chem geek to the white courtese phone please

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 Anyone really!    I sold a J-245 to a nice couple, went out to do their orientation with chems and was greeted with a not so happy couple. 

  They are on a well and say their water is perfect according to "water test".  Couple days before I showed up they had filled the spa and quickly got the gummy brown scuzz at the water line pretty common here on well water.   They called me and I told them it would go away with time.  When I showed up they had a bit of dark brown gum at the water line and inside the shell as well, they had cleaned it several times before my arrival with baking soda per my suggestion.  I added some enzyme while there and also some bright n clear expecting the spa to foam up and have an even worse scuzz line.  I ran everything on high to agitate the water and nothing showed up water is crystal clear.     I told them they were prolly at the end of the cycle of getting all the crap out of their water, went through the chems and they seemed ok.   Yesterday she came in and told me the scum line had all dissapeared untill they used it that night, when they were in their he noticed the line showing back up and this time it was blue the water also had a blue tint to it.  she thought it might be from the bright n clear and I said doubtfull..   Of course I can see where this is going with most new spa owners they are thinking it's the spa's fault and will probably want a new one.   Not gonna happen least not yet.     I am really pretty good with chems but this one has me a bit stumped.  We don't have really any copper in the water least not that I have seen in all the variuos wells around here.  Most times I blame this on the "people" using the spa IE make up lotions and so on.  He thought it was in the air intakes pulling dirt and dust from the inside the cabinet (never heard that one before)    Enough yapping what do you guys think my next approch sould be?  I thought of having them drain it and start over but it's only been around 2 weeks if that.    Set up wise no circ pump, nature 2 stick and using replenish for a sanitizer, ph/alk are a bit high but not bad for well water..  I am going to have my tech take a look and see what he thinks..

  Would love to hear your thoughts!!   Thanks, Jim   

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

metal trap pre-filter, 2 bottles of metal gon (or similar) and make sure your hosing off the filter(s) at least 3 or 4 times in the first 24 hours and also wiping down the scumline

[Jacuzzi Jim]

metal trap pre-filter, 2 bottles of metal gon (or similar) and make sure your hosing off the filter(s) at least 3 or 4 times in the first 24 hours and also wiping down the scumline

  Thanks, but yeah we/they did all that..     Sorry for sounding rude!   We always have the customers start with metal gone, and when they called the first time, I mentioned flushing the filter.   Actually when I showed up the filter looked very good.  Not the usuall brown silty look..

[Orion6192]

Wow - same thing happened to me with my J345!  The dealer filled and tested it before it delivered to my house (they are a hour away). I noticed a blue tint under most of the jets where water had dried. Odd... I filled the tub and got the greasy /oily / dirty scum line. Dealer gave me a pack of spa cleaner mits from BioGuard/SpaGuard and it took the scum line off very easily.

The greasy / oily ring never returned, just a faint line. I then used Nitros guide to balancing the water with Dichlor and Bleach and no ring, no nothing but clear water.

So... We have town water, 300ppm CH. the dealer filling, heating and dumping the water probably got rid of some of the gunk and then me filling and balancing took care of the rest?

Have they drained the water and started over?  I'm still going to drain mine at close to one month mark... About two weeks away...

Not sure of this helps or not... But very similar to my experience. Maybe a Jacuzzi / Sundance thing?

Scott

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

metal trap pre-filter, 2 bottles of metal gon (or similar) and make sure your hosing off the filter(s) at least 3 or 4 times in the first 24 hours and also wiping down the scumline

  Thanks, but yeah we/they did all that..     Sorry for sounding rude!   We always have the customers start with metal gone, and when they called the first time, I mentioned flushing the filter.   Actually when I showed up the filter looked very good.  Not the usuall brown silty look..

well its either the wrong products were being used (obviously not the case) and/or inadequate filtration...can you bump up the cycles so that thing filters more than an hour or two a day? during the first couple days to help filter out those metals?

[Jacuzzi Jim]

metal trap pre-filter, 2 bottles of metal gon (or similar) and make sure your hosing off the filter(s) at least 3 or 4 times in the first 24 hours and also wiping down the scumline

  Thanks, but yeah we/they did all that..     Sorry for sounding rude!   We always have the customers start with metal gone, and when they called the first time, I mentioned flushing the filter.   Actually when I showed up the filter looked very good.  Not the usuall brown silty look..

well its either the wrong products were being used (obviously not the case) and/or inadequate filtration...can you bump up the cycles so that thing filters more than an hour or two a day? during the first couple days to help filter out those metals?

 Yes I did that when I was there.   I honestly think it's them, or whats on them??  What she told me yesterday doesn't really make any sense for a spa..

[chem geek]

I'm really only guessing here since we don't have good information about the water parameters.  Well water usually doesn't have copper in it, but can contain other metals such as iron or manganese.  Copper usually comes from copper piping including copper heat exchangers (especially when abused with low pH conditions) or, in pools, from copper algaecides.  At any rate, any good metal removal product should have helped with that unless their levels are extraordinary.  Nevertheless, metals usually result in staining, colored water, or precipitate, not gummy or scum which sounds more like grease organics to me, though possibly mixed up with iron oxides as well.

I'm guessing that since the spa is new, it simply has a lot of leftover grease and similar organics left in it.  It might also have biofilms in the piping after wet testing that didn't get dried out or that used unclean water.  If this is the case, then using a product like Spa System Flush can clean things up.  Generally speaking with any new spa it would make sense to fill it with water you can afford to lose, use Spa System Flush per instructions (and one can superchlorinate at this time if one wants to, but NOT unless one used a metal-trap filter during the fill), then drain and refill again.  I believe Chas says that the first water fill is going to be a short-lived one and that a water change is the cheapest way to get to a good state.  That's probably due to what I just mentioned.  Spa System Flush just accelerates that cleaning process to try and get to a clean state faster, but some people just can't wait to use their tubs on the FIRST fill of water.  Such impatience has its downside.