Best No Chemical For Hot Tub

[Waterlogger]

I have heard of this, but have no direct experience or knowledge, so I cannot retort.

[Water Wizard]

Alright so here is my input.

I agree with the couple people that stated the chlorine/bromine is being use incorrectly if you smell it. The odor can come from several factors.
1. High amount of chloromines or bromomines in the water which normally calls for a shock to help remove the dead waste.
2. Over dosing on chlorine/bromine, if I understand correctly there is a portion of your tub where you are placing tablets, if there is not level of adjustment and the tabs are all in contact with the water, 6-10 is dramatic over kill. The average tub of 300-500 gal should only need 2-3 tabs at a time.

Alternatives
1. Some people have referred to a hydrogen peroxide. This is part of a full system however and will not stand alone. The hydrogen peroxide portion only acts as a "shock" and does not work well as a consistent means of keeping the water clear. There are full systems such as BaquaSpa and SoftSoak that use the hydrogen peroxide but also have additional product polyhexamethylene biguanide that will help clear up the water. They are gentle on the skin, have less odor, and the water has a noticeable different in softness. There is however a bit higher level in cost but nothing dramatic. I have not heard of any issues with these product being harder on the equipment, however you will want to clean your filters more regularly due to the fact that the biguanide clumps germs and bacteria together to help keep the water clear and in turn will build up on the filter.

2. Mineral sanitizers also work well as an alternative for tubs with low use. There are many different brands our there such as Frog, Nature2, or Monarch, which use small beads of silver to help kill germs and bacteria. You still will need to supplement with a bromine, chlorine, or potassium based shock in times of high use however.

That is my 2 cents as someone who works in the pool and spa industry. 

[Waterlogger]

This had me thinking, so I asked my chemist friend about using hydrogen peroxide and he informed me that h2o2(hydrogen peroxide) when added to water hotter than 82 degrees F. turns into water and o2 gas, therefore it is not a good alternative sanitizer.

[Quickbeam]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

[Sam]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

UV is definitely helping

[Tman122]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

Does it seem like your water change frequency is higher or lower that other sanitation systems?

[bothfly]

Guys and Gals, thanks for the great info.
So I have a Sundance Spa, has a part on the skimmer that snaps open to add Tabs.
I have been using mini bromine tabs from Leslies, but I guess too many at a time.

I normally add around 6-8 as they seem to dissolve, but might try less.
There is a product at the Local Spa place called Baqua Spa, [url]http://www.baquaspa.com]http://www.lesliespool.com/leslies-48105-spa-bromine-tabs-4lbs/48105.htm/url]
I normally add around 6-8 as they seem to dissolve, but might try less.
There is a product at the Local Spa place called Baqua Spa, [url]http://www.baquaspa.com is it any good?
Thanks

[Quickbeam]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

Does it seem like your water change frequency is higher or lower that other sanitation systems?

This may be a bit of a long winded explanation, so I'll apologize in advance. First off, we are fairly new hot tub owners as we bought our first hot tub early last spring. We were told at the time that we should change the water about every 3 months, so I have been roughly following that schedule. I can't really say it needed changing after 3 months, but I've done it anyways just to stay on top of things.

I should also clarify that in using H2O2 there have been a couple of "bumps along the road" so to speak. As an example, last summer there was a time period where I found the tub was going through a lot more sanitizer (H2O2) than it should have been. Still not sure exactly why. We had gone away on vacation and it was extremely hot while we were away. When we got back there was a problem with our circ. pump which I later found out was an issue that was known to Jacuzzi. I'm not 100% sure this was the problem, but I did some major cleaning with Aah-some and got everything back on track. So while I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, there was definitely a reason why the tub was using so much sanitizer. Had to mould or biofilm or something present. I think this was because of the circ. pump not working correctly, but can't be positive.

I should also note that I have learned that the tub does just naturally tend to use more H2O2 in the heat. I have found that the sanitizer gets used up more quickly in the summer than in the winter.

The only other issue I've had is my fault and I posted about it on this site. I foolishly left my waterfall shut off for a long period of time. Our tub is at a vacation home, so in the winter we are not there a lot. What I've been doing is just putting in a lot of sanitizer and letting the circ. pump take care of things. We then come up a couple of weeks later, put in more sanitizer and it's good to go. It worked great until I went to turn the waterfall on just recently and realized there was mould present. That was my mistake though, not the mistake of the sanitizer. The mould obviously got there because there was no water flow. So, I'm once again going to have to do a pretty major cleaning.

Other than those two incidents, the H2O2 has worked great and I really don't believe either of the above two incidents were because of the sanitizer we use.

[chem geek]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

You can read about hydrogen peroxide in this page from the EPA.  Note that while hydrogen peroxide by itself is not approved by the EPA for disinfection because it does not kill pathogens quickly enough, when used with either ozone or UV these break down the hydrogen peroxide into hydroxyl radicals that are powerful (though very short-lived) oxidizers.  So with a more powerful ozone or UV system it will break down hydrogen peroxide more quickly.  Though the hydroxyl radicals will disinfect water circulated through the system, they will not do anything to any pathogens growing on surfaces, though the hydrogen peroxide itself may inhibit some such bacterial growth.

[Tman122]

All I can tell you is that I've been using it fairly successfully for just under a year, and I have a friend who has been using it successfully for about 5 years. I do have a UV light on my tub as well, so maybe that's part of it. But it's working for us and as I said earlier, without it my wife would not be able to go in the hot tub.

You can read about hydrogen peroxide in this page from the EPA.  Note that while hydrogen peroxide by itself is not approved by the EPA for disinfection because it does not kill pathogens quickly enough, when used with either ozone or UV these break down the hydrogen peroxide into hydroxyl radicals that are powerful (though very short-lived) oxidizers.  So with a more powerful ozone or UV system it will break down hydrogen peroxide more quickly.  Though the hydroxyl radicals will disinfect for water circulated through the system, they will not do anything to any pathogens growing on surfaces, though the hydrogen peroxide itself may inhibit some such bacterial growth.

Whenever someone uses H2O2 I worry about words like "does not kill pathogens" and "very short lived" and "may inhibit" some"

[bothfly]

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas.
I ended up getting a Spa Frog off Amazon.
Will report back on how it does.
Thanks