plzwork

Is it fine to leave the ozone hose clogged? I never really like the bubbling and don't plan on replacing the ozonator.

Hi, I have a 2005 Vanguard and everything in it is original. The stream of bubbles coming from the bottom of the tub has weakened over the past couple of years. I just did a cleansing of the tub and pipes with Spa Purge, and when I refilled the tub and turned on the breaker I noticed that the stream of bubbles coming from the bottom was now completely gone. There is still flow coming from that bottom plate, just no bubbles. The waterfall feature still works with no jets on and the water got up to temp from 82 to 100 in a few hours, so I assume the 24 hr circulation pump is still working. Reading posts on this forum has lead me to believe that there should still be bubbles coming up from the bottom even if my ozonator no longer works. So are there any other reasons why the bubbles have disappeared? Thanks

Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delay, got caught up in some things. So after my orginal post on Wednesday I added another ounce of the sodium bromide reserve and shocked it again. By Wednesday night I was around 8ppm, then Thursday morning it dropped to around 4ppm so I finally put in the floater on the lowest setting. I didn't check the levels till Friday morning and I was surprised to find out that I was at 0ppm, I proceeded to open the floater to setting 2 and shock the tub with 8 ounces of Clorox then I had to go to work. When I got back 9 hours later the tub had about a 15ppm reading so I took the floater out and left the cover open. 8 hours later the bromine reading was at about 11ppm. So at this point my questions are: Is there anything wrong with adding extra bromide reserve (in total I added 2.5 ounces of it for my 350 gallon tub)? Have I gotten rid of my sanitizer demand? When should I put the floater back in? Also I am probably going to convert someone else tub to bromine and they are also doing the dichlor/bleach method, so should their free chlorine level be in a certain range before adding the bromide or is it irrelevant in the conversion process?

Hi, I have a 350 gallon hot tub that I am trying to convert to bromine after using the dichlor/bleach method. I am trying to do everything based on waterbears' bromine for beginners guide. I didn't want to drain the tub so today I let the free chlorine level drop to about 1 ppm before attempting to convert. The bromine products I have are Solus Quick Shot Bromine Booster to get my bromine reserve and Solus Brominating Plus tablets (ingredients are 98% Bromochloro-5, 5-dimethylhydantoin and 2% other ingredients) that provide 64.9% available bromine and 29% available chlorine with a floater that looks similar to the Pentair 335. Once the free chlroine level dropped to around 1 ppm I added approximately 1.5 ounces by volume of the Quick Shot Bromine Booster to establish the reserve. I let that circulate and added 6 ounces of 6% Clorox Unscented Bleach to try and activate the bromine. I let that circulate for awhile then went to measure the bromine assuming I should get a pretty high reading and the reading was very low somewhere between 0-1ppm using strips then I used my Taylor K2006 to see if the strips were wrong and I only got a 2.25 ppm reading (converted using 10 ml mark assuming each R0871 drop counts as 1.125 ppm bromine). So I added 4 more ounces of the Clorox and the K2006 gave me 10.125 ppm bromine reading that quickly dropped to 3.375 ppm about an hour later. So to summarize right now I have added 10 oz of Clorox to activate the 1.5 ounces of bromine reserve I added and am only getting a bromine reading of 3.375 ppm. I haven't added the floater with tablets yet. Have I done anything wrong? Did I add enough reserve? Why isn't the Clorox super-brominating the tub like it should? Does the tub need to be drained and refilled before converting? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If it helps my other K2006 measurements are: ~130 ppm CH ~70 ppm TA ~7.8 ph ~20 ppm CYA

Thank you for the responses HS Ace and Kenny! After those explanations it looks like the 2011 Rhythm has been taken off my list. I like that the new stuff insulates better than 1/2lb foam, like that it doesn’t absorb water, and especially like that it is much easier to work with instead of foam in terms of servicing the tub. So my dealer supposedly has a 2012 Relay, but how would I go about verifying this and making sure it has the new insulation? He says it’s a 2012 and then pointed out that it had all vertical wood panels, while the 2011 Rhythm had vertical and horizontal wood panels. Is that enough to know that it’s a 2012 Relay that definitely has the new insulation? Thanks again for the responses (PS: If a moderator is looking at this, it took a while for me to login to this site to reply. I removed the word beta from the url and it finally allowed me to properly login and make a post. That beta word was popping up in the default links but I manually deleted it in the address bar to fix the issue.)

Hi all, I am a first time buyer and have been on this site just about everyday since visiting a couple of spa shops last week. After my visits and research I’m leaning towards buying a Hot Spot Relay if the lounger does well in the west test. If it doesn’t I’ll probably get the Rhythm which is basically the same tub with two seats instead of the lounger since the lounger isn’t a must for me. The Relay my dealer has is a new 2012 model whereas the Rhythm is a 2011 model. My budget is in the low 5k-ish range and he’s quoted me at $5195 for either one and that price includes delivery, cover, and steps. He’s been around since the late 80’s and has a great service technician so I feel good about these guys. I think I’m pretty well educated on most of the Hot Spot vs Hot Spring differences except for the insulation difference. My guy says that Hot Spots use 1lb foam whereas Hot Springs uses 2lb foam. I contacted Hot Spot directly and the lady who answered said there was no difference in insulation. I then contacted another Hot Spring dealer who said that the new 2012 Hot Spots are using a new more “green” recycled something-or-other insulation method that isn’t quite foam or thermopane panels. He said whatever it was it wasn’t as good as Hot Springs but it was at least as good if not better than every other spa manufacturer out there. I asked him if it was like foam in that if it gets wet it becomes “useless” as some of the guys on this forum call it or if it was susceptible to the ant/rodent infestation/nesting issues and he said he didn’t know. I’ve seen a lot of very knowledgeable Hot Springs guys posting here and would really appreciate a definitive explanation on the differences between the new 2012 Hot Spot insulation method, the 2011 Hot Spot insulation method (incase I go for the Rhythm), and the Hot Spring insulation method so that I can get a better understanding of the product I am purchasing. Thanks!