New Hot Tub Owner Very Confused...Please Help?

[khurley]

Hello All -

I am so happy to have found a forum about hot tubs, thank you!

About a month ago I upgraded my small concrete porch to a new concrete pad and thought, a hot tub would be perfect right there. I started looking into it and was hooked. I got my first hot tub almost 2 weeks ago, a Hot Springs Rhythm (no add-ons).

I think of myself as a fairly capable person, but when it comes to water maintenance, I get very confused. When the hot tub was installed I got what the dealer called "spa school". This guy babbled off a bunch of stuff to me and gave me several bottles of chemicals. I did my best to write down everything he said.

Here are my struggles:


*After only 2 weeks my bottle of Chlorine is almost empty, and my CYA level is at 200ppm. I have researched and found that the high CYA levels are a result of using so much dichlor - is that what I call Chlorine?? And that high CYA levels will render the chlorine ineffective.

I called the dealer to ask if I should drain the tub and start all over, but they said that CYA is only significant in pools, and that I don't need to worry about it. I just have a hard time believing that from what I have read online. They also said that since I use a mineral stick in my filter, the test strip will always show my chlorine at zero. Is this really true? And they said that I only need to add chlorine once a week. This is not what the installer told me in spa school.

*At first I focused on PH and TA. It took a whole week, but I finally got those numbers down to an acceptable level. The installer told me to look at PH first, and get that squared away before looking at anything else. However, online I find that TA is the first thing to regulate, then PH. Which is correct??

*Also, I was not given any chemicals to increase TA if it gets too low, which it is now close to doing now. What should I buy?

*I was told to use shock once a week, as well as Stain and Scale control. Is this correct? Can I add them at the same time?

*After a few days of having the tub I was starting to get some floating scum, so I bought some enzyme. It appears to be working well. How often should I add that?

*Lastly, is there a better way than using all this product??

I know I must seem very confused, I am. I would greatly appreciate any help anyone has to offer.

Thanks in advance!

[A Rai]

Hey Khurley,

First off, are you using chlorinating Granules? or Pucks? If you are using Granules, I recommend you use those alongside with Chlorine Pucks. The pucks will help reduce how much you put in for granules. I try to use granules in my hot tub 1 tlbs at a time and only use it when I have finished using my hot tub (quick shock).

If you get you TA in range, normally the PH follows as it basically takes it all hand in hand. So it would be correct to adjust the TA first, and then make the minor adjustments to PH afterwards.

The Chemical i use for TA is called Spa-Alk, there are other brands with different names, try to look for anything that "Controls PH fluctuation" or "Alkaline booster"

You want to add your Chlorine approx. 1 hour AFTER you put your Stain and Scale Control in. If you put it in immediately after or too close together, you could get a brownish colour to your water.

Try a ScumBug. People seem to swear by it, link ;https://www.amazon.com/Rola-Chem-Scumbug-Oil-Absorbing-Sponge/dp/B003ZJZ8N2

You can try something called Spa Marvel, I know some people who use it and it works good for them.

You still use chemical with it, but it does dramatically reduce the fight with PH and Alkaline, etc.

Hopefully this offers some insight.

[bud16415]

You are using dichlor as your sanitizer and that is great. It is chlorine and it is not trichlor the stuff the above poster suggests that comes in pills/ pucks. Do not use trichlor. The only other pucks I know of are bromine and that is a different method of sanitizing.

Dichlor has CYA in it and it is what shows up on your test strips as stabilizer it is in there because people use Dichlor in swimming pools and sunlight causes it to dissipate. Your tub doesn’t see enough sunlight to cause that to happen. A little bit of stabilizer is good as it slows the chlorine down and allows it to keep sanitizing at a slower pace day to day. Too much is not good.

For this reason I use dichlor in my hot tub when I first fill it and I keep my eye on the stabilizer number as it grows. When it hits around 50PPM I switch to the cheapest form of chlorine around and that is regular unscented household bleach (Clorox) or similar. Clorox is just chlorine without the stabilizer. You will have to experiment a little to figure out how much equals a dose of dichlor for you. In my tub I add a tablespoon of dichlor gets me to around 5PPM if my water is close to zero. I have a little plastic laundry cup about the size of a Dixie cup that gives me the same 5PPM. If I see during the months of usage the stabilizer drops I switch back to dichlor for a couple days.

I only shock as needed when the water seems a little dull or after having lots of bathers in the tub. I use non chlorine shock the type that is an oxidizer. Maybe every other week if it is just the two of us using it once a day.

Keep your PH in line and that’s all I worry about. About once a week I take a micro fiber cloth in with me and just quickly wipe the tub down about 5 minute job. I clean my filter about every 2 to 3 weeks and I spray it down with a hose I have with very hot water from our house water heater. The stuff on the filter is grease based and hot water will clean it 100 times faster than cold from the same hose.

Hope this helps.         

[castletonia]

That's a lot of chlorine in 2 weeks and that's really high cyanuric acid.  I would personally drain and refill, assuming the weather allows it.  Balance total alkalinity first, then pH.  I tell my customers to use stain & scale once a week if they are on well water otherwise once a month if city water will little hardness and no metals.  Once a week for shock should be fine unless the hot tub gets excessive use, then twice a week.

Also, check how long the hot tub is filtering for.  Pretty sure the factory settings are for 1 hour twice daily.  In my opinion, not enough.  I prefer a total of 4-6 hours daily, whether done with 2 filter cycles or 1 long cycle.  Do not use chlorine tabs under any circumstance.  They add more cyanuric acid to the water, dissolve really fast in warm water and void the warranty.  If the idea of a floater interests you, look into the Frog @ease system.

[maddigital]

I have been a tub owner since 2014 and it took me some time to get the process down and how my usage impacted the water. I agree with the drain and start over suggestion just so you can level set with a fresh tub and start over.

I am actually going to be writing up a review of my last 3 months of using a digital water monitor. There are a few out there but the one i settled on was Phin. https://www.phin.co/hot-tub/  . I got it from Amazon and chose the monitor only option because I have a tub with built in Spa Frog to handle the sanitizer and had my chemical inventory already handled. This may help with your monitoring if you have a smartphone and give suggestions as to what to add to keep things in balance.     My review will be positive and actually has reduced my time with water management even further than when i got the hang of it.

The first few months are usually the toughest with the water care. Hang in there.

Mad