James Keirstead

I think your problem is possibly precipitation because your pH levels have been high. You need to bring the pH down and rinse your filter daily until the water clears up. Your filter will clog quickly from Calcium precipitate. Let me knows how it goes. James

Hey Guys, I am going to look into this myself. I would like to see a strain relief on that Northern Light wire too. I am not sure why it is not there. Kind regards, James

Hey Nigel, I can't remember. Where are you located? Once I know that I can tell you if your spa has been retrofitted with the latest version or not. Kind regards, James

Hey Budge, Glad to hear everything is working well with your new onzen system! I have been testing Aqua Finesse and it is working well in my spa. We are trying to verify with the supplier that it will not harm the plastics in the spa. So far everything looks good in my spa but we cannot endorse it until we are sure it will not harm the spa. My only other concern with Aqua Finesse is that it is rather expensive and the point of designing the onzen system was to simplify water chemistry and reduce chemical costs to customers. I'll keep you posted of my findings. Kind regards, James

Hey Carriebelinda, I am sorry to hear about your troubles with your onzen system, however, I am confident that the newest system onzen version 7 will solve the issue of not producing enough sanitizer. That being said, no system balances all the water chemistry issues one can face in a hot tub. In most situations where people are having issues with the onzen system pH has played a big roll in the issues also. Rest assured we and your dealer will do everything we can to help you get your water balanced. I am always available for advice on your water chemistry as well. Kind regards, James

Hey Toomantoo, I answered your other post on this. Keep me posted on how it is going. I am still confident that the solution is correct. :-) James

Hawaii was fabulous! Thanks for asking. I took a surfing lesson and so did my oldest daughter. We surfed a couple of times and snorkelled in Molokini. Other then that I sat around at the beach or pool and ate like crazy and did no training at all. Exactly what a holiday should be. So you say your water was clear for some time and now it is cloudy and you noticed your pH was high? I expect that your high pH has caused some precipitation. I recommend that you rinse your filter out daily now that you have your pH down and see if it clears up. My bet is it will in a few days. Let me know though. James

ttrublue is correct. A flow message has nothing to do with your onzen system. It is mostly likely a faulty pressure switch. Have you contacted your local dealer for a service call? James

Hey Everyone! For those of you who may have questions or concerns about Arctic Spas over the next 10 days, I am afraid I can't help, because I am taking the family on a well deserved (if I do say so myself) vacation. Vern Nelson will be monitoring the forums in my absence so he can help if you need anything. Hope you all have a great couple of weeks! Happy tubbin! James

Trueblue is right. It sounds like your spa is heating from the waste heat on the motor if it is taking that long to come up to temperature. You likely have a failed heater or board. Your local Arctic dealer should have both parts in stock. Kind regards, James

Hey Ron, I am not sure whether or not Bromine will damage the onzen electrodes. I have heard the same thing, but have not had any documentation to substantiate the claim. I do prefer chlorine over bromine myself. I am sure there are more chemically educated guru's on here who could tell you the benefits of either. I just find I have an easier time keeping my water clean and clear. If you decide to make the switch you can simply change salt then next time you drain the spa. Boric acid? Is that the spa conditioner? I would say that it shouldn't be a problem. I personally don't know how helpful the borate compounds are in spa chemistry. Again I am sure there are guys on here who tell you more. I am the kind of person that believes less is more, so I don't add anything I don't have to. Hope that helps. James

Hey Nigel, Glad to hear that it is coming along well. Keep an eye on the bromine level. You may now need to look at turning down your CP setting to 3 once the bromine reading is consistently within the ideal range. James

They will both work just fine. James

Hey quantumchromodynamics, You are correct "Best Defence" is a phosphonic acid compound. I am no chemist, but a hobby water chemistry nut. I am wondering if you could explain how monopersulfate converts the organic phosphate into an orthorphosphate and how that would impact the spa water. Also, what would be an acceptable alternative to monopersulfate to shock the spa weekly to remove chloramines and other organic contaminants? Thanks for the insight. James

I agree with Nitro. If you are getting an accurate pH reading and not experiencing pH bounce then leave your Alkalinity alone. I also agree that if your Calcium hardness is 20 ppm you should consider adding some calcium hardness increaser to get your hardness level above 100 ppm. Personally I like to keep it to just over 100 ppm and not the NSPI recommended level as too much calcium is problematic in spas. There is a couple of things to remember when adding calcium to water: 1. Make sure your pH is in the ideal range before adding calcium. If it is high, it can cause the calcium to precipitate, which will make your water go milky white for days and clog your filter. 2. Aways pre-dissolve Calcium in cold water. The chemical compound used to put calcium in your water generates it's own heat. 3. I prefer to add Calcium in thirds instead of all at once. I test and adjust my pH between additions. Usually I also wait an hour between each addition. Test strips are convenient but not very accurate. If you someone that is very particular about the readings you are getting for your spa, then you need to go to a liquid drop test kit like Nitro suggests. If you are happy to just get a general idea of how your water is, and I mean very general, then test strips will work. If you are having water quality issues though, you will not be able to make adjustments based on what test strips tell you. Does that help? James

Hi BMR, My apologies for the troubles you have been having with your onzen system. You really should be able to use your spa daily without any difficulty. I am not going to contradict you. I think you may be having a problem with your onzen system and would like to see what I can do to help. Can you PM me your spa serial number and I will contact you after reviewing your file. Kind regards, James

Hey Blumpster, Sorry for your troubles with Onzen and the water chemistry. Can you pm your spa serial number and I will get in touch with you to see if I can solve your problem. Kind regards, James

There is nothing wrong with the filters. Some of our team here and many of the stores thought the fabric on the filters was to fine because they were clogging up too quickly. I did some investigation and found they were clogging up from Calcium precipitate, which will clog any filter. It simply clogs disposable filters quicker because they have a much finer screen. Regardless, it will not cause pump 1 to fail, since pump 1 also draws from the suctions. Does that answer your question? James

Hey Piechart, Why don't you send me your spa # and I can contact you and help you with your water chemistry. It doesn't have to be too hard. I think I can clear up your confusion. Kind regards, James

I don't have a gazebo over my spa either and never have. Although lately I have been thinking that I would like a roof to keep the snow off and some privacy screens to give me a little more privacy. Of course we live in the suburbs are our yard backs on to several neighbours back yards. It will have to wait for spring now cause winter will set in here soon. J

Hi HydroDog, I am sorry for your experience with your dealer. Where are you located? Are you having an issue right now? As for the capacitor's... It is not a wide enough spread issue to recall all capacitors so we are dealing with them as they come. If you PM your dealer name, I would be happy to impress upon them the importance of good customer service. Once again, my apologies. Kind regards, James

Hey Salp, It has nothing to do with the Silver Sentinnel filters. We have seen some issues with the Capacitors on the EMG motors. Only on the two speed motors. We have been working with the supplier to upgrade the capacitors. It will not affect the motor in any other way. Has the service department booked you into a service call? James

Hey Norton, Here is a link to a Flow Error video that Arctic Spas Oakville has on their site. It will cover a few more things you can check. http://arcticspasonline.com/index.php/comp...,22/view,video/ Failing that, you will need a service technician to come out. Hope that helps. James

Hey Tom, It's James here from Arctic Spas factory. Can you PM me with your spa serial number and I will get in touch with you to see if I can help? Kind regards, James

Hey SteelerPete, I am sorry I thought that Vern from our office was dealing with your issue. Can you PM me and I will get on it right away. My mistake. Kind regards, James