Newbie - Test Kit And Bromine Supplies

[Lord Bodak]

I recently bought a house that has a hot tub. It's been sitting empty for quite a while (the house was vacant when we bought it). I've done a lot of reading and decided to go with bromine to start with, although I might try Nitro's system in the future. So here are my questions...

1) What test kit should I get, and where can I get the best deal on it?

2) What chemicals should I buy to get started? Should I just make a list and buy things locally, or should I go with something like SpaDepot's bromine kit?

Thanks in advance for your help, I'm glad I stumbled across this great resource!

[Lord Bodak]

I'm going to take my own stab at answering the test kit question and ask for input on my solution. I think the right answer is the Taylor K-2006 or K-2106. Since I'm going with bromine, the 2106 seems like the better choice.

However, since I am open (maybe even likely) to trying Nitro's method down the road, and the 2006 has a lot more tests, I am thinking that the right answer is to get the K-2006 and buy a bottle of the bromine reagent that the 2106 includes (R-0872-A). Would that give me everything I need?

[quantumchromodynamics]

Yes, that is correct. Get the K-2006 and a bottle of R-0872. R-0872-A is the 0.75 ounce bottle. The R-0872-C is the two ounce bottle. Since the two ounce bottle is only a little bit more money, I recommend it over the smaller bottle.

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_instructions.asp?Type=Number&Number=5606

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_kitinfo.asp?&MarketID=-1&KitID=2232

I really think that you would do better with Nitro's method. However, if you want to use bromine, you should get enough sodium bromide to establish an initial bromine bank. You can use bromine tabs, but they are not necessary. You also need an oxidizer. You can use bleach or MPS as the oxidizer.

[Lord Bodak]

Yes, that is correct. Get the K-2006 and a bottle of R-0872. R-0872-A is the 0.75 ounce bottle. The R-0872-C is the two ounce bottle. Since the two ounce bottle is only a little bit more money, I recommend it over the smaller bottle.

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_instructions.asp?Type=Number&Number=5606

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_kitinfo.asp?&MarketID=-1&KitID=2232

I really think that you would do better with Nitro's method. However, if you want to use bromine, you should get enough sodium bromide to establish an initial bromine bank. You can use bromine tabs, but they are not necessary. You also need an oxidizer. You can use bleach or MPS as the oxidizer.

Thanks. I ordered the K-2006 and R-0872-C from Amato this evening.

I really do suspect I'll end up trying both bromine and Nitro's method over my first few fills. Startup costs do look lower for Nitro's... dichlor and bleach, which makes it tempting to try it first.