sharrowm

No MPS, but I did shock once a couple of weeks ago with lithium hypochlorite. I used my spa last night for the first time since changing the water. I used bleach to bring the FC up to 6ppm before getting in. I noticed a bit of a chlorine smell while soaking. I never recalled a chlorine odor when I was using the dichlor. Is this normal? The smell was not bad enough to be irritating, but it was definitely noticable.

Hmm...I did not know that the test was temp sensitive. No, I did not let the sample cool down before testing, but I did shake it well for a good 30 seconds. Too late now...I just finished changing the water. Chem geek: Yes, I keep my spa covered exept during use, and as of yet have not used it during daylight hours. I can't believe that the low CYA readings are due to using too little dichlor. In fact, I think I might have been using too much if anything. I'll just assume that I screwed up the CYA test It sounds like it might be better to just skip the dichlor and use bleach to sanitize and shock. I know that the bleach is unstablized, but my tub is rarely exposed to sunlight. Are there any other issues with usiing bleach to sanitize that I should be concerned about? BTW: Thanks for the replys...great info!

Great info! Thanks Chem Geek. Actually, I have been using dichlor for sanitizing and bleach for shocking. After reading your post I checked for CYA and didn't detect any. However, as you pointed out, the k-2006 will only detect above 30ppm. The test sample was very clear even with the vial completely filled so I would guesstimate that CYA is probably not a problem. I think that I will take your advice and start over with a water change. Question: I tested my tap water for chlorine and the FC is .5 & the CC is 1.5. Is this normal? I'm thinking that I should shock it immediately after a water change to get rid of the CC. Does that make sense?

I'm a new spa owner and we have been using it almost daily for about a month now. I have been doing a lot of research on spa chemistry. I purchased a Taylor test kit (K-2006) to do my testing. I have found it to be fairly easy to keep everything balanced except the combined chlorine. Here is my latest test results: PH: 7.5 TA: 100 Free chlorine: 2ppm Combined chlorine: 7ppm Based on my research the CC should be less than .5. According to the guide that came with my test kit I need to super-chlorinate the spa with enough chlorine to create 10 times the CC level or 70ppm. And if I'm reading the tables & doing my conversions correctly then that would require 6.5 cups of ultra bleach (6%) for my 350gal spa. That just doesn't seem right to me. Am I doing something wrong or is it OK to add that much bleach to my spa. Also, how did the CC get so high in the first place? Any help is appreciated.

We live in NW Washington State. We will absolutely be wet testing before we buy, but we wanted to narrow down our search first. The main reason we are leaning toward the Jacuzzi is because of noise. We already have a jetted tub in our bathroom that we use frequently, but rarely turn on the jets because it is so loud. This was a big concern of ours. After listening to both the Jacuzzi and TR run (in different showrooms) the TR sounded noisier. The only sound we heard from the Jacuzzi was the sound from the jets. With the Tiger River you could here the "hum" of the pumps running. The Jacuzzi was sitting on a brick floor and the TR was on a wooden deck, so that may account for the difference in noise, but the TR was definitely louder. Other than that (and barring a bad wet test) we prefer the TR. So you sell both...any thoughts on the issue of noise?

I have spent several weeks researching hot tubs and have reduced my search to the 2 models listed above. The TR dealer quoted me a price of $7200. The Jacuzzi dealer wants $8400 for the J365. Both tubs come equipped with similar equipment (ozonator, cover, steps, etc). When I pointed out the price difference the Jacuzzi dealer justified it by claiming that the J365 is much better quality and that it would be more fair to compare the J300 series tubs to comparable Hotspring tubs, not to Tiger River. Is this accurate? My impression is that the J400 series is more comparable to the HS tubs. We like the J365 a little better than the Caspien, but not $1200 better. I would like to know where I stand before I start negotiating. Thank you.