Hillbilly Hot Tub

I also like to watch the stars and rarely turn them on, if I do I have discovered that the red lighting does not make it so you can not see the sky as much. that said, if i have guests, we do turn on the lights

I also have a listing for charisma for their skim filter which is a pleatco pww10 (fc3077) which is 4 1/4 OD 4 long with a 1 15/16 hole. Not much square footage of filtration in it, much like the walmart filters though.

Also, we quite often see a union that will drip slightly untill the spa heats up, then it stops. We were told/taught that this is because quite often there are 2 different kinds of plastic, that exspand and contract, when the water is cold, one of them may contract more than the other. After it heats up, it expands and the leak stops.

You are not going to get accurate sanitizer readings with that Taylor kit if you are doing the MPS daily and chlorine weekly. MPS will give a false reading on the Taylor 2006 test kit. thus why the dealers is different. They gave you what is called the low chlorine recipe. it works very well with the mineral stick if you use MPS at each use and shock weekly with dichlor. The reason the bottles read different is because they are labled for people using chlorine and shocking with MPS, and are not (usually) using the mineral stick. The idea of nature 2 is to reduce the amount of chlorine, so if you want a chlorine system, dont waste the money on the nature 2 (IMO)

are you using anything with the ozone and nature 2, you should be using chlorine or MPS with chlorine as needed.

I have read through the above process but think I'll stick with commercial spa products for now. My main concern is what should the chlorine level be? The chemical bottle and much of the reading that I've done references 3-5 ppm. The tester I am using has a gauge that maxes out at 3 ppm with the ideal level being 1.5 ppm. Most people like to keep it at the lower level, just remember, when you are using the spa, the level drops quickly. Also if there are several using the spa, oe guests, i would not keep it low. Keeping it at 3-5 is also fine if it is not bothering you in anyway. Biggest thing is not to let the spa drop to zero, you will start bacteria/germs growing almost as soon as it drops to zero. After a bit of you using it, you will figure out how much chlorine you need to add when you get out to have a good reading for your next use.

you can try swirl away plumbing cleaner, as it is in the tub, keep trying to turn the knob a little, dont force it though. You will have to keep it in a longer time than stated on the bottle. It maybe easier and cheaper to replace the entire diverter valve. Many people leave jets and valves in one place, and no matter how great the water chemistry is they become stuck over years. I always tell people to turn their jets, diverters, air controls etc. on/off a few times at least once a month to keep them free.

And seals are so easy to do.

possibly the pump contactor acting up, can you turn it back down to low after manually?

Sounds like this tub froze up. It may be easier to trace the leak if you add some dark food coloring into the water and let it soak through the foam then follow it. Even though the water is showing on one side, it may have started on the other side and followed the path of least resistance through the foam. You more than likley have some broken manifolds. You may have to repplace the foam for stuctual intergrety, depending on how much is removed. They sell a kit special for doing this. You have to be careful with spray on foam due to the heat it creates as it cures if you are doing a large area. We are also in NH(Charlestown) if you would like to call with questions.

Shock the tub with MPS or chlorine to re-establish the used bromine. Even with the frog, you will have to shock the tub if it is used a lot. The mps(nature 2 ) test strip is testing for the oxidizing power in the tub, not the sanitizer. It is going to give you a false reading, also, with test strips, if they got damp or are out of date, they will give a bad reading.

the owner may have not put the silicone in, some manufactures use it, some use glue...you have to attach the plumbing and jets. It may be coming out due to bad water chemistry, thay being said, you may have leaks in the future. I would do the decontamination procedure...and also use a plumbing cleaner such as swirl away. Be aware that with baqa, you may get white gooeys. I would look into nature 2, you can keep a very low chlorine (.5) and it has very little smell.

With the numbers you give, it very well could be scale. Rough like sandpaper also leads me to beleive that. Bromine will also leave a residue, white on the shell but its not really rough, just a little. You need to bring down the PH. If you run your tub at 104, with these numbers you want a PH of 7.5-7.6, as quantum said. To lower your bromine level, open your cover in sunlight. Sunlight will burn of bromine rather rapidly.

Those blisters are huge! There are a couple of different routes. The one we have tried, and works well (but has been with much smaller blisters) is drilling 2 small holes in the bubble, putting a vacuum over one, and a cut straw and super glue (made for pool and spa repair) while using a heat gun, being very careful, heat the blister as you are sucking the acrylic down and adding the glue. The heat gun makes the acrylic more plyable, the glue sticks it back dow. Other suggestion, cut the blister out, sand and use a fiberglass repair on it. This is not pretty, but it covers the hole. The blister should not leak since it is usually the acrylic separating from the fiberglass or whatever they used for a backing) unlees that backing was also very thin.

How many hours a day are you filtering? does this tub have a filter bypass valve that may be broken causing the water to bypasss the filter. Your total chlorine is creeping up just a little, you may need to shock, then use more bleach than you have been to handle bather load.

what you see may not be scale also. Bromine can leave a white residue on the spa shell, i see it more in the pure bromine systems. Scale is rough to the touch, scratchy feeling. bromine salt residue is not as rough, if rough at all. A good spa shell cleaner will take it off, just make sure to get all of the cleaning residue out of the spa after to prevent foaming issues and chemistry issues.

High levels of bromine will make it smell strong, the low PH will definately make the strong smell and irritate the lungs, and if the bromine is low, it may smell strong as it is working hard. You may want to shock more often. i find that the tablets, which are blended with chlorine have a stronger smell than a pure bromine by far anyway. Great reading on bromine is water bears write up on how bromine works, if you understand how it works, it may help you out a lot also.

IF you keep the spa covered when not in use AND make sure that you always have FC in the spa by chlorinating daily and not just when you use it then you do not need cya BUT adding about 20 ppm CYA will make life easier in the long run. Once you have added enough dichlor to raise the CYA you would go back to the cal hypo until you drain and refill. You would need abut 1.5 oz of dichlor (approx 3 tablespoons) to bring your 280 gal spa to about 20 ppm CYA. break that up into three doses of 1 tablespoon a day to keep the FC from going too high at once.

The PH could be giving you a false high reading if the sanitizer level is high. Ph can creep with bromine, specially if you have ozone and air controls and no one is using the tub. Ph is not and indicator of if there are germs/bugs in the tub, your chlorine/bromine demand is. Your PH will go very high with the bleach method also if you do not follow the directions. You did not mention, what is your calcium hardness reading. Is it high?

You have it backwards, Nature 2 and dichlor sanitize, MPS oxidizes, does not sanitize at all. If you are using the tub just on weekends, i would use the MPS at each use and at the end of the weekend add the dichlor. We find that if you use clarifier weekly it helps a lot with nature 2. Most our customers choose sea clear.

Definitely calcium. I splashed enough of it in my face to tell that it wasn't salt! So I should fill the tub, drop in some jet cleaning product, and run the jets for a while? Then drain, and repeat if necessary? I've also read that a few cups of vinegar and some dishwasher tablets can help. Would that be worth trying? The salt risidual won't taste or be like salt you are used to, either way swirl away or a like product will help. Follow the directions on the bottle, they are each a bit different. pull out your filter while using it and leave it in longer than they say. keep turing jets on and off to make sure you get it into all the lines well. Vineagar is the same as keeping a bit lower PH, it is an acid. I would not use dishwashing soap personally.

Are your sure its calcium (hard, crusty) or is it salt build up from bromine. I see the bromine build up a lot on tubs. To clean the lines, you can use a jet cleaning product. Make sure to keep your saturation index in check when you fill and use, maybe even toward the negative side (a little and not for long) if it is scale to see if some of it will release from the plumbing.

First, Having commercial units has many laws you have to follow,(at least in US) one of those is having a CPO over see you tubs. Do you have a CPO, they should know all the laws and how to keep the tubs clean. You have to go by the bather ratio load to when you have to refill. The water chemistry has to be checked every hour that the spa is open, and you should insist that the bathers take a shower before use, and no lotions or sunscreens on ect. Those are the biggest problems with dirty water, specially in commercial tubs. As another note, being commercial tubs, are these complient with the virgina grahm baker laws? If you you better get them done soon, or face hefty fines. Canada may have different laws, i would check with them, and get a cpo to help you get your tubs set. It will save you many headaches! good luck

It sounds like you are just running the filter if the water is cloudy???? You need to filter the spa water everyday, usually a minimum of 4 hours, longer if you use the spa frequently. Maybe i misunderstood, but if you are only running the filters here and there, you are going to have issues often. Also, Ozone only runs during a filter cycle, unless you have a 24 hour circ. pump. As with nature 2, you only need a minimla chlorine reading (.5) and its does work with non chlorine shock in heavy doses, copper systems are on the same idea as Nature 2, just more copper in them. Is this a machine such as eco smart that is producing the copper, or are you adding it in? You do not want much chlorine with the eco smart systems.