jennaemac

our cover appears to be in great shape and is quite heavy. It is not water logged or torn. I can find no damage whatsoever. It is by no means "delapidated". I dont believe I own anything I would call delapidated. We have had a colder winter for the first time since we got it and I wonder if we are just seeing what we would have seen all along had we been having normal winters.

We have had our Arctic summit for 2 years and this is the first winter we have seen A LOT of evaporation. Its so bad that I thought we had a leak. We went a week once without using the tub and the water was way below the jets and filter. Is there anything we can do to prevent this? I can see the steam coming out from under the cover when the tub cycles. The cover is intact and seems to still fit well. What about the spa blankets? Would one of these help to lessen this problem?

OK--I have posted a few messages in the last few days with problems with my pH and TA. Nothing that has been suggested has worked and my pH remains at 8.3 with a TA of 231. The only difference with this water change was that I accidently used a whole bottle of flush before I drained the old water. After refilling and running for a few days I noticed my filter was brown, which didnt surpise me at first since we have very hard water and I usually have to change the filter after a few days because of the metal but this time the filter would not rinse clean. Could residual flush in the lines cause these problems?

I posted yesterday regarding my recent new use of Spa choice Ph decreaser. I have not been able to balance my water for 2 days . Right now my pH is 8.3 and TA over 200. I have been adding the spa choice pH decreaser 1oz at a time for 2 days and both my ph and TA are bouncing all over the place. My ph has never gotton below 8 and TA never below 196. I dont know what to do. Is the water even safe to use at these levels? The only thing I can think of now is to really load up the pH decreaser (like 3 - 4 oz) at once and see what happens. If I decrease the pH enough, I can then bring up my TA easier dont you think. I dont even want to add any chlorine at this point for fear it would raise everything even more. Our water is very hard and we have always had to decrease TA quite a bit . Is it possible that all this chemistry hasnt even touched it yet? Could this bottle be defective. Its brand new and so are my test strips. This is brand new water also. HELP

I bought SPA CHOICE Reduce pH online. It said on the website that it would correct high TA but on the bottle it only mentions pH. How can it lower both pH and TA? I have been battling my water all day and right now after adding about 4oz of this stuff my pH is 8.3 and TA is 190. Its bouncing quite a bit and Im not sure if this product is misleading or if Im not understanding something. Im not exactly new at this (2 years with Arctic) but we have always used Arctic chemicals and Im trying something different now with latest water change just because arctic stuff is so hard to get in my area. Has anyonw used this stuff? I cant seem to find a product that says it will lower TA so I feel like Im missing something. We always have high TA after a water change and have always had to lower it and I have never had these problems before.

We have had our arctic spa nearly a year now and have used the pleated filters. I am now ready to replace them and wonder about the same thing. In my experience over the last year, I dont mind cleaning my filters every couple of weeks (we have two so there is one clean one ready always). When I think of the crud that builds up every couple of weeks especially after a water change I dont really like the idea of that building up over months. Not only that, I tend to micro manage my water and it would bug me not to know for sure if the filter was the cause of problems since the disposables can last anywhere from weeks to months. I understand that arctic says the filtration is better (down to 1 mircron vs 30 - 40 with pleated) but isnt that what your sanitizer is supposed to do too? There is just something about putting a nice clean white filter back in my tub every couple weeks that feels right to me. We have had very little problem with our water and never had trouble getting it balanced or clean looking. So, I guess I would lean toward pleated...any thoughts from the more experienced?

Ive noticed this too since the weather warmed up. We are also in MN and just purchased ours this past fall. Our water also has been a little less clean and I am frequently doing boost filtration. We have been venting the cover a bit when we notice it is 105 degrees. We just put a piece of wood or brick under the edge of the cover to air it out a bit.

I am so sorry to hear of your experience!! It sounds like you really got unlucky with your dealer. I have to say that our experince with our Arctic dealer buying a floor model in early Nov. was not at all like yours. We a got a great deal with no surprises. Im glad you shared your story however, I hope that others will not be deterred from exploring Arctic. You are right when you say it is a quality spa and we have been very happy with it but a bad experience with sales people can make or break how you feel about a product. The delivery people were great. They stayed and filled it to the point where the jets were started. Everything was very easy and smooth. We have had a couple of issues since purchase, (a venturi valve seized up and the we had an error message that caused it to stop heating) Both issues were dealt with quickly and with no charges. Any questions I have had regarding chemistry, since this is my first spa, were answered courteously and without any impatience. Everytime I call there, I feel like everyone remembers who I am, even after nearly 4 months! I just hope after all this, if you get your spa working well, you can enjoy it without regret. Hopefully, Arctic corporate can assist you. Good luck! Please edit a long quote, it makes it easier to follow the post! Many thanks -- Tom

Just went out to do maintenance on my 2 month old arctic Summit and the display says "FLC..." The manual says it has to do with a pressure control switch and to call the dealer. I called and was told to shut the breaker down for 20 minutes and restart. This did not help. All pumps seem to be working fine. Ozonator is on. The water feels slightly cool but it is really Cold here now so I cant really tell and the temp wont display. Any suggestions before I set up a service call. Maybe changing the filter or something. What is the pressure switch and what does it do? could something be blocking one of the intakes or something? Its dark out and FREEZING so I havent spent a lot of time looking in the tub. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! Jenna

Arctic will take a trade.

We have had our Arctic Summit for about 3 weeks now and are enjoying it immensely!! I'm finding that with the amt of use, we are going through a lot of chemicals (shock, chlorine, alk up...) It seems that after about 1 hour of use by 2-3 people, the strip shows absolutely 0 chlorine. Is that normal? Does anyone have any input on what lines of chemicals are best or have a good reputation. We were of course given the whole arctic line with start up but it's not exactly conveinent for us to keep using them, just for accessibility reasons. Is it really necessary to keep using the chemicals that are made by my vendor? I have done some research and Leisure time and Spa essentials seem to come up the most. Any input? Also, after carefully testing my water quite often, a sample taken to dealer was found to be quite off. (Low alkalinity, Low calcium hardness, almost no chlorine) I dont get why it seems my test strips werent telling me the same info. Is there a brand of test strips that are better? What about testing for total and Free cholorine...my strips test only total and it seems to me that free chlorine is more important. How often should we be testing for total dissolved solids? Obviously, right now the tub is getting lots of use. What about these "pH guards" some brands have? Does that really help stabilize things better, even with heavy use? I have many questions, but I am starting to understand some of the relations of all these things I'm testing for. Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks! Jenna

Not to mention the amount of sweat people leave behind in the water. Just because you're in water doesn't mean you are not sweating, its hot water after all. I read somewhere that its like 1 cup per person per hour! Not really infectious but still pretty gross!

As we have begun prepping our yard for delivery of our new Arctic Tub, I'm starting to wonder about this forever floor. Does anyone have any experience with just how "forever" it is. We have a level space but it's just dirt that may or may not be very compacted. What about settling? Has anyone just put a slab down or pavers anyway just to be safe and is it really necessary? What about peastone or something like that? How can I be sure that when that tub is set down and is level that it will stay that way indefinitely? Any advice would be appreciated. Jenna

We finally "took the plunge" and are now spa owners as of yesterday with hopes for soaking by thanksgiving. Since we live in Minnesota, time is of the essence at this point if we want it up and running this winter. After much research we went with the Arctic Summit with therapy air, peak ozone, forever floor and northern lights. These spas are, as I have read here, very well built and we found them to be comfortable for us. I plan to use cholrine. I really did not like the smell of the Bromine in the showrooms and Im not sure if that's cuz we were indoors or what. Cholrine I know, chlorine I trust. We had a great experience with the dealer. There was no pressure. They helped keep my 3 and 6 year olds occupied. We decided on a lower priced model than we had originally thought and there was no pressure to move up. They ended up having the exact tub we want in stock and on the floor so we got a good deal and don't have to wait for it. I may be very naiive and I dont know if this is usual but they are going to stain it again (x3) and run it for two days in the warehouse to make sure all is well. I cant say enough about the positive feelings I left with and I hope it continues once the spa arrives. I didnt get these feelings from other dealers we shopped with (especially Master Spas). We plan to build our deck around the tub but not until next spring and do plan on using the tub in the meantime. Do you think we need to plan for some type of temporary walkway to the tub? We have an existing deck that will be expanded but until then we will have to step off the deck and walk across what will probably not be very good grass to the tub. Any other advice from some veterns to a rookie? Jenna

We have been in the market and I'm learning still...anyone heard of Wizard spas? I had my search narrowed to a few and now a friend just bought a wizard and I have never heard of this brand.