Ease inline smartchlor

[Conine2965]

Got free start up kit looking for thoughts or tips and tricks.

[bud16415]

I have used a few cartridges and they seem to work great. I put one in when I know I will be gone for a couple weeks to a month. Selecting the correct setting is the trick.

[Sam]

It's a great system that works well but I recommend having some granular chlorine on hand.  It's such a low chemical system that it can have a hard time keeping up with a sudden heavy bather load.  Throw a few teaspoons of dichlor after a heavy usage period and you should be good to go.  We've had great luck with this system.

[Conine2965]

Can you get the smartchlor in bulk?

[bud16415]

Can you get the smartchlor in bulk?

Not that I know of.

If you could I would just pop the top off he canister and refill my own. Once you put a cartridge in you need to leave it in until it is used up. As Sam mentioned it is compatible with dichlor so that is what I would use for supplemental sanitizer.

The difference between smartchlor and dichlor is the time it takes for it to break down. If you filled your canister with dichlor it wouldn’t go a month it would all be in dilution in your water in a few minutes and your chlorine level would be off the charts. Dichlor is perfect for the quick hit or a daily dose program like I do. It works fast cleans your water and then is almost gone the next day. The smartchlor works slowly and all the time, and in the end does the same job.

The problem happens when you have your cartridge set for the two of you using the tub for 45 minutes per day after showering and then the weekend comes and you have friends over and the tub gets 3 times the usage and your friends forget to rinse their swimsuits 100% and maybe they used some body lotion etc. Sunday morning you get up for a morning soak with drinking your coffee and you find your tub cloudy and smelling funky. The slight dose the system was set at wasn’t enough. If you would have added a tablespoon of dichlor Saturday night before bed you would have woke up to a sparkling clean tub.

It is so much easier to correct a problem before it happens rather than after. The hardest thing people new to hot tubs do is trying to keep the sanitizer level too perfect on the low end. I had no clue when we started how much 5PPM was or how strong these things were or how bad they would be if they were higher. When I started using Clorox bleach it came into perspective better because we all use bleach for cleaning and laundry. Now I’m looking at 400 gallons of water and I’m putting less bleach in it than I would a load of whites or a bucket of water for cleaning and then I measure the PPM and the light came on it doesn’t take a huge amount of this stuff to clean your water. 5PPM is really a small amount. Don’t be afraid to use a little when you think you need it.         

[Sam]

Can you get the smartchlor in bulk?

Not that I know of.

If you could I would just pop the top off he canister and refill my own. Once you put a cartridge in you need to leave it in until it is used up. As Sam mentioned it is compatible with dichlor so that is what I would use for supplemental sanitizer.

The difference between smartchlor and dichlor is the time it takes for it to break down. If you filled your canister with dichlor it wouldn’t go a month it would all be in dilution in your water in a few minutes and your chlorine level would be off the charts. Dichlor is perfect for the quick hit or a daily dose program like I do. It works fast cleans your water and then is almost gone the next day. The smartchlor works slowly and all the time, and in the end does the same job.

The problem happens when you have your cartridge set for the two of you using the tub for 45 minutes per day after showering and then the weekend comes and you have friends over and the tub gets 3 times the usage and your friends forget to rinse their swimsuits 100% and maybe they used some body lotion etc. Sunday morning you get up for a morning soak with drinking your coffee and you find your tub cloudy and smelling funky. The slight dose the system was set at wasn’t enough. If you would have added a tablespoon of dichlor Saturday night before bed you would have woke up to a sparkling clean tub.

It is so much easier to correct a problem before it happens rather than after. The hardest thing people new to hot tubs do is trying to keep the sanitizer level too perfect on the low end. I had no clue when we started how much 5PPM was or how strong these things were or how bad they would be if they were higher. When I started using Clorox bleach it came into perspective better because we all use bleach for cleaning and laundry. Now I’m looking at 400 gallons of water and I’m putting less bleach in it than I would a load of whites or a bucket of water for cleaning and then I measure the PPM and the light came on it doesn’t take a huge amount of this stuff to clean your water. 5PPM is really a small amount. Don’t be afraid to use a little when you think you need it.       

Good post.  After doing this for so many years it's hard to think about things from the perspective of someone new to this.  I take for granted that 5ppm doesn't mean much to most people. 

[Conine2965]

Thanks for info. I had a previous hot tub used chlorine this is first time I had inline. So I should just add alittle extra dichlor when I have a heavy better load? What about shock they say to use a,non chlorine shock is that what you use and how often?

[bud16415]

Thanks for info. I had a previous hot tub used chlorine this is first time I had inline. So I should just add alittle extra dichlor when I have a heavy better load? What about shock they say to use a,non chlorine shock is that what you use and how often?

I would say that also depends on bather load. In our case two people using a 6 person tub we shock between once a week and every other week. I kind of go by how the water looks. When it looses its sparkle that’s a sign it needs it.

Others may have a more scientific method.

[buba]

Can you get the smartchlor in bulk?

I do not know if you can or not but would like to know.  I have measured the dry weight of a new @ease floater cartridge at 8.4oz and an empty one at 2.4oz which mean they are filled with 6 dry oz by weight of the smartchlor chlorine. If we can find a source I am sure we could figure out a way to refill the floaters and save some money.

Since this is a thread about inline there is a separate topic (which I cannot find) where someone measured the inline cartridge and reported it contained about 1 cup (liquid measure cup not dry weight) of smartchlor.

[Conine2965]

I would love to refill for 12.99 which is the cheapest I have found for cartridges. I could by almost 3 pounds of dichlor.

[hottubdan]

If you want cheapest method, use dichlor. Or bleach.  Mineral systems are a little pricier, but make for nicer water.  Salt systems are priciest, but make the most natural water.  You can't have it all.  There are trade offs. Make a choice.

[BullFrogSpasMN]

If you want cheapest method, use dichlor. Or bleach.  Mineral systems are a little pricier, but make for nicer water.  Salt systems are priciest, but make the most natural water.  You can't have it all.  There are trade offs. Make a choice.

100% Spot On! If you want to save money and become a chemist in the process you can go to various hardware stores and source a gallon of muriatic acid, couple jugs of bleach, some baking soda and learn how to manage it...if you want convenience you'll pay more for mineral sticks, convenient pre-packaged floating cartridges, water conditioners, salt systems, etc.

[bud16415]

Can you get the smartchlor in bulk?

I do not know if you can or not but would like to know.  I have measured the dry weight of a new @ease floater cartridge at 8.4oz and an empty one at 2.4oz which mean they are filled with 6 dry oz by weight of the smartchlor chlorine. If we can find a source I am sure we could figure out a way to refill the floaters and save some money.

Since this is a thread about inline there is a separate topic (which I cannot find) where someone measured the inline cartridge and reported it contained about 1 cup (liquid measure cup not dry weight) of smartchlor.

I started the thread where I measured the contents of the @ease container and use part of it each time I go away for a week or two.

https://www.whatsthebest-hottub.com/forum/index.php/topic,19861.msg197052.html#msg197052

My problem with cost is only secondary. I started out with the inline Frog bromine and my major problem was I felt the dispensing rate was not constant thru the life of the cartridge and our bather load would go up and down and I was all the time pulling the cartridge out and changing the setting. I didn’t try the @ease smart-chlor enough to know if it would be the same problem but some of the posts show it is a good idea to supplement that also when load is high.

Once I saw the cost savings to just doing it all manually as I was still doing a lot of the other steps manually anyway. I figured what is one more step. If I’m checking the water anyway to just dump in a small amount of bleach.

The set it and forget it part never worked for me. 

[buba]

What is so 'Smart' about the chemicals used in the @Ease system? Or is the design of the cartridge what is 'Smart'? If it is the cartridge dispensing system that is 'Smart' then why can the cartridge not be refilled with the correct chemicals and save some money in the process?

The active ingredients in the @ease system is follows.

Active Ingredients:
  1.3-dichloro-5, 5-Dimethylhydantoin 81.1%
  1.3-dichloro-5-ethyl-5-methylhydantoin 16.1%
Other Ingredients: 2.8%
Total: 100.0%

FYI: this is the same chemical formulation as DANTOCHLOR from Lonza (Could this be one and the same as 'Smartchlor"?)

http://bio.lonza.com/uploads/tx_mwaxmarketingmaterial/Lonza_ProductDataSheets_Dantochlor_PDS.pdf

http://patents.justia.com/patent/20140369886

[Conine2965]

Looks like the same stuff any idea where you can buy it