I was under the impression that one should stay away from the cheaper box store product due to poor quality??
That's what dealers would like you to believe (no offense to dealers here who are very helpful). It is one of their biggest mark up products. My dealer gave me a 1 year supply of Mineraluxe for our hot tub on purchase. Oh boy! Not.. only to find out later that it is basically household goods. It is $100/month if it holds out that long. If not, you are buying more, so of course they want you in the store buying their chemicals.
Here is how my water breaks down for those who asked:
Sunday I measure chlorine, TA and PH. I adjust with liquid chlorine from Canadian Tire to pump up the levels to about 5 or 6ppm. I measure the PH then the TA. Make a note of adjustment, which is typically an ounce of baking soda as the TA usually drops 10ppm between Sunday and Wed and Wed/Sun. I turn on pump 1 on high, turn on pump 2, put my chlorine in, put my baking soda in, lower the lid, and walk away. Our usage pattern is extremely static so unless we have people over or don't use the tub it is pretty much the same every 3 or 4 days. Now, I have a chlorine floater which adds in acid to the tub due to the nature of those pesky mini-trichlor tabs, so that is why I adjust the schedule I do. I like to keep my water as close to awesome as possible. If I went a week, which sometimes I do in winter because it is -40F/C outside, then I just adjust the amount of baking soda to bring up the TA. The PH I don't worry about too much if it goes high as I know it will come right back down with that pesky chlorine floater in there.
Sometimes I will use borax to bring just the PH up if the TA is doing ok. I have only had a few times where my water went bad as I ran out of chlorine in the tub. That wasn't fun..
The first thing you need is a good test kit. You'll buy the Taylor K-2006 kit off of Ebay if you use chlorine.. Sorry about the exchange, as it is brutal right now. And get the replacement reagents in the 2oz bottle as well while you are at it along with another bottle of DPD powder. Actually, you can get away with the HTH strips from Walmart as I tested them against my taylor kit the other day for FC. It was within 1 ppm, so I use those if I am low on dpd powder from the test kit like I am now. Basically I want to know if there is any or low chlorine in the tub. I have worked out how much chlorine I put in (about 4 oz) to get it up to 5 or 6 ppm from my original reading.
The test kit will cost you, but let me tell you.. it is the best thing to have if you are serious about water. I know, I know.. a ton of people use test strips and they run back and forth to the store to get chemicals and adjust the tub. With the test kit, this site, and the pool calc website, it's basically all you need. We get hosed in Canada for all this stuff unfortunately so Ebay is your friend.
Oh, in the winter, on a fresh fill, you'll find the PH is just stubborn as all hell to get down. You'll need some PH minus after the water heats for 12 hours if you get cold like I do. My water in late oct/early nov reads 34F on the tub.. just above the ICE message,lmao. PH minus you just keep adding some at a time, and keep checking your water. You will break it, it is just stubborn. There is a great post by Nitro on this on a different forum about just keeping at it. Once you get it down, you are good to go. Just keep an eye on it and stabilize it. Home depot has great prices on their spa chemicals. Can Tire right now just cleared out their spa stuff but holds it in the back if you need some chemicals and can't find it anywhere else.
I measured my CH and made a note of it. Depending on if you have hard or soft water you may need to add something else, but nothing is too crazy. I don't use the true exact BBB method as it calls for 50ppm of borates to keep the PH down from drifting. With my setup I don't really worry about that too much as I always have some acid coming from the tabs in my floater. That's the only thing I don't do. Well, that an lemon juice. I don't use lemon juice. Although I might smell better
Ah, and CYA.. I gave up on that. I know you should test for it, and I did, but trying to get all the test kit refills was just a serious hassle and that cya was proving tough to find. I just know it will build up and I live with it. Chlorine is cheaper than buying the CYA refills from across the line. It won't kill you to have to use more due to the CYA buildup.
My tub water change goes like this:
Early Nov - Fill and drain (depends on weather!!)
Late March - Fill and drain (again, depends on weather)
Late July - Fill and drain
Early Nov...
Seems to work well so far. Winter is the worst to push water that long but I don't have a choice. I just don't think that equipment area is worth risking because I don't want to push water for 6 months..I can put up with using more chlorine as the CYA builds up high..
Hope that helps. Sorry for the small novel.
Small edit: I keep my readings at ..
PH 7.6-7.8 (high side to compensate for the mini trichlor pucks)
FC- 5-6ppm
TA: 80-100ppm
CH: 160
CYA:.. yeah. it's there
It is a bit on the "alkaline" side, but I read here I think.. 'it is better to be a bit more alkaline, than acidic."
