dannyw68

Thanks again for the advice. I don't have an ozonator. The water has cleared up and the chlorine demand has reduced significantly. Over the last 24 hours, the chlorine dropped from 17 PPM to 14 PPM which is a pretty normal demand for my tub. Regarding the borates, I was looking into it and have come across a few discussions about the potential hazards of borate exposure. I'm not sure if there is any real risk, but my PH is usually pretty stable so I may just avoid it until PH becomes a problem.

Thanks for the detailed response. My CYA level right now is right around 30. I've been using the Dichlor/Bleach method keeping the CYA at 30, and using bleach after. My CH level is due to a miscalculation of my water volume and adding too much calcium increaser. My tub is 280 gallons full, but the seller had told me it was 450. My only available water spout comes downstream of my water softener, and my un-softened water has even higher calcium content. So I used the softened water and added the calcium. My low alkalinity is required because if I keep it higher, my PH drifts to 7.8-8.2. I am not using borates.

Hi everyone. I've recently bought a second hand hot tub and have been following the advice on this forum for the past 8 months with excellent results... until now. My free chlorine recently went to zero for about 12-24 hours. The water turned a milky white color. I chlorinated to 10 PPM at night with dichlor and it was zero in the morning. I tried raising it to 25 ppm with bleach and it was 10 PPM 24 hours later, still white and tons of fumes. Here are my current test results: FC: 10 PPM Alkalinity: 55 ppm CH: 240 PPM PH: 7.5 The water seems balanced, but chlorine demand is really high and the cloudiness isn't going away. Does this mean I should decontaminate, or is there something else I can try that might work. Any help would be appreciated.

I just recently purchased a used hot tub that came with some chlorine based chemicals. I am presently sanitizing the tub and replacing the filter based on the Hillbilly Hot Tub method to make sure its plenty clean and safe. I've read both the Nitro chlorine sticky and the waterbear bromine sticky and it seems really obvious to me that the using Bromine is MUCH less complicated and requires less daily maintenance. So my question is that if Bromine is so much easier, less finicky, lower maintenance, and doesnt smell like chlorine, why do so many people opt to use chlorine instead?

Actually, he came highly recommended by the previous owner and he was quite expensive. I think in this case I was just unlucky. But on the bright side, it has forced me to learn my own unit inside and out. Now I just have to figure this whole chemical thing out...

OK, I switched the wires and all is well in the world. The tub is working great. Strange how it could have been configured so poorly. Thank you all for the help.

Thanks. Yeah, I've come to suspect that he isn't as good as I've been lead to believe.

When I hit the button manually on the panel, it does go to high speed first, then to low speed with another button push. I will see if it is wired incorrectly tomorrow and get back to you. Thanks again!

Dude, you are awesome. I just double checked and that is exactly how it was set. It is now working turning the pump on and heating. Makes me wonder how the previous owner got the water hot given that no-one changed these settings between when i bought it and now. One additional question if you dont mind. The heater is automatically turning on the high speed pump instead of the low. Any idea why this is?

Hi, I am a first time hot tub buyer and a first time poster to this forum. I just purchased a second hand Sundance Spa locally and finally got it wired up and working, and of course with my luck I ran into a problem. Basically, the problem is that the heater turns on but the pump does not. When placed into standard heating mode, the spa heater will turn on with no pump activity. This leads to a loud boiling noise, followed by a system shutoff with an 'HL' error which I understand to mean 'High Limit' for the temp sensor. If I manually turn on the low speed pump after the heater has turned on, but before the system shuts off, it will continue to heat for 20 minutes until the pump shuts off automatically. It will then shut off the heater with and 'HL' error. It sometimes gives me a 'DR' error which I understand to mean a dry heater. I dont know the exact spa model, but the control system is a Balboa VS511Z. The system has two pumps and no circ pump or ozone. Pump 1 is two speed and pump 2 is a single speed. Both pumps work just fine when manually started from the panel. The low speed setting on Pump 1 also works just fine. When turned on, the pumps appear to be flowing a significant amount of water, so this leads me to believe that they are properly primed. This system does not have a pressure switch or a flow switch. The system uses two temperature sensors in the heater for its flow detection. Before I had the tub moved to my house, everything worked just fine as the tub was at 103°F and all the jets were working. I had my 240V GFCI line installed and wired to the tub by a professional electrician. I just hired a local hot tub repair technician to come diagnose the problem and surprise surprise, he has never seen this before and thinks I need to replace the board. (Cost $125 just to show up). He called a parts supplier who said it sounds like faulty board logic and they want to replace it at like $800. I would really appreciate any help you guys can offer. I REALLY do not want to buy a new board without knowing for sure that it is the problem. Could the temp sensors be faulty? Could it be a bad relay? Thank you in advance for your help.