Sanitizing Kit? (sunpurity, Spa Essentials,

[sonomablue]

We will be taking delivery of our new Spa in about one week. The purchase includes a "sanitizing kit".  This is in addition to the included "filter" and ozonator.  The sales woman told us that we can choose ONE of the following:

SunPurity - a chlorine based purification.

Bromine Tablets (ex: Spa Essentials)

Bromine Crumbes - (ex: Brilliance)

Non-Halogen BiQuad Sanitizer (ex: Baqua).

She indicated the most often selected kit is the "chlorine" (first option above) based one.

Does anyone have any opinions, or information (pros & cons) of one type of sanitizing method over another.

Thanks.

[sonomablue]

Additional Question: I have heard that with the SunPurity system, that you are supposed to add some minimal amount of Chlorine, is that true?  

I finally did some google seaches on SunPurity, and found that the SunPurify is NOT a chloine based product, instead it is some cartridge that does not have chlorine or bromine in it.

The woman at the local dealer was the one who recommended low dosage of chlorine (once/week) if we choose the SunPurify sanitizing system.

Anyone (with SunPurify) have info to add?

thanks

[svspa]

sonomablue,

Sunpurity is a Nature2 cartridge, normally considered a supplemental sanitizer used in conjunction with chlorine as your primary sanitizer.

A chlorine (or dichlor to be more precise) routine is pretty common with or without the N2 cartridge. Typically with a dichlor routine you are trying to maintain some level of free chlorine in the tub at all times to insure it can effectively kill any bacteria introduced into the tub.

The N2 cartridge is supposed to help the dichlor be more effective at killing bacteria.

And yes, people on a dichlor routine usually add a small amount of dichlor after each soak.

If you search here on dichlor or Vermonter method you'll find a lot of info on it.

Plenty of info on chemical routines on rhtubs website, specifically here is a review of the Nature2 product:

http://www.rhtubs.com/nature2.htm

Steve

[svspa]

sorry forgot to set the link:

[link]http://www.rhtubs.com/nature2.htm [/link],

[sonomablue]

Thanks Steve for the good info.

[svspa]

no problem sonomablue,

I just noticed one thing though. You said the dealer suggested dichlor dosing once per week.

You need to be aware that the N2 may reduce the amount of chlorine you need, since it makes the dichlor more effective. But it does not mean you shouldn't follow a normal dichlor routine, which means keeping some free chlorine residual in your tub at all times. That may mean daily dosing or maybe every few days, it will depend on your usage and other factors.

With a dichlor routine your primary method of insuring your tub is clean is to be able to measure some level of free chlorine residual. If your free chlorine residual gets down to zero you have no way of knowing if bacteria is growing in your tub. Unless of course you have a home microbiology lab and can test for specific bacteria levels  

It's not as difficult as it may sound, you can find plenty of info on recommended routines here. If you need more info just ask.

Steve

[sonomablue]

Steve, Thanks. Probably a dumb question, but how does one monitor for a level of free chlorine?  And what is "free" chorline?  Is it free of other compounds? (obviously not referring to a cost basis, but some chemical basis)?

[Vinny]

The 2 major ways of treating a tub is with bromine and chlorine. Both require you to have free readings. Basically a free reading is a reading that is measured on a compound that hasn't been used yet. When it becomes used it is now combined. Shocking will get rid of the combined compound.

To measure you need to use either a test kit or test strips.

Personally, I have used chlorine from day one but if I had a built in feeder I would have tried bromine.