How long before use after shock (dichlor)?

[badval]

How long do you need to wait after shocking to use the tub?  Using dichlor as sanitizer & dichlor to shock per Vermonter method.

If daily dose = 2-3ppm & shock dose = 7x that amount, wouldn't it take days for it drop back down to normal?

What is the reason for waiting for it to drop back down?  Is it going to hurt you or the tub or the effect of the shock eliminating chloramines if you jump in before the Cl level has dropped back down?

My starter kit came w/ Leisure Time Renew non-chlorine shock.  Would there be any benefit to using that instead of a higher dose of Cl to shock?

Lastly, where do you buy your chemicals?  Do you just stop by the local dealer or buy in bulk online to save $$$ ?

[BIGPOPPA]

when you shock at high dose your breaking up cloramines if there are any and you would be surprised that your chlorine levals might not be as high as you thought.  You have total chlorine and free chlorine, free cholrine being the chorline actually doing its job sanitizing.  Total Cholrine is combined chlorines that are not able to function at sanitizing so by shocking with hgh dose di-chlor your breaking up and burning off the chloramines thus leaving a residual chlorine not as high as might be expected.  Hope this helped.

BIGPOPPA

[Vinny]

For some people, chlorine dries out their skin. It also can bleach out and destroy your swim suit. I do soak every so often in a chlorinated tub. I once soaked in a tub with over 20 PPM chlorine and nothing happened to me or my bathing suit. Do I recommend it - NO but I don't see too much happening to a person  - but this is only my opinion not fact.

If you waited for a while - an hour - I believe it has destroyed the chloromines by then so it would have no effect.

Non chlorine shock is great and I would recommend using it at times. I use it when the combined chlorine reading is above 0.5 PPM so I don't need to shock the tub with a lot of chlorine and I use it if I get foam. It cuts the foam (after scooping out whatever I can) to almost nothing. I also use both sometimes to shock the tub and add some (3 PPM) chlorine.

As far as chems I would say try your dealer first to support them. I have found Dr Spa at rhtubs.com has the best prices around for a lot of stuff. I order from him. Be careful about too much bulk though - it ain't a pool and you will go through so little chemicals that a 5 lb container will last you almost a year.

[hottub.pool_boy]

you need to wait 4-8 hrs after a shock treatment with chlorine. this is assuming a shock with chlorine with no previous bather load. In other words, you and four friends weren't just frolicking in the tub prior to your shock with chlorine.

you really DON'T have to wait  at all if you don't want. But that's our recommendation as a dealer.

[Bill_Stevenson]

You can check this yourself by shocking and then checking total Cl every hour, or perhaps the next morning if you do it at night.  Generally, it is not a big problem to soak with higher levels of Cl for most people.  If you are Cl sensitive, however, then you would want to wait until total Cl levels drop below say 3 ppm.  The thing that is confusing is that the time it takes for Cl levels to drop after shocking is not a fixed amount.  The time depends on the amount of combined Cl you have in the water at the time of the shock treatment.  If you have a relatively large amount of combined Cl (which is the difference between total Cl and free Cl as determined by test), it will take longer as it will take a bigger dose of dichlor to burn up the combined Cl.  

Let us assume that for your typical weekly usage, the combined Cl on Saturday is found to be ~ 0.3 t0 0.5 ppm. Your normal dose after every soak is 1 tsp and you use ~ 7 times the normal dose for shocking.  That would be 2 TBS plus 1 tsp for shock.  From the experience you gain over the course of using your spa, you learn that if you put that much dichlor into your tub that you might have to wait as long as 24 hours for the total Cl to drop back to 3 ppm or less.  You have two options:  1) if Cl is not a problem for you and you want to use the tub sooner, it should not harm you, or 2) use MPS for shock which will burn up the combined Cl and would allow you to use the tub almost immediately.  You can also affect the amount of combined Cl you end up with at the end of the week by changing the daily dichlor dose.

You should understand that to get a more accurate answer will require you to take the time to make measurements and gain experience.

Regards,

Bill

[badval]

Guess the chemical processes confuse me.  You'd think if I had any free Cl, it would be busy oxidizing the combined Cl.  Maybe it does, but then combines with other gunk to make more chloramines & then there's not enough left to oxidize that?  Or does Cl have to be at a certain concentration/ratio to begin the oxidation?

Cl doesn't really bother me.  Been in public pools before where it was pretty strong.  Makes eyes sting a little, but I'm not really getting water in my eyes in the tub, so that's moot.  I just wondered if you had to wait for a certain level of Cl drop after shocking to make sure it did it's thing.

I like the idea of checking every hour afterwards.  I think it will be interesting to see how quickly it goes down.

Vinny - I don't have any foam (yet) but what do you scoop it out with?  Big cup?  Hands? Siphon? Hit it w/ the leaf blower (grunting like Tim Taylor)?

[Garyjr]

badval,

You can buy a small leaf net ($3.00 from Watkins) that works perfectly for scooping out the foam.  Never really gave the leaf blower concept any thought. Hmmmmm.   [smiley=dankk2.gif]

[Vinny]

People have used leaf blowers and they seem to do the job. I use a pool skimmer net. I have a above ground pool so I had one handy!

For chlorine ... if you go into a pool and smell chlorine and it burns your eyes - it's not free chlorine it's combined chlorine.

As far as "chlorine" - it gets used up doing killing and oxidizing. As it "kills" it becomes combined with whatever and as it oxidizes it disappears totally and not all the chlorine kills or oxidizes. At least that's my understanding. At a PH of 7.5 you have a 50/50 ratio of killing vs oxidizing chlorine, at 7.2 you have way more killing than oxidizing and at 7.8 you have way more oxidizing than killing.

MPS just oxidizes and gets rid of the combined stuff. I have read it "frees up" the combined chlorine - I don't know if that's true or if as it oxidizes the combined chlorine that it just vaporizes it.

[green1320]

It is usally just my wife and myself that use the tub and at the end of an evening soak I use 2 tsp of dichlor. If I understand the once a week shocking procedure I am to use 7X my normal dose. Does that mean I use 14 tsp of dichlor to shock my tub? My tub hold 380 gals of water. Is 2 tsp of dichlor with two people using the tub too much? Also if only one person uses the tub should only 1 tsp of dichlor be added? If more than 4-5 people use the tub it is my understanding too only use up to 3 tsp after the soak is that correct. Thanks Steve