thylantyr

I recently purchased a new FreeFlow RLX spa for $2995 at the local dealer. Unless you are a hardcore spa enthusiast, this brand is pretty nice and I would consider it better than decent quality. I try to approach this from a simple point of view, I need a tub with warm water and a few jets, shouldn't cost $5k - $6k

Neighbor came over complaining that this past electric bill has sky rocketed for no known reason and wanted to compare notes with our bill. Sadly, our bill has the new spa on it and it was $160 more. Comparing notes tells me the electric company seems to be pulling a scam by raising the price on electricity. I have changed my spa ways this month and manually control the on/off cycles, before I was too generous and left it running too long, that's ok, I had to learn how to manage the water, a small learning curve.

I changed the regimen since last Saturday, replaced the water in the spa. Right after each use, while the tub is still circulating 'crud', 2 oz MPS is added, typically it's used twice a day, 2 people, 1.5 hours average per session. Next day I did 1/3 oz dichlor. It seems like a strong dose from a perception point of view, ie wait 6 - 8 hours before using. The label says to use 1/4 oz. on startup, 1/8 oz for maintenance. Monday was the good test, an extra person at night was there and the session lasted for about 3 hours. Added 2 oz. MPS right after. Next morning, I see oils floating. Added another 2 oz. MPS. Better Add dichlor in the late afternoon. By night time, the water is acceptable. Tuesdsay, the same scenario, this time I added 3 oz MPS plus about 1/4 oz. dichlor. Next morning, I don't see oils floating. Nice. These small spas with 230 gallons imply 'drama', what appears to be small variables can be large ones because the bather load is really unknown, people are dirty Ordered the Taylor K-2006 and Sea Klear to mess around with. I think I will change out the water 2x month as water is cheap and bather load is high, but I think I can maintain this spa now, thanks for the insight.

I want to order the TF100 water testing kit [or equivalent] but will the use of potassium monopersulfate mess up the tests scores?

The MPS instructions are not detailed, it's probably a generic guide. All the clues I'm getting from using the spa, plus comments made on this thread imply more chemicals are required. I changed the regimen yesterday and will let you know how it goes.

I'll try the SeaKlear clarifier. Thanks.

The daily dichlor I add is 1/8 oz [volume measure] ~ = 1 teaspoon. Per test strips, all is ok. For the oxidizing, the story is weird. The MPS per label instruction is to use 1 - 2 oz. for a 250 gallon tank, after each use. I use a small 3 oz volume measuring cup, no teaspoon. I add 1.5 oz. MPS daily [volume measure] ~ = 9 teaspoon. [and I verified that 1 teaspoon = 0.16 oz.] What I don't know is if this 1 - 2 oz. recommendation is volume or weight measure Regardless, after 1 week of this routine the water has way too much gunk. Yesterday I added 3 more oz. and waited hours. No good. I added 3 more oz. and waited hours, very good. Total that day was about 7.5 oz MPS [volume measure] = ~ 45 teaspoon. Keep in mind, the spa is less than 2 months old and the water has been replaced once so far and the filter cleaned three times. /weird MPS brand used. http://www.lesliespool.com/browse/Home/Spa...1500030/I/14550 Same brand for dichlor. This routine doesn't bother me so much as any health risks associated with dumping chemicals in water and soaking in it. How long does MPS stay in the water? Does it dissipate quickly as it oxidizes ? If so, then I shouldn't worry right? Just enter the spa later after treatment.

I have a new 230 gallon spa that gets used twice daily, average two people per session, average 1 hour per session. I treat the spa daily using dichlor and monopersulfate using the recommended dose as indicated on the product label, and do the best I can right now using the test strips. I need to buy a better water tester soon. Everything is good for about 5 days, then on the 7th day the spa needs a 'shock' treatment to rid the cloudly water. Adding extra dichlor solves this problem, but it takes a day to get the cholorine levels down, catch 22. The spa is used for therapy and it will be used twice a day. Shocking with dicholor isn't optimal. Daily maintenance continues and a few days later the water gets really foamy with all the 'gunk' that floats to the top of the spa collecting on the spa walls, the filtration system can't 'herd' all the gunk to the intake of the filter, I have to manually clean this a few times a day. About 1.5 weeks into this, the water "isn't good enough to drink" so I added more monopersultate, three times one day with a total dose of about 4 to 5 times more than recommended on the label and a few hours later, the water is nice, it's clear, doesn't foam, all is good. Yes, it took that much to clear up the spa. I also cleaned the filter with cascade detergent mixed with uncented house bleach, then used a high pressure garden hose to clean the gunk off the filter. I spend more time daily monitoring and maintaing the spa that actually using it I don't know if this methodology if common to clear up the spa, I have the filter running at least 8 hours on low speed daily, the filter is on on high speed for probably a total of 2 hours daily, the water chemistry is as good as it gets using test strips, but it seems to me that small spa's in general with high useage is akin to 'bath water' and who wants to take a bath using the same water over and over again? Doesn't make sense to me when the spa dealer tells me that I should change the water every 6 months when after 2 weeks I get the impression that it's time to change it, due to high use. It also seems futile to keep adding more and more chemicals to fix dirty water, plus having the filters run for long hours daily to help clean this up; electricity isn't cheap, running the pumps all day only degrades the motor/pump. ... and the question I wonder is the "Chemical safety" when you add all these chemicals to the water and your body is exposed to this on average of 2 hours every day. What are the long term health issues ? It seems to me that things might be better if I were to change the spa water twice a month, less chemicals, less electricity used, decrease the chance of pump failure, etc. To be honest, I'm paranoid about soaking the human body in a small spa with chemicals, long term exposure = what illness that may manifest later in life ?

Long story short, a friend has neuropathy pain [feet, plus leg sensitivity] that never goes away for the past 3 years, many things were attempted to curb the pain. Recently, while at a public pool, it was discovered the pain goes away if the body is floating in water. A mad scramble to do homework to find a home solution led me to this forum where I did some research for hours trying to understand spas as I have no clue and I wanted to help my friend out. My friend can't afford the big boy spas and the brand Freeflow was the candidate. We went to a local dealer and they had a couple of display models on clearance and the RLX model was chosen. They delivered the spa the next day and I'm surprised that it can be easily moved by two people on a simple furniture dolly with four casters, nice. Easy to move around once placed on the ground, nice. To keep costs down, I did the labor for the installation. We bought 4x4 and 2x6 redwood lumber to make a platform as the 3" thick concrete backyard isn't level, it's a pretty robust 'over engineered' structure that can probably hold an elephant, then I shimmed the perimeter so everything is structurally sweet. I did the electrical installation and did an extra GFCI breaker test using a resistor from hot legs to ground, just for my own peace of mind that the GFCI is responding in addition to it's own 'test' button. This is a 220VAC install, very nice, the spa heats up quickly and the water is still warm the next day if the spa is turned off for the night. The first spa session for my friend was great, there was no pain in the feet upon entering, and the warm water plus jets were a bonus that makes the experience better. My friend stayed in the spa for 1.5 hours at 98 degree temp and didn't want to come out as this is the first time a pain-free experience was felt. From idea to execution, just a few days. I probably wouldn't have executed this project this quickly if this forum didn't exist, there is great research data here. Thanks.