bobmak

Thanks for the reply. It got good reviews on Amazon but I wanted to hear about it from one of the more experienced people on this board. I am going to invest in one and will report back in a month or so after I get some use out of it.

Hi all. Been a hot tub owner now for about 2 years and am totally frustrated with the chemistry measurments. I am color blind... as in very color blind. Things changing from red to green or red to blue do not work for me; the closest I can get with chemicals is an educated guess (I guess that shade looks different). If I am planning to test my water using the Taylor kit I bought I need someone there with me to tell my what I am looking at. Balancing after a water change (what I am going through now) is total frustration. I can't even figure out what the CH level is in my tub. What I really need is something digital... something that will give me a number so I can toss my big fancy blue Taylor box in the trash and regain my sanity . Looking at the Lamotte ColorQ 7... does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

Waterbear... thanks! Adding another scoop of DPD made all the difference... I can now see the dark grey color

I would love to hear if anyone has had any luck in adding insulation to their spa to increase efficiency.

I have copies of our electric bill going back over a year... it is definitely the spa that made our usage jump. We heat with a combo of wood & oil, our hot water is oil. We were between 700 & 800 KWH October thru December... We turned our tub on just before Xmas... our January bill (12/19 thru 01/23) came in at 1550 KWH... Just a little tiny jump there; quite a bit more than my dealer lead me to believe. As I said earlier... we leave the tub running in economy mode at 90 degrees... and turn it up to 104 about 3 hours before we plan to use it. We usually use it 30 minutes 2-4X a week... never more than 4. Brand new spa, brand new cover. Hungry little devil. If I knew the cost of ownership up front I might have had 2nd thoughts about my purchase; I assume the dealer knew that. I wish they posted energy usage on these things like they do with refrigerators, etc.

We live north of Boston and installed a brand new Artesian spa, about 380 gallons, just before Christmas... our bill doubled, went up just over $100 a month, so I'd say it was right. We only use the spa for maybe 1-2 hours a week max... the rest of the time it is turned down to 90 on economy mode. The folks we bought the spa from told us it would only go up a few dollars a month... yeah, right.

Thanks gentlemen... I'll look into that. I think the pink is too faint for me to see... I will try again with a very bright light and the white piece of paper. I tried it for the first time last night under some bright halogen lights in the bathroom... I couldn't see the change but my wife could. Unfortunately I am the one that has to maintain the spa. I can see the difference between very bright and very dark and dim / light.... but this is so subtle that i can't see it. The photometer you mentioned is expensive.... but I already have at least that invested in test kits that I can't use. Even if it isn't accurate it should be good enough for daily use... I can have my wife check things with the test kit when she is home.

Just bought a Taylor test kit... it's useless for me as I am color blind. It asks you to add drops and watch for it to turn from pink to clear... Just tried it, I can't tell the difference. Maybe if was something like dark blue to clear... but pink doesn't do it for me. Kit is going in the garage next to the Poolmaster test kit that I bought and can't use either. I can get my wife to check this for me once or twice a week but she travels. Any advice from other colorblind spa owners greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Success... managed to get the filter body out and clean the lines using a shop vac. Filling now...

Success! Right after I posted I decided to try the shop vac one more time.... I made a little reducing adapter out of some hose that allowed me to get a tight fit on the filter hole... I started the vac and put my hand over the pump inlet and then removed it several times. Either that motion or the last pass of the pool hose dislodged the cartridge and allowed it to be sucked up. ALl is well... filling the tub now

I started this topic in the chemistry section but am moving it to here since it is more of a tub issue. During a decontamination procedure a mineral cartridge (similar to Natures 2 but a knockoff) fell into my 2" filter hole. I have 2 filters, one large, one small... the small has a screen on the plumbing intake where the filter screws in, the large doesn't and is connected to 2" PVC. The cartridge was given to me by my dealer and he told me to just lay it in the filter well. This just came in a blister pack; it is not a Natures 2 but I think something similar. The filters were out as part of the decontamination procedure and I forget this cartridge was in the filter well. Once I started the tub up little metal pellets that looked like BB's started appearing in the bottom of the tub and I could no longer find the cartridge so I assume it fell into the 2" filter opening I called the dealer and he thought the cartridge went in there and broke apart, but that the cartridge body was still in the plumbing line stuck in an elbow leading to the pump. He estimated between $500-$700 for a service call to repair. I decided to try and tackle it on my own. So far I have done the following: drained the tub vacuumed remaining pellets in the bottom with a 6 HP shop vac remove the large filter attached the shop vac to the filter opening disconnect the pump unions, removed the affected pump, disassembled the impeller; looked clean connected the shop vac to both ends of the 2" line and both sucked and forced air through each end power snaked the line with a plumbers snake while the snake was in the 2" line I attached a 1" diameter piece of PVC pool hose through the line an pulled it through; I figured if there was a cartridge body still in there this would get caught on it or force it through; nothing, pulled right through No sign of the cartridge and no more pellets coming through. I think I am going to reassemble the pump and start the system again. Any advice anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated. This tub is only about 3-4 weeks old. Thanks! Bob

Talked to place we bought the spa from this morning. The "missing" cartridge is something called a Natures. I have 2 filters, one large, one small... the small has a screen on the plumbing intake where the filter screws in, the large doesn't and is connected to 2" PVC. He thinks the Natures cartridge went in there and broke apart, but the cartridge body is still in the plumbing line stuck in an elbow leading to the pump. He advised me to do the following: Drain the tub remove the large filter try to suck the cartridge body out using a shop vac disconnect the pump unions, remove the pump, disassemble the impleller and make sure there is nothing in there if the shop vac did not pull out the cartridge body try to "hook" it with an electricians snake If that doesn't work cut out the out the PVC pipe just above the first elbow, clean it out, then reattach using a coupling reinstall the pump and test He estimated a service call to do this at between $500 and $700 so I am going to try on my own. At this point I can't make things any worse I hope. Thoughts anyone? Saturday it is supposed to be 50 here so I planning on doing this Saturday morning. Moderators: I am new to the site... sorry if this started off as a chemistry issue and developed into a mechanical, Please let me know if you want me to move the post. - Bob

OK, so it can only get worse. I went through the whole procedure. The tub was loaded with algae, couldn't see more than a few inches into it. Put in the cleaner last night, ran it, let it sit. Started draining tonight at 6 using a zero clearance pump. Once I got the pump started I pulled the filters to hose them off. Drained, filled with clean water, reinstalled the filters, started the pumps and noticed one of the pumps for the jets was making a weird noise. When I got the tub they gave a round cartridge (maybe ¾” dia but 3-4” long) called metals magic or something... I was told to throw it in the area where the filters were. That cartridge is now missing, but I did find a small (teaspoon amount) of what look like copper BB's in the bottom of the tub. I couldn't figure out what they were at first, but when I heard the pump I realized that I hadn't seen the metals cartridge. I completely forgot about the cartridge and couldn't see it when I pulled the filters. My guess is that it accidentally got knocked into the open filter intake when I took the filters out. I drained the chlorinated water, refilled with fresh, balanced the water and put the tub in sleep mode. I am thinking Saturday I will have to drain the tub again and pull the noisy pumps impeller apart and see if there is anything in there. Anyone else have any suggestions on what else to do I would be glad to entertain any and all ideas. The place we bought the tub will charge me big bucks for a service call so I would like to avoid that.... but the tub is just a month old at this point so maybe it is the best route. Tired & frustrated. off to bed now. Bob

Complete newbie to anything that has to do with spas/pools. We had our new spa delivered to the house just before Christmas with a starter box of chemicals. No real instructions other than some basic information in an "owners manual". Called the place where we bought the spa, was told to get rid of the anti-freeze in the lines by rinsing the tub and the filter compartments out with a hose and then using a shop vac to suck out the waste water. After that we were told to fill the tub with cold water, adjust the PF and TA, put in 2 TBSP of Multi-Magic Shock (dichlor?), wait 12 hours, check the FC, PH and TA again and we were good to go. For regular maintenance we were told to add 1 TBSP of the MM Shock after each use and to double dose it on weekends and to check the water occasionally using the strips they provided for FC, PH and TA. Sounded easy. All seemed well for the first 10 days.... there were 3 of us using the spa for 30 minutes each night... we tested the water every 3rd day after adding the MMS Shock and it looked good. I don't recall the exact numbers but my wife told me they were in the right range shown on the color chart. We also have a ski house about 2 hours north of where we live so headed up there for New Years week thinking everything was fine. When we returned home Sunday we found a smelly, cloudy, slimy bacterial soup! We tried adding more dichlor and ran the pumps and got these huge stinky bubbles coming out that left a coating of scum everywhere. I spent the last 2 days reading through this forum. I gather at this point I have to do a complete decontamination of the tub. I am up north every weekend during ski season so I have to do this at night midweek after work... not looking forward to it at all!!!! Nearest pool supply store is about 20 miles away... heading there tonight to pick up the spa flush to start the process. Plan on adding the flush tonight, then tomorrow night doing the drain/fill/ bleach/drain/ fill regimen. I get home around 7 so it is looking like a long night. Luckily it is going to be fairly warm in the low 30's. I understood from the sales person at the spa place that owning a spa was "effortless requiring hardly any maintenance"... Okay... I was dumb for taking his word. I am going to do do some research on this in my down time on exactly what is required, but am I correct in assuming that that by adding the proper amount of dichlor before we leave next time that we will not have a repeat of this issue? I am planning to follow the bleach/dichlor method I read about. Also, there are times when I am all alone in the house for several days... and I am close to being totally color blind. Can anyone recommend some sort of digital meter to check FC levels? Anything color coded does not work for me. Thanks in advance for any help. This site is a weath of knowledge... I wish I had thought to look for it earlier. They should give everyone that plans on buying a spa a link to this site. The "owners manual" they give you with the spa is completely useless unless you use it to mop up some spills on the deck.