RuBaDuB

UPDATE: My solution...removed the new bromine pucks and chucked em out, went and bought ones from Arctic Spas that we normally use. Used the tub one night, let son pee in the tub before getting out (serious). Let spa sit for 3 days with no floater....voila, bromine down to zero. Re-balanced pH/TA, shock, put floater back in set at 1. No more wacky water.

So I drained out half of the water and filled back up with new water to try and bring bromine down...weird, but bromine is STILL off the charts high, although pH and TA were now back in the normal range. I don't understand how the bromine is so high all of a sudden. We haven't used the tub much at all this winter so far (only 2-3 times) but haven't been shocking and have had the floater set at 1. Bromine was always perfect until now. Even after a 50% drain and refill it is crazy high. The only thing that we've changed is we switched to a different brand of Bromine pucks when we ran out of the ones we got from Arctic Spas. Got the new ones from www.hottubessentials.com. Any chance thats the culprit? Maybe they dissolve too quick or something? I think we're gunna have to pee in the tub or something to try and burn that bromine off!!! Any other ideas, short of complete drain and refill?

Hi all, my water generally stays very good and doesn't change much. However, after a couple weeks of no use, I went out to check the water with the Taylor kit and found the bromine off the charts high, really high...not sure why since my floater is set to 1. Anyway, I went to check pH and it was REALLY low, came out yellow. Then checked TA and after adding the 2 drops then 5 drops to turn the water green, the water just went a pale almost colorless blue/green...didn't even bother to add the next drops to finish since it was so off. Question, can this happen just bec my bromine is so high?? My water is usually good and suddenly pH and TA just went crazy!! Not sure if I should even try to balance those until the Br drops way down?? Thanks!

Hi all, wondering if any other Coyote owners can share their experience with this. We've had our Drifter for 4 months now with absolutely no problems, at least in terms or operation, mechanical, leaks, etc. However, our complaints so far are about the questionable manufacturing quality control...for example, we were told the Coyote's a re budget version of the Arctic's so the insulation system was exactly the same, but a little thinner. While the Arctic have at least 3" of insulation, we were told the Coyote's were at least 2". Well, after opening all our panels up finally, we can see the the insulation is a good 2" thick on the walls. Fine. BUT, when you pull off the door panels, they vary from 2" around the edges to about 1/2" at the centers! And on the floor, it appears to be about 1" at the back away from the motor, then decreases in thickness gradually towards the motor area where it's BARE plywood. This sure is not "two inches of insulation everywhere"! Also, at least 3 of the 6 door panels have 1/4" to 3/4" (one even 1"!!) wide gaps at the side of the doors when the panels are on...obviously not good for a "Heatlock" system that is supposed to trap heat inside the cabinet!! Kind of defeats the purpose don't it?!? Anyway, hydro use hasn't been bad so far but it's still summer....we'll see how it performs this winter with all these apparent deficiencies in build quality! Just curious, does anyone else notice any of these things in your Coyote? Thanks!

I don't see how you would have any bromine in your tub yet if that is all the chemicals you added. Instead I wonder if your test is picking up the chlorine from the boost product you added and you are reading that as bromine? sorry, Arctic Pure Boost that was added is granular bromine, not chlorine as I had copied/pasted before. In any case, I think it's ok now. I got ahead of myself in a rush and hadn't adjusted the TA/pH before adding the bromine/shock....I think that messed up the test. Last night the TA/pH/bromine was really high. (TA=250, bromine=10++))...after i brought TA down to 120, bromine was reading about 4.

Hi all, I just did our first refill of our tub and the bromine readings are off the chart high. So I drained 6" of the water and filled back up with new water and still really high. It's been about 3 hours since I finished adding chemicals and have run the pumps, cover off, with aeration on ever since to try and help bring the bromine down...but so far still reading 10+ on the Taylor test and strips. Any ideas what I did wrong? Or do I just have to wait it out?? Here's what I did in terms of Bromine...all Arctic Spas (Arctic Pure chemicals): -1500L (399 gallon) tub -drained water and cleaned shell with fresh water -filled with 50% soft, 50% moderately hard water -added 2 capfuls of Arctic Pure Boost (dry granular brominating product) -added 1 capful of Refresh non-MPS shock That's it...haven't even put the bromine floater in yet, wanted to wait for the initial bromine level to come down first. Any ideas? Or is this normal and I just have to wait? I recall when the delivery guy started us up the first time, he added 2 caps of Boost and 2 caps of Refresh, and I don't recall crazy high readings then. I have to say, I'm tempted to pee in the tub to try and burn off some of the bromine!!

I have Coyote Drifter, installed about 3 months ago. The lifter that they gave me works just fine....however, it mounts to the floor, not to the tub walls. My Drifter is on a wood deck so it's easily sturdy enough for the lifter and works perfectly. Don't think it would work attached to 2'x2' stones though...maybe you can replace the stones with a concrete pad, or wood deck, if the lifter is that important to you.

Are you sure the GFCI is hooked up right? I seem to recall reading that these are sometimes wired slightly incorrectly (something about the ground wires?) that can result in it working but tripping all the time? Maybe try another electrician, or have the your guy take another look at the wiring diagram? Just throwing out ideas.

If you were told your gfci is not compatible thats bs. It's either meets the electrical spec or it doesn't ie: if the requirement is a 50amp and you have a 50 amp gfci its compatible. if you unplug the blower and the gfci does not trip.its the blower. and it either the check valve faulty, blower loop installed wrong or blower installed wrong. Thanks for all the responses. I agree with you. These Arctics are "engineered for the harshest climates", they should work with any brand GFCI shouldn't they?

Hi all, does anyone know the chemical makeup of Arctic Pure chemicals, from what I can see, they are not listed on the bottle! Pool/spa chemical calculators seem to need to know exactly what chemicals they are, and what "potency". Particularly, wondering about: Adjust Up (ph) Adjust Down (pH) Perfect Balance (TA up) Also, I understand that Adjust Down lowers BOTH pH and TA. But, since there is an "up" product for each of pH and TA, do these two products work totally independent? Ie. Adjust Up ONLY raises pH and Perfect Balance ONLY raised TA? Or do either of these chemicals affect both pH and TA? Thanks!

I had my friend who is a contractor come over and take a look at the deck! He was actually the person who did the install! The deck is ground level and has cement supports under the deck! He said that the deck wouldn't have a problem handling the load! ok, but don't get me started on 'contractors'...I don't think there's any other profession on the planet that has such a HUGE range in competence/skill/trustworthiness. Some are great, some are walking turnips. Not insulting your friend, just be careful. I've seen decks collapsed under hot tubs. It's always best to get the proper expert....generally, trust contractors to build, not analyze/design. Sounds like you are low to the ground anyway so even a collapse wouldn't be a big issue...however, I've seen hot tubs placed on flimsy little decks 10' off the ground, with kids play areas below.

I'm a structural engineer and thought I would just chime in a bit. Most decks are designed to support a live load (ie. the load over and beyond the weight of the deck itself) of 40 psf. A typical spa load is in the range of 100-125 psf when filled with water and people, so obviously most decks are not suitable to support a spa without extra framing reinforcing, and perhaps more foundation area. Particularly decks that are just thrown together by homeowners without a proper design to building code by a professional. Other questionable construction methods for decks to watch for are the use of "deck block" foundations and decks bolted to the face of brick veneer walls. If you have any question, have a local structural engineer come out to your house and take a look. Might cost $200-$400 but it's the safest option...carpenters can be ok but they are generally just "eyeballing" based on their "experience", whereas a structural engineer will do the necessary calculations to ensure everything is safe.

However, also understand that there are many people on here pushing their own brand and will give you the same salespitch as your dealer. There are a lot of other people on here with tons of experience with many brands and will give you great unbiased opinions...now you just need to figure out who those people are!

CLR is preferred by most of the spa manufacturers to remove the scale. It will take elbow grease and time but, using a stiff scrub brush with the CLR will eventually get the majority of the scale off of the spa. Once you have it down to and acceptable level then I would use some sort of sealant or gloss to try to prevent it from coming back. I hope this will help with your calcium buildup issue. I'd check out the Water Chemistry section of the forum. I believe if you temporarily lower pH/TA to really low, it will help soften or even dissolve most of the calcium. Don't take my word for it though, ask the water chemistry experts in that forum! I think you want to be careful with chemicals and "stiff" scrub brushes on your spa surface...I thought most spa manuals say to avoid that stuff if possible, to keep from damaging the surface. Check out this thread: http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10755

Dealer says it's a second water intake in addition to the filter, to make sure the jets have maintain good pressure.

Hi all, in the footwell of my Coyote Spas Drifter, there is a large (3" diameter x 3" long or so) metal screen cover over something and I'm curious as to what this is. Nothing seems to go in or out of it. Other things in the footwell are jets, blower air outlets, ozone outlet, drain and lights...what else is left that this metal screen thingy could be, or be covering? It doesn't seem to do anything. Thanks.

Thanks, my problem is that my test water color is very "watery" looking compared to the color block, so it's hard to tell where it fits. Then, depending on what I hold the block up against, it effects my reading. For example, if I hold it up to the sky it might look like 7.2, but if I hold it against my hand it might look like 7.6, or against a white door it might look like 7.8!! Holding against my hand seems to "darken" my test water color the most and make it match the color block, but I'm afraid that maybe I'm scewing the results?

Hi all..I have a Taylor 1004 test kit and pH is done by trying to compare colors, like test strips. Well, I am having just as much trouble with this as my strips...nothing seems to match and I feel like I'm guessing at my pH reading. Do any of the other "affordable" Taylor kits have a pH test that is counting drops, like the TA test? Online, it looks like the 2006, 2106, 2115, etc all have pH color blocks for reading colors. I often see people on here saying they have pH of 7.3 or 7.5 or 7.7, etc...how do you get these results with a color block that only goes 7.2, 7.4, etc..? THanks!

For the few people who tried this already, how does it "look"? I might want to give it a go, but don't want the appearance of my nice cedar cabinet ruined by it sitting on some bright blue or pink insulation board sticking out all around it!! Just spray it black or grey as I did . can't even tell And how easy is that stuff for cutting? I have sort of an oval shaped tub and don't want square insulation sticking out from underneath..does the stuff cut easily (ie. nice clean cuts, not rough and chopped up looking when you're done)? Thanks!

Maybe $20 vs $50 for one of the top brand tubs vs tubs with "questionable" insulation...but it's not $20 vs. $50 amongst the top brand names. If everything is working properly, they are generally within a few bucks per month for a comparable size tub with same number of pumps.

can we please not keep quoting 9 previous posts in our replies? THanks.

For the few people who tried this already, how does it "look"? I might want to give it a go, but don't want the appearance of my nice cedar cabinet ruined by it sitting on some bright blue or pink insulation board sticking out all around it!!

I totally agree! Generally, people are WAY more likely to come online to write about a purchase when they've had a bad experience. The vast majority of people are happy with their product and therefore have no reason to seek out a forum such as this. The silent overwhelming majority are satisfied customers (at least for the top brands). You can't write off any product based on a few bad reviews...unless all you can find are bad reviews.

From what I've learned online researching, when comparing the top 5 or so brands (of which HS and Arctic are generally considered to be among), don't worry too much about "efficiency"...regardless of their insulation type, etc., the top 5 are all pretty much equal in efficiency, and one will not likely cost you more than a few bucks a month more than the other. Think about it...if one tub costs $20/month in electricity and the second tub is say 25% less efficient (which is quite a difference), the difference in electric bill is about $5. IMO, this should not affect your decision...comfort and features should be what you are most concerned about. Don't let the "efficiency" sales pitch sway you too much. (now if one has a far superior warranty, you might want to consider that as well!)

I've heard these are moisture/temperature sensitive, but I can't find anything saying about how sensitive. IE, I have a wall mounted cabinet beside my spa where I keep all my chemicals, test kits, etc. So if it's 90-100 degrees F outside, I'm guessing it can get at least that hot in that cabinet. Is this bad for test kits/strips? Do they have to be kept inside around room temperature? Maybe kits are ok in the heat, but strips should be kept out of the heat?? Thanks!