Hi folks
About a month ago my wife and I purchased an Arctic Fox with Onzen. For the first few days, all was well but after about 4 uses I started to get really itchy skin and excema. Our dealer said we shouldn't need to worry about using test strips unless we started to think there was a problem, so when I started getting itchy we tested the water and it showed the alkalinity was low, pH was high and the amount of chlorine was very high. The water smelt strongly of Chlorine. So we used some Adjust Down and that helped with the pH. I checked the level that the Onzen generator was set to by the dealer and it was at about 90% of max (anti-clockwise). I dropped it down to about 20% and reduced the frequency of the filter cycle (and stayed out of the tub for a while). Nothing much changed so I called our dealer who added more Adjust Down and agreed with what I'd done.
When we next used the tub, the pH was low and the chlorine was still high. When I showered afterwards, I noticed that the hair on my chest, arms and legs had changed from black to gingery blonde and as I washed it all started to fall out in clumps - I got out of the shower looking like a plucked chicken! We called the dealer again and he recommended dumping the water and starting again. The dealer suspected that the quantity of salt that his colleague put in when the tub was handed over to us might have been wrong, so he came round and carefully measured the salt that he added. He left the Onzen generator on its lowest level and set the tub to filter once every 24 hours for an hour.
Things looked fine for the first few days and the dealer called round daily to check the levels - the chlorine level was initially very low so I upped the Onzen from minimum to about 10%. Over the next couple of days the level went through ideal to very high. Today, suspecting the salt quantity added the second time by the dealer might still have been too high I dumped about 20% of the water and topped it back up. Now, the Chlorine is still somewhere between 5 and 10 ppm on the test strip (difficult to be exact) / 865mV on the electronic gadget supplied in the starter kit.
What are we doing wrong - how come the amount of Chlorine can get so high with the Onzen generating at its minimum level? What should we do to get the Chlorine level down when this happens - surely draining and refilling is not an option especially with the cost of the salt? And what levels are outside of the safe range - when should we not use the tub for safety reasons - losing all my body hair was not good!
I note the advice about testing the salt level with strips - I've just ordered some - seems like something that should be included in the Arctic Onzen starter pack?
Thanks in advance for advice!
New tub owner, UK
