TinyBubbles

Thanks Bo. I might get my hubby to knock it loose with a toothbrush while I suck it up in the spa wand. Of course, our high today is 30 and it's the last thing I want to mess with.

I'm curious what the size of the store has to do with wet testing. I'd be worried if the size of the store would effect my service needs after buying a spa. Just imagine a car dealership that wouldn't let you test drive a car before buying. I shopped alot of dealers and each one offered to wet test any spa, including those that weren't filled at the time.

Bo, it's like lint stuck in the tiny holes of the cover. I'm assuming our friends dried their suits with towels and they had lots of fuzz stuck to them. Personally, it grosses me out. I don't want to reach under water and pick it all out with my fingernails, unless it's a last resort. Blech!

We had some friends in the spa and afterwards,for the first time, I noticed stuff trapped in the cover of one of the water intakes. I used my spa wand to get some of it off and suck it up, but there is still some trapped in it. How does everyone clean theirs? I wasn't sure if it should come off or not, and there is nothing in my owner's manual about it.

Our absolute favorite part of soaking is enjoying the beatiful stars. I'd give up my spa completely before I'd put it under a covering. Put some lounge chairs out in the different locations you are considering placing your spa. Take a few nights and sit outside in the chairs and see which location you enjoy spending time in the most. That's how we picked our spot and we are completely happy with it. Good Luck.

Ok, I'm at the one month mark for using bleach. The cya has not changed. The ph level has dramatically increased with the use of bleach, so I am now adding ph down. It was always on the low side with dichlor. The bleach definately does not hang around as long as the dichlor. We had friends over for New Year's eve and we used the tub, so I used dichlor after the soak and still had a residual the following day, which I don't get with bleach, no matter how much I use. After adding the dichlor I got foam, which I haven't had since using the bleach. I had high readings for cc when using dichlor and they were hard to get rid of with shocking. I have not had this problem with bleach, I don't know if it's just a coincidence. So far, I don't have any complaints with the bleach. The only difference is using ph decreaser instead of increaser, and the bleach is less expensive.

It's a type of fabric/material. If you look in any cleaning or dusting section you should be able to find microfiber cleaning clothes. I tried mine out around the water line and it did do a nice job. Then, just throw it in the washer, make sure you do NOT add fabric softener.

Tiny, Actually that's a good question. I'm assuming that Sandi's tub is wired too 220 volts and a 50-60 amp breaker. If it's 110 then it won't make hot water unless she's not using the jets, but I think if it's 220 then it would be making hot water. Let's go back to the example. If she sets the tub to say 103 and she enters the tub at 101 it will continue to make hot water until it reaches 103 and shouts the heater off. Sorry if I wasn't clear but if my memory serves me correctly Sandi has a higher end tub. Biggz Gotcha. I guess these forums have me paranoid. I knew that my heater comes on when I'm soaking if the temp. drops, I thought my tub might be weird.

I can't help you with the metal gon/shock thing, but I wanted to weigh in on shocking with chlorine. I think it's better to shock weekly with MPS. You can superchlorinate occassionally if you feel the need. You should balance the water now, do not wait 2 or 3 days. When filling my tub (350 gallons) I add the metal gon, 1 tbs dichlor, and adjust ph, alkalinity and total hardness. Good Luck.

Sandi, it definately depends on what controls you have. On my tub I set the time of the day and then I set the on and off times for both filter cycles. Biggz, I have a really stupid question, but if you don't ask you'll never know, right? You mentioned to Sandi that her tub could be making hot water while she is soaking...don't all spas do that regardless of what mode they are in? It's been a long holiday and I'm low on sleep, so go easy on me if I'm missing something obvious. You must be a noodle after 30 minutes at 102 in Florida. We've only made it up to 101 and that's when it's in the 30's out and I'm still sweating death.

Thanks for the well wishes, same to you and yours. I've been using bleach and let me tell you, a little goes a long way. I've been decreasing my dose, right now I'm at 1 1/2 ounces for 350 gallons. I may or may not go down from there. No ill effects that I can see so far. My PH has definately been effected. It was always low when using dichlor and now is right on the mark. I will have to watch it to see if it goes up to the point where I will have to lower it. I usually got foam whenever adding dichlor, but so far, no foam with the bleach. I still keep the tub in standard mode, but we've upped the temp. to 101 with the cooler weather. So far, our largest increase on the power bill was .66 cents. If you are soaking during a filter cycle, did you increase the filter time by the duration of your soak? That way you are taking advantage of the increased temp. but not losing any cleaning time? A $30 dollar increase doesn't seem bad for entertainment and therapy. That's a movie ticket for you and your wife and a couple cokes and popcorn. Happy soaking!

Mike, the difference between your September and October bill was a big difference. The difference between your November and October bill was big. The difference between September and November was huge! My point...it may not just be your tub effecting your bill. Dirty furnace filters, extra loads of laundry, longer showers, outside temperatures, can all effect power bills. One lady was on here absolutely freaked out about her huge power bills since owning a spa, ends up she had added a room onto her home. I think it's really hard for you to get a clear picture since you can't compare apples to apples (power bill for last year at this time). And look at it this way, you paid $236 in September to enjoy your ac, this month you only paid $177 to enjoy your spa. There does seem to be a big difference between the energy consumption of full foam vs. non-full foam spas, but if you are enjoying your spa, then put it in perspective. Maybe you could get set up on a levelized billing program with your power company. It is nice, however, to hear your experience so that others can make an informed decision when they are purchasing a spa. I hope your insulation helps you out.

Hi momma, how are you enjoying your new spa? We are loving ours. We have large areas around the top of our spa and if they are wet when the cover is closed, we can get mildew spots on the cover. I use a weak bleach solution and rub it on the spots with a towel and let it sit. You won't see them disappear immediately, but if you give them some time and maybe a second rub, they will. If I take the time to dry off the corner areas the spots don't form. Good luck and I hope your enjoying soaking.

Thanks for the laugh Rick. I don't think I knew that you owned a down east. We looked at those pretty seriously. We'd probably all be better off if we offered less advice and more stupid comments! How much energy does your pig consume? oink oink.

We are all in a pretty good spot here, getting advice from both medical and legal professionals. I guess it would get way to complex to explain why we can only limit and not release ourselves from liability. I agree that it would be best to limit your guest's alcohol consumption, but gosh that can get sticky. It's especially hard to tell an adult they can't drink anymore when they have a designated driver and they brought their own alcohol. I guess we could take the passive way out and simply say the spa is not working. I'm such a coward.

When I saw you asking for the Hummer of hot tubs, one brand jumped into my mind. That would be Dynasty. They are all about bling and high power. When I think of a person buying a Hummer, I see that person buying a dynasty spa. I'm about as far from the hummer/dynasty lifestyle as you can get, so I know basically nothing about them, but you might want to check them out.

I agree Nate, that is confusing. Maybe they are assuming that we drain and refill our water so frequently that the cya levels can't get very high. In the real world, we know this doesn't happen. On my first fill, my cya levels were through the roof when drained the spa. Maybe it's more of an issue in public used spas than in residential spas. Regardless, I don't want to take any chances.

Biggz, I forgot to address the issue of posting the warning sign. I am not a lawyer, so don't quote me, but..........you can not release yourself from a liability before it happens. For example, those waivers you sign before jetskiing, snowmobiling, etc. are useless. It does not protect the people renting you the equipment from liability. They just hope that someone remembers signing the form and assumes that they can't do anything. Working in the pool industry, you deal with liability quite a bit. If someone dives off a 2-story deck into a 4-ft deep above ground pool and breaks their neck, guess who's responsible? The pool builder. Isn't that ridiculous? From what I understand, the fact that the pool had stickers on it that say "do not dive", did not protect the pool builder or the manufacturer. I'm sure laws could vary from state to state. I could play devil's advocate on both sides of the issue. Side one, you were concerned enough to post the sign and warn others, therefore, you placed the burden on them. Side two, you knew that drinking in the hot tub was dangerous, which is why you put out the sign, yet you allowed someone to drink anyways. As homeowners, we are damned if we do, damned if we don't. We had a good friend that owned a large peice of property with a lake on it. He had "no trespassing" signs placed around the perimeter of the property. One day a teenager wandered onto the property anyways, got into the lake and somehow got stuck in an overflow culvert. The man heard the boy screaming and pulled him out of the culvert. In doing so, he dislocated the boys shoulder and was promptly sued by the boy's family. They won! Didn't even matter that the boy was trespassing on property that was clearly marked, no trespassing.

Thanks for the info. medic, that's good to know. Biggz, I have an update on this topic. My hubby and I have never had more than one drink in the tub. This past weekend we had another couple over that wanted to try out the hot tub. The man came in and slammed several vodka and redbulls, then started drinking beer when we got in the tub. He drank several of them while soaking, got out to use the bathroom and according to my hubby, made another vodka drink. When he got back in the tub, it made me a nervous wreck. Getting in and out of the tub under the best of circumstances can be a bit ackward, and with the alcohol in his system he wasn't exactly on top of his game. He got in and out a few times to use the bathroom or stand by the firepit. The next day my hubby and I mentioned how nervous this made us. My hubby said he could just envision him slipping and cracking his head open. Since I'm not really comfortable telling someone else how much to drink and he had his wife to drive him home, the best plan is for myself and hubby not to drink too much and stand next to people to help steady them getting in and out of the tub. After this weekend, I do believe this is an issue. As a homeowner, you can never be too careful.

I was already planning on doing this Richard. I, too, am curious if there would be a need to add dichlor at some point. I will keep you posted.

Very interesting question Nate. I can't wait for the chemistry experts to weigh in.

Ok, that's scary, I just put this exact same post on your thread about aromatherapy! Last night was the first time I tried it, so I really can't report yet. I'm hoping for the best. We had a weekend with 74 degree temps, so I drained my tub and used fastgloss (or whatever that stuff is called). I forgot to use it on my first fill, so I figured it was time to do it. My water got cloudy after a week so I added a clarifier and ran the jets for an hour. Lots of stuff that looked exactly like fastgloss gunked up on the sides and the water is now crystal clear. I don't know if that's normal or if I didn't wipe it off good enough. I find myself loving the spa more than ever, so maybe the honeymoon stage will never end. BTW, the bleach I'm using is 6%, so roughly half the concentration that you are using. How much are you adding after your soaks? Have you noticed any change to your power bill? We got our second one since owning the tub, it said our costs were .66 cents higher than the same period last year. I certainly can't complain about that.

Hi biggz, long time no post. I hate to hijack your thread, but how many gallons is your spa and how much bleach do you put in it after a soak?

The chlorine not lasting more than 24 hours is normal, especially if you are using the tub. Five days away is a long time with no sanitizer. Did you add extra before you left? I did that before a 5 day trip and everything was ok. I ran my ozonator 24 hours and had a nature2 cartridge. I got cloudy water on my 2nd refill after using fastgloss on the spa. I added bright and clear and ran jets and nothing really happened. I left the jets running for an hour and ended up with crystal clear water. I, also, rinsed the filters several times during the process. Did you shock the spa with mps or chlorine? Shocking with mps is fine for organics, but without sanitizer in the spa for 5 days, you might need a super dose of chlorine. Good luck and don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. There is definately a learning curve. Oh yeah, turn the temperature down when you leave next time. The chlorine will last longer.

Here is the link! http://products.desatech.com/product_info....products_id=654 Mike, I think we looked at that heater. Does it heat on all four sides or just one? Could you tell us about how far out the heat radiates?