Questions for Hot Spring Freshwater (salt) Owners

[castletonia]

Stop using the sodium dichlor.  Switch to liquid chlorine if necessary.

[earesearch]

I have a hot springs Vanguard purchased new in April with the freshwater system.

We used once a week (Sundays) for about 2-3 hours with my wife & 2 kids.  I shock after every use (and sometimes on the Wednesday if its not perfectly clear).  Rotate and clean the filters....  Balance PH

We haven't ever seen chlorine show up on the strips more that for a week.  Our AD has drained the tub; done some sort of special flush; and apparently changed all of the guts of the freshwater system electronics....  Still no Residual chlorine.  They've tested the water multiple times..  Hardness hangs right at 25PPM.  Salt is right in the middle of the range on the controller.  They replaced one of the cartridges and told us it had some kind of scale on it (but not why).

6 months in, I'm pretty disappointed with the salt system...  Don't want to have to run silver ion or some other mineral AND salt unless I have to (why did I buy salt; could have done this without it).....

My AD says they're waiting for HS to provide direction...

Do you happen to have an ozone generator along with the freshwater chlorinator?  If you do, the ozone will react with the free chlorine and end up turning the free chlorine into o2.   I spoke with my local hot springs broker today and they are pretty clueless on how these things really should work; the customer is the guinea pig.   Since I have both a salt water system generator and an ozone generator (ozone is disabled now) - you can use both the ozone and bromine salt together and the two will actually be a benefit.  The chlorine gets burnt up pretty quickly at temperatures above 97F. 

One thing I have noticed is that if you have well water; even if it's not too hard that a calcium substance will build up on the plates and will effectively short out the two plates together.  In this situation the system will no longer generate chlorine as the anode and cathode are effectively shorted together and thus won't use the path through the water to utilize electrolysis.  Bromine is way more expensive than chlorine salt, but I think in terms of the maintenance it might actually work the way it was supposed to - the ozone is very powerful and kills almost everything but a few bacteria/viruses that the chlorine/bromine will deal with.  Supposedliy the ozone will continue to react with the bromine to help with bather load.  I have heard that if you don't use the spa for several weeks w/ bromine salt the level will be nearly unchanged and it will also not lower or raise the ph level much at all. 

[Steph135]

I wanted to check-in, as I was one of these people that was concerned about the output of the chlorine levels when we first got the system. We have had the hot tub five months now, and changed the cartridge last month.  It is interesting because the last cartridge I had to keep it at an 8, and that would barely get us a 1 chlorine reading.  I use a test kit rather than strips.

Anyway, this cartridge seems to be generating more chlorine.  I have it at a 7, and just tested the water, and it's a 2 reading.  I just turned it down to a 6, and I"m thinking we might be at a five. I'll check in a week.  I am curious how the boost setting on this one will work because the boost on the last cartridge never really did boost anything, and now I know it wasn't me or my imagination!

[hottubdan]

I have a hot springs Vanguard purchased new in April with the freshwater system.

We used once a week (Sundays) for about 2-3 hours with my wife & 2 kids.  I shock after every use (and sometimes on the Wednesday if its not perfectly clear).  Rotate and clean the filters....  Balance PH

We haven't ever seen chlorine show up on the strips more that for a week.  Our AD has drained the tub; done some sort of special flush; and apparently changed all of the guts of the freshwater system electronics....  Still no Residual chlorine.  They've tested the water multiple times..  Hardness hangs right at 25PPM.  Salt is right in the middle of the range on the controller.  They replaced one of the cartridges and told us it had some kind of scale on it (but not why).

6 months in, I'm pretty disappointed with the salt system...  Don't want to have to run silver ion or some other mineral AND salt unless I have to (why did I buy salt; could have done this without it).....

My AD says they're waiting for HS to provide direction...

What is your setting?

[ratchett]

Just to chime in here on this topic.  As far as I understand it, even though this Freshwater Salt system is "new to customers" this model year, they have actually been testing it in-house at different spa dealers around the country for a while now (not selling to customers, but using and running in showrooms and different models under different conditions).   These special HotSpring dealers helped HS labs perfect the system before it was brought to market (I think that's pretty cool honestly)

My HS dealer actually refused to sell the old ACE system because customers were misusing them (keeping output set too high) and killing the cells WAY too fast.  However after much R&D/testing, they are comfortable selling this new system.  I personally opted not to have the Freshwater installed on my new Jetsetter, but I learned ALL about it when deciding which way to go.

As with most spa's the first month is going to be very tricky - more sanitizer is needed to keep the system "clean".  They also said they pour in a lot of bleach to get the system started, and even then it takes a while to get the system fully balanced out (which can be a PITA for beginners).

To me, it seems like the dealers need more experience with these new systems before they get the bugs ironed out, but I personally think they need to include an extra replacement salt cartridge and have customers swap them out after the first two months, but that's just based on the reviews I've been reading from early adopters of the system.

I personally really like the fact that my Jetsetter is freshwater salt ready, but I think to start I'm going to stick with the traditional ozone system to reduce my overall chlorine usage.  If I dislike the ozone system and continue to hear good feedback about the freshwater system I'll give it a chance.

Just my $0.02 on the subject, and some info I wasn't aware of.

[HotTubLife]

Just to chime in ...

I've had the Freshwater Salt system in an HS Envoy for 2 1/2 years now. The ACE cell finally crapped out about 3-4 months ago, although I suspect it was probably failing a bit sooner than that. My experience so far has been that I like the salt system, but was a bit sticker shocked when I had to replace the ACE. I found a less expensive alternative that is doing a terrific job so far. And while it is the case that the measurable chlorine in the water is very low, the water remains crystal clear with no additional help (for the most part). One thing I found with the original ACE system is that water chemistry issues - especially Ph - were a constant hassle. The chlorine granules were making the water much too acid (I got readings of 6.8 all the time). I suspect it's because the chlorine granules produce cyanuric acid, which needs to be balanced out constantly. Since switching salt cells, I've had no problem at all keeping the water at a happy 7.4-7.5. The amount of maintaining I've had to do has been quite minimal, even though I'm in that thing every single morning for 25 minutes.