.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

.I should note, NEITHER are EPA approved sanitizers.

They did say they are not EPA approved, thats why the dichlor. He told me to leave the cover open to gas off the dichlor which would make it an "all natural system". I have my reservations about using dichlor each use, may as well just use dichlor, but we will see.

I was told that the dichlor does not eat the enzyme by this company and eco one. Not sure if it is true or not. So far it has a really nice fresh smell, no chlorine smell at all. First night I had a white scum line even though I made sure to be thourghly clean, but it went away. I have a 540 gallon spa and I am only adding about 3/4 ounce of dichlor after use....

Time will tell......

[Chas]

He told me to leave the cover open to gas off the dichlor which would make it an "all natural system". I have my reservations about using dichlor each use, may as well just use dichlor, but we will see.

You took the words right out of my fingers.


 8-)

[Steve]

We were big users of an enzyme system but we always told our customers to wait 6 hours after the addition of the enzymes before adding chlorine. Chlorine will kill anything including enzymes.

Leaving the cover open is only required when shocking and not just adding small amounts of dichlor. There is no offgasing when just adding a small amount.

I'm confused though how this can be called an "all natural system" when dichlor is in the mix? :-? I wouldn't suggest NOT using dichlor but I wouldn't suggest it is all natural either!  

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Chlorine is in the table of elements, therefore"natural" (so is Bromine!)

I am going to try to use the least amount of dichlor as I can get away with without having soup and see what happens. They call this stuff water treatment and directions say to shock weekly or as needed. They suggest dichlor because it is environmentally friendly due to it dissipating quickly in hot water and it is also a risdual sanitizer.

I guess I am a bit on the wary side.....the tub does smell nice, I do not notice a difference in the feel of my skin after soaking, but $34.95 is a lot of money unless it does wonders. I still like N2 with the low chlorine recipe as a "natural" choice.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Well, I have cut the chlorine down to about a half of teaspoon after use for 2 nights. Still clear and smells nice. My risdual is at .5 the next day, plus I have 24 hour ozone. The PH has stayed constant at 7.8 so far. Hard to get used to that being ok since this system runs normal 7.8-8.4. 7.8 I can deal with...8.4 I may get a bit worried.

Time will tell, and next months 10 vacation will be intersting to see what happens to it!

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Well, I have found I can not keep the chlorine level as low now that a little more time has passed. I have to use the recommed amounts that I would need if I was using just chlorine, but if i do the chlorine when exiting the tub there is little to no chlorine smell the next night. The water has stayed clean, no spa ring and the PH stays at a soilid 7.8-7.9.

So at this point I have not had to adjust the PH or add anything but the dichlor. Water is great, does not seem to be drying to the skin like straight dichlor at this point.

No one else that has had experience with this or other"seaweed" based systems. What do I have to expect further down the road?

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Week 2 of this system.....Have been having to use more dichlor to keep a reading. Super shocked 2 days ago, was ok for a day, now my total chlorine is high and free chlorine low...have to super shock again. Right now strong smell of chlorine....debating if I will shock with MPS although they don't suggest this because the inhert ingreidients in MPS are not all natural......

Ph has been ok except the last 2 days, it is falling lower. Maybe because my tub needs a shock.

Water is still crystal clear with no foam...

As we go on it will be coming down to....Is it worth the cost....are we saving that much in clarifiers/ph adjusters and foam down?

Will update again next week....Still looking for other users exsperiences....

[Vinny]

Week 2 of this system.....Have been having to use more dichlor to keep a reading. Super shocked 2 days ago, was ok for a day, now my total chlorine is high and free chlorine low...have to super shock again. Right now strong smell of chlorine....debating if I will shock with MPS although they don't suggest this because the inhert ingreidients in MPS are not all natural......

Ph has been ok except the last 2 days, it is falling lower. Maybe because my tub needs a shock.

Water is still crystal clear with no foam...

As we go on it will be coming down to....Is it worth the cost....are we saving that much in clarifiers/ph adjusters and foam down?

Will update again next week....Still looking for other users exsperiences....

Hillbilly,

I know you guys are professionals in the spa business but I have to say as a consumer - it doesn't seem worth it.

If you're adding as much chlorine as you did, what's the point. You said you super shocked - what was the combined chlorine reading when you shocked? If you didn't get that 10x more free chlorine than combined then you just added to the  problem. If you did and you have a high combined chlorine ... I'll give you one guess how it got that high.  

I know you're new here and I don't know if you're familiar with the Vermonter method but most of us who use chlorine use his method. A few of us are using bleach and at least for my experiment so far it has worked OK. Even shocked with it and my tub is OK with it's water chemistry and I'm not adding any stabilizer.

I can appeciate the idea of experimenting, the people here can tell you I have done some experimenting with my tub and if that's all it is - I think you may prove (or is it disprove) how good those enzymes really work ... at least for you. During my experiments I have found that ozone is no big deal and that N2 or the Frog isn't either - for my water.

Keep us informed!

Vinny

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

I experiment because I will not sell something in my store unless I can say it works. I am farmilar with the Vermonter method, its on another forum, but I can't honestly push that method. For 1, it will void the warrenties of the tubs we sell amd 2, the newer tubs with many jets raise the PH way to much to deal with all the time.

I have to disagree also with your opinion of N2, I love that system overall. I only had to add chlorine once a week, MPS after each use, Sea Klear natural clarifier and I never had an issue. I also like Brillance chlorine free bromine system, no bad bromine smell like traditional bromine.

Now the next week of the natural. I got it figured out that I was not using enough dichlor to oxidize all the wastes causing me to have the chlorine smell and having to super shock (yes it was at least 10x more). Being that I feel this is very costly to be adding this much dichlor, I decided to use MPS to shock with. Although they do not suggest MPS because it has inhert ingreidients that will make the water no"pure" when I dump it, they said it could be used. Doing this has decreased how much dichlor I have to add and I have no chlorine smell. PH is staying at 7.8 without any adjustments, water is still clear and no foam at all.

I leave for 2 weeks of vacation next week, so that will be the test. They told me to shock before I go, making sure the chlorine level is at 5 when we leave. We will see.

They cost for this system has been high, and I am not a big chlorine fan, so I am not big on that aspect. If I did not start using MPS to shock, my CYA would have been sky high and about due to dump the tub. No way would I have got 3 months from this water, since the MPS it has required less chlorine.

It does not seem to dry my skin anymore than I all ready have, but it is not helping it noticably either. No signs of itch, but I never had an issue with itching at any other time except if the PH was off. Have a couple of jets that are turning on/off hard. I have to pull them out during the day to see why. I worry where the PH tends to be on the higher side with this system.

Still no one else out there that has used this system over time that can chime in to likes and dislikes???

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Also, I forgot to add,  I asked how the enzymes did not die with the chlorine and ozone. I was told that their enzymes are not living like other companies, so they can't die like the others. I then asked how "dead" enzymes "eat" up the goo and I was told it was a trade secret of a secret mixture of enzymes.

I was never told how this scientifically worked. At this point for all I know, it may be a glorified clarifier and PH buffer!

I was a bit angry that they could not exsplain how dead critters eat, at least in laymans terms. I did not want thair recipe!