Hey, Dust...thanks for the good information...I haven't had a chance to use any of it yet since we've been out of town. I came back to the cabin today and the display was flashing. The water was off the chart in all categories and there was a crusty formation at the bottom of the headrests...the bottoms were corroding awayand the headrests are now useless. There was also a lot of whitish corrosion on the filter. I am emptying the tub right now, but I am concerned about damage to the internal components, so I suppose I'm going to have to start getting formal with the company and the dealership. This thing was supposed to be a source of joy...not aggravation. Note to Tom at Arctic Spas...if you're reading this, i need help and advice. Can you put the dealer Apollo in touch with this problem and see if we can get this tub on the straight and narrow?
Hey Tabb
Onzen is actually a pretty awesome system, and while it is "low maintenance", it has proven pretty intensive to get a handle on. Also, its sometimes like steering a big old boat... it wants to do its own thing and you kind of have to "go with it" sometimes, because if you try to fight it to hard in a different direction, you just end up finding out next week that you overcompensated
Also, there is a TON of great info on this site (and specificaly, specific ways to really keep a tight chlorine based spa invented by some of the most highly respected users here) that just doesn't apply / can't be used quite the same for us onzen users because our spas have "their own way" of doing things.
First thing you should do tommorow is to go buy salt test strips from your store, and know exactly what your salt is at all times. The reason for this is that if your salt is off, NOTHING else in your spa will work correctly. Luckily, salt concentration does not change, ever, in your tub, unless you are adding water or removing water (salt doesn't even evaporate when the rest of your water does). So even when you top up your tub every week or two (as your water level will evaporate a couple inches every now and again) once you have refilled your tub to the same level it was when you first measured your salt, it will be exactly the same, even months later.
You want 2300ppm salt. Get to that level, and you will be a much happier owner. NEVER go below 2000, or above 2500, because then you will be a sad owner
If your salt is too high, don't waste anymore money on chemicals or more salt... just dump a little water, and then refill with clean new water. You will dump the salt in solution from your tub, and replace with saltless water, so your overall salt concentration will go down.
If you have 400 gallon tub, and your salt is 2800ppm, and you want to get down to 2300ppm, you need to dump 400 - ((2300/2800) * 400) = ~71 gallons of water and replace with fresh water. It can be hard to eyeball gallons of water in your spa, so just do a bit at a time until you're happy. A second pack of salt test strips is still much cheaper than wasting another bucket of salt
The dial on your onzen should always be max (that dial shows you how hard your onzen should work when its working). Use your control panel to control WHEN you'd like your onzen to work (i.e. how often). Your manual or your dealer should be able to show you if you're not sure. Depending on your spa brain (usualy region dependant) the settings can be slightly different (north america vs europe).
Hopefuly some of this helped out Good luck with your tub!