Just purchased Marquis Spirit. @ease or not?

[Ngav]

Thanks to all on the forum. Lots of info. Just got my new tub. Fully loaded with upgraded 160  pump, Microsilk, radio, steps, cover,cover lifter chemicals delivery etc. Wet tested and purchased fight off the floor as my wife did not want to wait for another. (Dealer says was on floor 3 months) $9600. Fair price? Also dealer recommends @ease rather than bromine for the inline spa frog. Any opinions one way or the other? Brand new to hot tubs and no clue

[castletonia]

Congrats on the Purchase, the Spirit is a great spa.  I think you did pretty well, I would have been over $10k for that spa. 

As for the chemicals, that is a personal preference.  If you have never smelled bromine, do so.  It has a unique smell and if you don't like it, that will probably be your deciding factor.  The @ease is a newer system and so far I have had good luck with it.  The advice I can offer would be that in the directions that say you only have to shock once a month, that will not be sufficient, do so once a week like you would with any other chemical system.  FWIW, all hot tubs I sell I give the customer the option between @ease and bromine.  Typically unless my customers already had hot tubs with bromine, they go with the @ease.

[The Wizard of Spas]

I as well have had positive experiences with @ease, albeit for not nearly as long as Nature II, Chlorine or Bromine.  The only thing I would say about @ease that hasn't been mentioned on its many threads in here is something I found out from King Technology (the manufacturer of Spa Frog's @ease) is that their marketing is off:

1. The pH MUST be betweein 7.2-7.4, despite their current literature that allows for a reading between 7.2-7.8.
2. The spa temp MUST be 98*F or higher for this to work.  I've struggled with clarity issues on my showroom models in both the in-line and floater version of @ease and kept the chemistry balanced.  After a few months I finally reached back out to King Technology and their chemist told me of these two things that may be a deal-breaker for some. 

In all:  You really can't go wrong with just about any sanitation system, as long as you stay on top of the pH, alkalinity and sanitizer at all times.

Hope this helps.  Good luck moving forward.

[Ngav]

Thanks for the replies ..  I will try with the @ease. I think I also read somewhere here that I can switch to bromine if I want from the @ease without refilling the tub.. or was it the other way around?

[MarKee]

Congrats. The Spirit is an awesome tub.

[jphelps1511]

Just a comment on the Frogger.  I have one and got tired of replacing the bromine very quickly at $14 or so every other week or so.  So I bought a big bucket, probably 25lbs of the bromine discs (about 1" OD) for not much money on ebay and pried the top of the Frogger bromine holder and cut two smalls tabs off.  Now I can refill the bromine every week at a small fraction of the $14.  Buy all chemicals in bulk, even from industrial suppliers and you will save a lot of money.

Spa companies like to sell these in small quantities at huge markups.