How to shock tub with @ease SmartChlor AND Ozone

[BjornSoaker]

I have a new Caldera hot tub equipped with both @ease SmartChlor and ozone, but most advice online regarding shock doesn't assume this setup. I can't seem to figure out:

1. How often should I shock my tub? The Frog @ease SmartChlor says 1 time per month, but lots of people shock weekly, it seems. My wife and I use the tub 3 times per week, roughly.

2. Should I use dichlor or MPS to shock?   

[A.O.]

We use our tub everyday and usually twice a day , I use straight chlorine and never shock mine, no need.

[castletonia]

I have a new Caldera hot tub equipped with both @ease SmartChlor and ozone, but most advice online regarding shock doesn't assume this setup. I can't seem to figure out:

1. How often should I shock my tub? The Frog @ease SmartChlor says 1 time per month, but lots of people shock weekly, it seems. My wife and I use the tub 3 times per week, roughly.

2. Should I use dichlor or MSP to shock?

Use MPS to shock.  I have a Hot Spring SX (no ozone) with inline Frog @ease.  Hot tub typically gets used by myself 5-6 times a week, the wife 2-3 times per week and maybe once a week by my son.  I shock monthly per Frog's recommendation and I have not had any issue.  I was told by my Frog rep (I'm a Hot Spring / Caldera retailer, FYI) to not use a chlorine based shock unless the @ease cartridge went completely empty and the water turned funky.  The reason was that if you shock with chlorine, most of the chlorine entering the water goes into the "@ease reserve", and does not become available free chlorine. 

I'm sure you could shock more frequently, say weekly, if you wanted, but in most instances, it would be a waste of MPS.  Remember to keep tabs on pH and alkalinity.  You will deplete the SmartChlor cartridge much more rapidly when pH and alkalinity are low, which tends to happen with this system.

[HoW2001]

I have a new Caldera hot tub equipped with both @ease SmartChlor and ozone, but most advice online regarding shock doesn't assume this setup. I can't seem to figure out:

1. How often should I shock my tub? The Frog @ease SmartChlor says 1 time per month, but lots of people shock weekly, it seems. My wife and I use the tub 3 times per week, roughly.

2. Should I use dichlor or MSP to shock?

Use MPS to shock.  I have a Hot Spring SX (no ozone) with inline Frog @ease.  Hot tub typically gets used by myself 5-6 times a week, the wife 2-3 times per week and maybe once a week by my son.  I shock monthly per Frog's recommendation and I have not had any issue.  I was told by my Frog rep (I'm a Hot Spring / Caldera retailer, FYI) to not use a chlorine based shock unless the @ease cartridge went completely empty and the water turned funky.  The reason was that if you shock with chlorine, most of the chlorine entering the water goes into the "@ease reserve", and does not become available free chlorine. 

I'm sure you could shock more frequently, say weekly, if you wanted, but in most instances, it would be a waste of MPS.  Remember to keep tabs on pH and alkalinity.  You will deplete the SmartChlor cartridge much more rapidly when pH and alkalinity are low, which tends to happen with this system.

1.  Awesome question in the original post.  For a "Set it and forget it" use case, the @ease system doesn't do a great job of explaining exactly how to work in regular water maintenance with the system.

2.  Is that right, the @ease tends to have PH and TA go low?  I'm a new owner and faaaaaaaaaaar from a heavy user (maybe once a week for my wife and I, at most) and I'm surprised that every single week that I test, even when I had a week of zero use, TA is really low (like 30 ppm), so I need to drag it up quite a bit and (presumably as a result) when I then test PH its on the high side and needs to be brought down (like 7.8-8.0).  Its not exactly difficult to adjust, I just wasn't expecting to have to fiddle with it even when its not really getting used much. 

[BjornSoaker]

1.  Awesome question in the original post.  For a "Set it and forget it" use case, the @ease system doesn't do a great job of explaining exactly how to work in regular water maintenance with the system.

2.  Is that right, the @ease tends to have PH and TA go low?  I'm a new owner and faaaaaaaaaaar from a heavy user (maybe once a week for my wife and I, at most) and I'm surprised that every single week that I test, even when I had a week of zero use, TA is really low (like 30 ppm), so I need to drag it up quite a bit and (presumably as a result) when I then test PH its on the high side and needs to be brought down (like 7.8-8.0).  Its not exactly difficult to adjust, I just wasn't expecting to have to fiddle with it even when its not really getting used much. 

With my @ease and ozone, I initially had a similar experience with my TA going down and my pH staying high. I went back to square one and re-balanced my water a little more carefully and so I had to add some calcium to increase the hardness to the appropriate level. Afterwards, I seemed to have more luck keeping my TA and pH steady. There's probably some chemistry explanation for this that I don't understand...

For what it's worth, the best way I've found about how balance my water is to use a combination of this online calculator tool (aim for the final CSI number to be between -0.3 and 0.3) and this semi-famous post from someone named Nitro with great detail about water maintenance. 
https://app.poolcalculator.com/
https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13634-nitros-approach-to-water-maintaince/

[castletonia]

I have a new Caldera hot tub equipped with both @ease SmartChlor and ozone, but most advice online regarding shock doesn't assume this setup. I can't seem to figure out:

1. How often should I shock my tub? The Frog @ease SmartChlor says 1 time per month, but lots of people shock weekly, it seems. My wife and I use the tub 3 times per week, roughly.

2. Should I use dichlor or MSP to shock?

Use MPS to shock.  I have a Hot Spring SX (no ozone) with inline Frog @ease.  Hot tub typically gets used by myself 5-6 times a week, the wife 2-3 times per week and maybe once a week by my son.  I shock monthly per Frog's recommendation and I have not had any issue.  I was told by my Frog rep (I'm a Hot Spring / Caldera retailer, FYI) to not use a chlorine based shock unless the @ease cartridge went completely empty and the water turned funky.  The reason was that if you shock with chlorine, most of the chlorine entering the water goes into the "@ease reserve", and does not become available free chlorine. 

I'm sure you could shock more frequently, say weekly, if you wanted, but in most instances, it would be a waste of MPS.  Remember to keep tabs on pH and alkalinity.  You will deplete the SmartChlor cartridge much more rapidly when pH and alkalinity are low, which tends to happen with this system.

1.  Awesome question in the original post.  For a "Set it and forget it" use case, the @ease system doesn't do a great job of explaining exactly how to work in regular water maintenance with the system.

2.  Is that right, the @ease tends to have PH and TA go low?  I'm a new owner and faaaaaaaaaaar from a heavy user (maybe once a week for my wife and I, at most) and I'm surprised that every single week that I test, even when I had a week of zero use, TA is really low (like 30 ppm), so I need to drag it up quite a bit and (presumably as a result) when I then test PH its on the high side and needs to be brought down (like 7.8-8.0).  Its not exactly difficult to adjust, I just wasn't expecting to have to fiddle with it even when its not really getting used much.

In my experience, yes, @ease tends to lower pH and TA over time.  I typically have to add TA increaser every 2-3 weeks in my hot tub.  If I let it go long enough, the pH will drift really low too and I will also have to add pH increaser.  I've been told by King Technology that this is not the case with all source water though, so your mileage may vary.