water poll II

[anne]

I didn't want to steal the other water poll thread with these questions, but they seemed to be coming up for other people, too.....


Hardness: Tatooed Lady and I both have very hard, alkaline water. Does anyone recommend any sort of filter that goes on the end of the hose at fill up? Can calcium really be removed, and still have reasonable enough flow that it does not take 3 hrs to filll the tub? Price of such a filter, if in existance?

TA: Taylor book says recommended TA= 80-120. Arctic manual says 125-150. That seems HIGH!!! Should I adjust my personal TA goal based on the hardness of the water?

[Brewman]

I'm not sure it's possible to filter out water hardness.  
If it was that simple, the water softner people would be out of business.  
What is your water hardness measurement?

[anne]

400-500. I did not think so either, but my dealer said "no big deal - just pick one up from Home Depot"

[hottubdan]

There is no way to filter out hardness.  

Anne, you need to adjust your balance to account for the hardness.

Spa Essentials (a chemical company) and Hot
Spring agree with the 125 to 150 target for TA.  Howver, they are all assuming lower hardness than you have.

[Brewman]

I know there are add in's available to boost water hardness for those who have softer water.
But I've not heard of anyting for water that is too hard, other than to blend it with softened water.

Anne- with water as hard as yours, I'm suprised you don't already have a water softener.  Do people in your area generally have these?  
If you do, then partially fill your spa with your soft water and part hard.  If you don't have a softener, maybe it's something you'd want to condider installing.  
There are benefits to you plumbing and to the appliances hooked up to your water.

Just a thought.

[anne]

No, dont have a water softener, and until now had not even considered it. I have never had problems, but have only been here 3.5 years. It is an old house.

[Vanguard]

Anne - I agree with Brewman's idea.  Add a water softener, then blend it.  

In the meantime, the best thing to do is go to a reputable chemical dealer in your town and have them do a computer analysis.  They will tell you exactly what to do.

[anne]

You guys say "add a water softener" like it is no big deal....isn't it pretty expensive?

[hymbaw]

Your Arctic manual has the right #'s -  125-150 TA

[Brewman]

You guys say "add a water softener" like it is no big deal....isn't it pretty expensive?

Can be anywhere from several hundred to many thousands to get hooked up.  I didn't mean to imply it was no big deal, but if you want to lower the hardness level of your water, you might not have much choice, unless someone here can come up with a solution to get softer water to your spa.  Or you can just live with it and hope for the best.  I'd get nervous that over time calcium would build up on the plumbing.  
But that's just my joe homeowner guy opinion.