Itchy and Scratchy

New to pools but have the basics down as I have balanced a spa over the winter. Best tool, the Taylor test kit. One question I have is about CYA. My pool will get 10+ hours of direct sun a day. Should I go over 30 ppm of CYA. I was thinking it would be best to be conservative as it is much easier to slowly add CYA as oppose to draining the pool. Guess it will largely be trial and error, keeping in tune with the chemistry via the Taylor. Just currious if anybody could give me a ballpark range to shoot for. I saw suggestions on the TFP forum of up to 60 ppm CYA for heavy direct sunlight. I don't want to overshoot and have to drain though. What are your thoughts??? Thanks.

Smart choice buying the used tub for $500 and if your electric rates are around 0.10 KWH the effect on your utility bill will be minimal. You ruffled no features in this post. This was sunday school banter compared to some. You are right all you need to know about water chemistry is laid out well, hopefully you have no need to post. I hope you were not turned off by my advice. It will be the last I give on this forum as there are some that think you have to have a degree in chemisty or electrical engineering to have any valid input. I have gained alot from my short time here and tried to give back allitle but lately some of the personalities on this forum have just made this a place that is not fun to be. I have better things to do with my time than run around some obscure forum on the net putting people down. Signing out from poolspaforum for the last time Itchy and Scratchy.

Again I hope you get a knowledge response about the extra insulation. My advice, don't mess with it. You are misinterpreting our comments on entry level spa's as brand snobbery. You keep mentioning electrical components as that is what you have experience with. Again there is much more to a spa than electrical. Problems with leaking plumbing or other plastic componets are much more time consuming and costly to fix unless you are a DIY spa tech. The advice most give around here is buy the best spa you can afford. In many cases you will be better to put the purchase off untill you can step up out of the entry level arena. You mentioned your LB goes for $6000 today. A top tier brand might go for $8500 to $10000. What's the difference??? Warranty and longevity. I would venture to say that less than 10% of what LB made 10 years ago is still in use, while 90% of what the top tier manufactures made is still giving pleasure to the purchaser. Still not everybody needs or wants a top tier. Some want to pay half the upfront cost knowing the tub will last half as long, then in 7 years buy a new tub. The key to a satisfying purchase is knowledge. Buy what is right for your needs. There really is no argument that top tiers are better quality though. I only mention this because my recommendation for a used entry level spa would be to put as little money in it as possible and enjoy as much as possible.

According to doc's above analogy the high tech space age foil barier on your leisure bay is sufficient. Simple test you can do to gauge it's heat retention ability. Bring the water up to your soaking temp. Take note of temp with digital therometer, close cover and shut spa down for 24 hours. Then take digital temp again. With winter lows in the 30's I noticed a 7 degree temp drop over 24 hours. Durring the summer in ATL you will experience little heat loss I bet. It's more than pumps and controll boxes that make a quality spa. It's all the little things you don't see like filtration and plumbing for the jets. You can bet that if LB tried to save a few buck's on insulation they used cheaper component's for the plumbing. A $0.30 part could bad that will cause a leak, it might take a spa tech 6 hours to fix that leak. That dollar LB saved in manufacturing the tub just cost you $500 in repairs. There are hundreds of componets in a spa, lots of ways for manufactures to save on construction and customers to spend later in the life of a spa. No worries for you. If you get 2 years out of that $500 you made a great purchase.

Here is my two cents although it might not be worth two peso's. First disclaimer, I know nothing of insulating spa's, like I said my marquis is fully foamed. Before you spend any cash trying to insulate an entry level spa I would do a cost/benefit analysis. The first thing you need to consider is what do you pay for a KWH of electricity? Most people enjoy a rate of under 0.10 a KWH. If you are around that rate your tub might be $30 a month in the winter and $20 in the summer. Let's say you spend $100 in insulation and it saves you $5 a month in electricity. In that senorio it would take nearly 2 years to recoup your cost's. I pay 0.30 a KWH in Califorina so plug your numbers in to see what works for you. My advice would be to enjoy the tub and see how often you use it. If it becomes part of your daily routine save for a quality tub for the day your used tub dies. I think used tubs a great for newbies. You can get a handel on water chemistry and see what in a tub is important to you before you spend $5000 to $10000 on a quality tub.

Dr. Spa, granted there is much hype and misinformation throughout the spa industry. The following is a direct qoute pasted from spa depots website. After proper sanitization and water balance, your spa cover itself is the single most critical piece of equipment to keep your hot tub water clean, and to keep your energy bill at a reasonable level. Saving money on heating costs means properly insulating your tub, and that is what good insulating spa covers achieve. Heat rises, and just like in your home, most heat loss in a hot tub goes directly up. By sitting just above the steaming water, a well-made hot tub cover provides proper insulation to help trap the heat inside. A problem that arises from all the warm water vapor is that the foam core of a spa cover can eventually become saturated, as water molecules work their way into the millions of tiny hollow spaces inside the foam. When insulating foam becomes wet, it loses almost all of its R-value. While there is no such thing as a totally waterproof hot tub cover, DuraTherm research has developed what we believe is one of the most water-resistant cores in the spa cover industry. Our BlueMax™ core liner is a special chemical and water vapor resistant polymer barrier, with heat-welded seams, which surrounds the foam cores of our covers. Together with our aquatic-grade foam cores, it is one of the things that makes a long-life DuraTherm spa cover your best choice in insulating spa covers. One thing is for sure with the cover off you can see steam/heat rising from the water and the tempurture will drop quicky. That is why in addition to my cover I got a foam floating cover from you. And now back to the original question. How can extra insulation be added to the tub.

No experience with that myself as my used tub was well insulated. A few problems that can arise with DIY insulation would be fire hazard and difficulty finding/repairing leaks. Hopefully somebody with experience can point you in the right direction. Good luck and enjoy the tub.

You will get the most bang for your buck with a quality cover. Decent covers are around $300. Top quality around $500. As heat rises most is lost through the top of the tub. Anything you do will be a waste of time if your cover is not in good shape. Think about it, you could put the best insulation in the walls of your home but if the roof is in poor shape and leaking all the heat and electricity goes straight up. The cover may look good but if it is heavy it us waterlogged, zero insulation. Check to see how it seals around the edges. Strap it down tight and keep that cash in the tub.

A few things: How old is your fill water? What was your chlorine demand at the beginning of the fill? Sounds like you are at 95% chlorine demand. Your tub is likely contaminated. I would recommend following nitros decontamination procedure.

Depending upon your water source you might need to add a metel sequestrent. If PH is maintained there will be no issues with scale. Just follow Nitros guide to water chemisty and you will be fine.

Your instincts are right on. Your dealer either knows nothing of water chemistry or more likely is giving you bogus info on purpose so you will need to buy his other chemicals to ballance your tub. Your old maintanence procedure of Ch, TA, PH, Cl was right on. All you need to know for balancing your water chemistry is in the hot topics at the top of the forum. Enjoy the tub.

Thanks for the informative, timely response.

My mother is visiting me from out of state and she has told me horror stories of her baqua$pa experience. She is a spa stores dream customer. Doesn't even use test strips, she just takes her water to the store and buys what ever they tell her. She spends about $100 a month and never has good water. I told her with 3 step bromine, a Taylor test kit, and generic chemicals she could have clear water for $100 a year. What is the procedure for converting from Baqua$pa to bromine???

If you are new to the forum welcome. You will see you asked a loaded question here. I think most people that own Costco spas are happy with them. Many people on this site are dealers that dislike a potential loss of business to costcos low prices. Bottom line is a Costco tub is built to a price point that most dealers can't match. You will not find a comparable tub for that price by a local dealer. Things to consider when buying from Costco: You will pay $200 to $300 to have your tub placed from curbside. No ability to wet test, although you can wet test it for a year to see if you like it. If not another $300 will get it back to Costco for refund. Local dealers will not touch your tub. Call the manufacture to see what kind of tech support is available in your area. Kind of hard to go wrong with costco. If you don't like it after a year your out $600 or so. Only other option for a cheaper tub would be used. There are alot of great tubs out there fir cheap due to people looseing a house or marriage. Don't be rushed for this sale. Costcos tubs are alway below $5000.

By my calculations the frog is over 4 times the cost of 3 step bromine. Your frog is $180+ a year. I get my bromine from spadepot.com. 1.5 lbs for $10, which will last me almost 3 months. Magic beans are worth more than the mineral cartridge as you have found out. If you want to improve the feel of the water and lower sanitizer demand add borates. 20 mule team borax in the luandry isle for less than $10, Combined with $10 of dry acid and this will treat your tub for over a year or two. Also I add pool salt to 1000 ppm and my water feels great and has never been cloudy with 3 step. The taylor test kit is worth the money. Cheaper than test stips in the long run and it will save you chemical warfare with your tub. Also bleach is cheaper and better than MPS for shocking. The MPS with drop your PH and throw off your test reading for a few days. Hope this helps.?