Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: loneoak on May 27, 2006, 03:43:00 pm
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I was having problems with the Ph always being high, no matter how much chemical or acid I added. On top of that, the water always smelled funny when this was happening.
A while ago, the guy at the dealer's said to turn off all the jets upon leaving the tub each time. That's a bit of a hassle, so we stopped doing it.
I was at the dealer's last week and talked to a young guy, one I had not talked to before. I told him about my problem, and mentioned that we had changed the water in the tub a couple of days before and I tested the new water right away, while it was still cold. The Ph & alkalinity were both normal. The next day, the Ph was up already. So the water didn't come out of the tap like that. What's causing it to go up?
Air, he said. He showed me the 3 knobs on the rim of the tub - 2 large ones which are diverters (to send the flow to one side of the tub or the other) and a smaller one. The smaller one adds air to the flow. Turn it off, and all you get is water coming out of the jets. Turn it on, and air mixes with water to give more push to the jet.
He said to turn off the smaller knob upon leaving the tub, therefore no air goes into the water while it cycles normally.
So we did that. The very next day the Ph was normal and has stayed that way for several days now. Before, it would take me weeks to get the Ph down (with lots of chemical almost every day). The water also smells a lot better now.
I just wanted to share this in case anyone else has ongoing high Ph issues.
Astrid.
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The combined effort of heat and [glb]aeration[/glb] causes carbon dioxide to gas off from the water. CO2 has an important role in water balance. Its presence in the water allows for the formation of carbonic acid, which serves to hold the pH down. When CO2 is lost, the pH of the water has a tendency to rise. A rising pH can cause many things to happen. Such as:
1 - Sanitizer becomes less effective(especially chlorine)
2 - Water will turn cloudy
3 - Dissolved metals will fall out of solution and stain the surfaces
4 - Scale can form on the surfaces and in the equipment
Or so I've heard ;)