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flyguyscott

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  1. Hi guys, I've been having a little issue with my hot tub water lately and not quite sure what to do about it. The water has a light green tinge to it. The water is perfectly clear, just some colour to it even after I just replaced the water. I have an Arctic Spa with the Onzen salt water system. The salt generator was the older version and was having issues so the dealer replaced it with the new version. The new generator is working perfectly and making lots of bromine. About 1 month after the last fill, the water slowly started turning this green hue. The local spa dealer suggested it was alge (even though I didn't think so) and suggested to use their spa-flush product and refill. I did so and the green water is back. The light green hue came back as soon as I put the salt into the water and started generating bromine. The water is regular city water put through a pre-filter (not a carbon filter). Any Ideas? ph = 7.5 TA = 75 Br = 6ppm Salt = 2300ppm
  2. We have an Arctic spa with the Onzen system that's 7 months old now. We changed the water after 4 months. That being said it was our first hot tub and brand new so we used it ALL the time. We had a few parties and so it was used by many people... way more than any typical day-to-day usage. I don't know if I could ever expect a year before a water change but 6 months is probably reasonable. We're using the supplied Bromine salt with the tub. It took about a month to figure everything out, but once I did, the tub has been pretty maintenance free. I test the water once a week and it's usually right in balance. Other than using a non-chlorine shock once a week, I'll rarely have to add chemicals to pull the TA up or down. With a salt system, the pH will naturally increase over time. I found by keeping the TA lower (around 50 in our case) it will always keep the pH below 7.8. It has never ever gone higher than that when the TA was in line. So, if you can live with 2 minutes of your time once aweek then you’ve got a system that's about as maintenance free as possible. The real factor here is the TDS (total dissolved solids) of the water, not the water balance... and there's nothing you can do to fix the TDS except for a drain and re-fill. Every time you use the tub and add chemicals, you're adding some sort of solids to the water. If you have parties and people use their laundered bathing suites (that sill have soap residue in the fibers) then you'll be adding more solids to the water opposed if you used the tub "au-natual". Deodorants, lotions and all that other good stuff adds to the TDS as well. The water is so much nicer once it's changed as well that IMO it's worth it. It's easy to drain an fill, and I calculated it costs about $8 in water, another $10 in electricity and $16 in salt to refill the tub.
  3. Hey thenewguy, We have a salt system in our tub. It's an Arctic opposed to a Hot Springs but they all work the same. I'd have to say I like the salt system and it's very easy to maintain.... once we got the hang of it. Now it's just testing the water once a week, adding a bit of shock and maybe a bit of pH reducer. The trick I've found (for our water anyhow) is that the pH will naturally rise in a salt water tub. So, if you keep the TA low, it will prevent the pH from getting too high and keep it in the ideal range which means very little chemicals will be required to balance the water. That being siad, the salt does have a cost to it as well. It takes about $20CAD of salt when changing the water. Salt water does have a nice "smooth" feel to it. It's kind of difficult to explain but you can definately feel it, especially in a pool... not quite as much in a hot tub. I have had friends comment that their skin felt very nice afterwords. I guess I'm just used to it now :-) Hope this helps.
  4. Hi Guys, I've had the water in our tub for about a month and a half and have had couple parties and guests during that time. Each time after a party where there were 6 or so people in the tub for over an hour, the water was a yellowish tinge the next day. I shocked the spa quite well and the water returned to normal within a couple days. The last party (my nephew and a bunch of his teenager friends) has left the water in a state that I can't get perfect again. The water is clear, it just has a bit of a greenish tinge to it now. It has no foul odors and the filter is clear. Foam is starting to produce when the jets are on and there is aeration. Also, the water becomes hazey when the jets are on without aeration where it remained pretty clear beforehand. Just wondering what might be causing the colour(s) and how to fix it... or is it time to change the water? For reference I have salt water bromine generator. Br = 2ppm pH = 7.7 TA = 40 (I keep it low or else the pH gets out of control) CH = 280 Salt = 3100ppm
  5. It sounds pretty reasonale. I have a Glacier Ultra which was 11K CAD including stairs, lifer, delivery, onzen, taxes and a few hundred dollars worth of chemicals, etc. I would consider the extra pump and jets you'll get with the signature worth the price but that's really up to you. I'm not particularily fond of the blower that you'll get with the designer or ultra model but some of our guests like it. I'd suggest wet testing. Arctic has similar jet configurations in different models so you might be able to see what is worth the price and what will fit in your budget. The onzen salt water system is pretty new and some have had issues. I've had none and maintenance is a piece of cake now. Is this an inventory sale or just a regular "sale" to sell more spas? Arctic is know for having tons of sales as a method to sell their spas. Out local dealer was having an "inventory blowout" sale but didn't have the exact colour and model configuration we wanted. Needless to say they would still sell us one at their "discounted" price, they just had to build it.
  6. You might want to take a peek at an Arctic Fox. It's a smaller 4 person (only 3 people practically though) tub and has a much smaller footprint that a traditional 7' x 7' spa. All Arctic's come standard with a cedar wood cabinet. http://www.arcticspas.com/index.php/hot-tubs/arctic-fox.html It might be the best of all aspects; small, asthetic (as you mentioned you like the cedar look) & comfortable as it has all the regular luxury spa features. They are all electric but with the smaller water volume the costs should be more than reasonable. Most new spas, especially high end ones, are very efficient. Gas is still going to be cheaper of course, but my how much I don't know. If gas is 1/2 the price then you'd be saving about $15 / mo on average depending where you live. We have an Arctic and it's sitting right outside of a bedroom window and you can't even hear it when the filter is running unless the window is open. I would akin the sound of the tub when filterig the water to your forced air gas furnice; a quiet hum you notice go on and off sometimes but never pay attention to it. Arctic's don't have a timer for the filter cycle, but rather you set the number of times a day it filters and the duration of the filter cycle. By default it filters 4 times a day for 2 hour. If you set it to filter 3 times a day and timed the power cycle correctly it wouldn't filter for the 8 hours you're sleeping. Hope this helps.
  7. Neat idea elksi, a recliner for one of the seats would be great. You can leave it in the upright position if there are more people in the tub, relax a bit if you're the only one. It would require a bit of engineering but shouldn't be too complicated. You'd get the best of both worlds, a recliner without using up 2 seats.
  8. I don't really care what the temp outside is, I'll run to the tub as it's only 5' from the door. That being said if there's a lot of wind I don't enjoy it much. I gear up in boots and a coat to take the cover off, go back inside, strip down and make the 2 second run to the toatsy tub.
  9. There are hard plastic pads you can purchase to put your spa on an unfinished but level surface such as gravel. I think they were around $250 - $350 when I was looking at our spa. We happened to already have a concrete pad but were thinking of having the tub off the slab so we could keep the patio space. We just threw it on the patio because it was closer to the door and in the winter that extra 5' might be a deterrant :-)
  10. Cool, I didn't think of it that easily. I've never timed it but I think our tub comes up to temperature a little quicker. It is a smaller tub as well. That's actually pretty good, I thought it would cost a lot more to heat up the tub.
  11. I forgot to put the cover back on the tub the other night and found it wide open in the morning (thankfully I let the dog out the back door instead of the front). I'm not worried, but out of curiosity how much do you think this type of mistake would cost? It's a 7', 1640L Arctic Glacier with the temperature set to maintain at 39 degrees C (which it was in the morning). I'd say the agerage outisde temperature overnight was around -1 C. Our general cost for electricity per KWh with all the extra "fees" is around $0.145 / KWh. A followup to this question is about how much it costs to heat up the water when re-filling the tub. When I filled the tub last, I think the temp said it was 10 degrees C out of the hose. It could have been 15 but I don't remember. Thanks for appeasing my curiosity.
  12. It would probably be a good business model for them as they've been pushing the product and it's crazy expensive... so why not get ALL the profits from the sales. I thought Aquafiness was a larger company that provides chemicals for industrial use as well though.
  13. I had the same issue, with a TA of 80-100 my pH would go through the roof, I was constantly battling to get the pH down while keeping the TA where "it's supposed to be". now, I have a TA of 40 and a pH of 7.8 and all is perfect. With a TA that low, it won't let my pH rise much higher. For the last couple of week now I haven't had to add any chemicals other than shock (as I have a salt system). Good luck, hope this helps.
  14. Hi Canucker, Did you ever get a test kit, I think I replied to antoher thread you had a comment in. I picked up a Taylor K-1004. It was $30 and the only thing it doesn't do that the K-2106 does is measure calcium. I picked mine up at a local pool & spa store. Boldt Pools in St. Catharines. This kit works perfect for me as I have an Arctic as well with the Onzen system using a sodium bromide salt.
  15. I picked up the Taylor K-1004 from a local spa store for $30 Canadian. It measures pH, TA, FC, TC, Br & acid demand. I picked up a set of test strips for $10 to check that my water hardenss just to maek sure it was in check. Here's the kit I'm talking about. http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products....asp?KitID=2453 It doesn't use titrants like the K-2106 kit does but for $140 savings I don't mind holding the tester up to the light so I can compare the colours. I'm not sure if they'll ship, but the company is Boldt Pools & Spas in St. Catharines, ON if you want to give them a call.
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