Hello All;
Everyone has been very helpful from my start up into getting a tub and although I haven't had lots of concerns problems or questions to stay active with here, just wanted to re-cap my experience as a newb and thank everyone again for the great resource you all support here. I had to learn plenty leading up to October 2018 and it's been a trouble free year.
About 53 weeks ago our new-to-us tub was delivered and set up but left empty for about a week. -2004 Marquis Reward-
I was racing the clock as we were 'gifted' a tub that was completely unexpected and I didn't want to hold up the folks donating so I made quick work out of putting in a raised paver stone patio with 2 block high retaining wall. Working in snow and rain, moving dirt and sand then packing and putting in 40# pavers x 60 or so wore me down pretty good in the hustle to get it done, but do it right. When the end or near-end of a project meets with a freshly installed hot tub ready to deliver creature comforts like therapy jet action or peaceful soaks, it's a heck of a motivator !
We use bromine and it has the dispenser built so with the inherited chemicals including the mineral cartridge, I've kept to the system as was previously used. After much reading and pondering, I thought we'd just see how it goes for the first fill and do the water change based on a few of the guidelines I've read unless something else came up first. It's just my wife and I and we do the hot tub dedicated swimwear thing, no laundry products getting in there. For a number of months, we were in the tub for our 20 min soak 3 - 5 x week and we've had our adult kids over a few times to enjoy it also the over the year. These last few months have been more like a 20 min soak x 2 twice a week. We've just been really busy.
So that brings us to nearing Oct 28th which was the first time we got in the tub and had the new water nice and toasty.
Three days later, we were relieved to find the sudden snow storm that snapped a tree in half did not crush or even damage our tub but did land on it.
We believe the wet heavy snow brought the tree over in a slow-motion kind of drop and two other off-shoots of branches broke the impact by landing to either side of the tub, one coming close to tearing off the new 50 amp box.
You've probably done the math by now so the fact is, my water still looks great a feels fine but I've found (as expected) the TDS has crept up to or past 2000. In the early days as I was still reading and learning up on this stuff even a few months into it, I thought getting to or even past 4 months might have been an accomplishment, but we went well past that with no chemistry issues. By then, my focus was not being too generous with chemical adds and keeping things simple.
Anyways, the next two days look to offer daytime temps in the 50's or 60's still so its my window to get this out of the way and I'm looking forward to seeing how we rate the water feel from the higher TDS back to back with a fresh fill. I think local tap water is in the range of low 60's.
I know a hot tub becomes 'soup' and some folks get in them all dirty and sweaty at times or have family parties and groups of people enjoying a good soak etc... so it's always going to be a matter of time, bather load, and procedure so-to-speak for that need or frequency of change-out.
I think we'll use the tub more this year and that should have a say in how fast the water comes up for changing out. I'm not convinced well get a year nor am am I striving to make that a goal. Heck if we use it so much more or have more friends over that it lasts 3 months, that's fine too. It's been far simpler to own and operate this thing than I'd have ever imagined.
Q- Does bather load and 3 month intervals when needed mean the tub is a lot more work or difficulty to keep up with chemistry ? That
would good to know since I'm still pretty clueless on lots of things.
* I welcome any advice and hope I'm not off base on the TDS being part of the determining factor, or in our case the only factor other than time / bather load. I don't want to encourage or spread misinformation.
So far, this new-to-us hot tub managing and chemistry has been much more smooth and easygoing than I expected and almost all of that is due to the great help and advice I've received here or read on posts by others sharing some experiences.
T Y
~ brian
