turbottt1

I feel your pain!!!! Our dealer sold us a pre filter that screws on the end of your garden hose. It did help quite abit. Imo We like the ph around 7.2 Something we started doing a little over a year ago is just fill the spa from our swimming pool. We use the same chemicals in both and do not cover the pool all winter. good luck steve

We purchased a 06 lengends series. To date 13 jets have malfunctioned. As I write this we have 6 more to be returned. I must admit we have never had a problem returning jets, they always give us a new style and we have not had a failure yet. We noticed that we have had our problems right after a water change. I,ve heard nothing on chemicals causing this. We really have not worried to much about this, because we understand there was a problem. It would be nice if they just replaced all of the old style jets at once, but this has not been offered yet nor have we pushed the issue.

We have a 450 gal spa. [ Our fresh water supply is from our pool] On fill we add three cups ultra unscented. Heat the water and then do our other adjustments. With fresh bleach in new water we add a half of cup after were all done for the day and then in the morning we do the same. As the water or bleach gets older we increase the amounts at least to 3/4 of a cup each time. Once a week we add just a touch of ph down and I like the ta to be aprox. 70-80ppm. We do have a ozonator and I believe it effects our chlor. quite a bit. We also at least once a week hose our filter out. With using bleach there is a deposit left on the filter.[ looks like spent salt???] Maybe chem geek can explain this. Hope this helps. steve

One thing that might help with the chlor. smell. We use bleach only and have discovered that if we put it in right after using the tub and also again in the morning before work that there is no smell. If we wait till we get home. Then on those night there is a strong odor of chlor. [ bleach] Chem geek is right about opening the cover 5 minutes before you get in.

Part of my point in starting this thread was maybe to arouse the attention of some folks on how simple your spa chemicals can be. As we read these post and can't help but think back to when we first got our spa. We struggled with the balance of the water it seemed that all we did was add more and more chemicals all the time. [ s.b. ph up/down alky up/down, metal this and that. With no real success other than spending a small fortune on unneeded chemicals. Since waterbear suggested treating our spa just like our pool.[ bleach for sanitizer] things have gotten so simple it almost scares us. We use a touch under a gal. of ultra bleach a month, a half of capfull of ph down per week and depending on jet useage a half of capfull of alky. increaser once a month and thats it. No more rashes, chemical burns, reactions and always clear water. One note we do check our water at least once aday and yes we add bleach daily. One trick we learned is to open the cover aprox. 10 minutes before we use the spa so the bleach can outgas. Now if bleach can hurt the spa or cover I would be interested in hearing about it, but it better do major league damage before were changing. thanks again waterbear. steve

My mistake!!! As you know we use only bleach in our spa. After about 3 weeks the bleach looses that strong smell in the bottle and it does seem to take more of it to keep out levels right. just wanted to check and see if this was common. thanks. steve

Just a quick question for all. Once open what is the shelf life of bleach?? Does it loose it's effectiveness?

Hello We use to have this problem. What we did was take a empty bucket and scoop out the suds. It takes some time, but worth it if the water is fairly fresh. As for the film on the surface we used a scum ball and clarifier. Clean your filter[rinse with water] once aday till all problems are gone. good luck and I hope this helps. steve

waterbear I'd like to come up with some great answer as to why we put metal remover in this time. The best answer is a brain fart! I drained the tub today , flushed all the lines, vac. as much water as possible and cleaned the tub. Refilled with pool water, checked all our parimeters. Added 1 cup bleach [ chlor.] and were off and running again. No cloud no problems. Lesson learned. If it ain't broke don't fix it. There is a positive to this. We lowered the pool water aprox. 1 1/2 ". Just 6" more to go. thank you. steve

Just a question. We did a water change aprox. a week ago. [ Water used from over filled swimming pool] Just like we do everytime. I noticed when we switched from bromine to chlorine the first time. that the first couple of days as we introduced the bleach it would turn white and slightly cloud the water. After the first couple of days it stopped and work just great for us. This time the same thing happened, except the cloud is not going away and is building. Only thing we did different was on fill we put in 6oz. of spa metal remover. My question is could there be a chemical reaction between the bleach and the metal remover???? All parimeters in the water are correct. We added nothing to the pool water either. Thank you. steve

Roger Were just called a country bumpkin???? That was great! I've got to find my way off the floor and back into the chair!!!!! Don't feel bad I took it the same way. Dang we like seeing the stars at night so much that I had the wife take the roooooof off the outhouse. [ Thats bathroon to you urban folks!!!!!] Just kidding folks. Thanks for the laugh.

Ok We've been using bleach for almost a week now. First I am so glad we switched from bromine to chlor. It has been working really well. No itch, rash or chemical burns. [ yahoo!!!!] A couple of questions for you. It seems like we are using quite a bit of bleach on a daily bases. When we filled the tub [ pool water] it took aprox. 2 3/4 cups of ultra to get our combined chlor in line with our free chlor. No biggie. First night a lot of out gassing [ smelled really strong. I assume from the spent chlor. that was used to bring our combined chlor. in line] After the first night it appears that we are using aprox. a cup of ultra a day to keep our free chlor. between 3/5 ppm???? My thinking is that from reading other post that our ozonator is attacking the chlor. and to keep our target of between 3/6 ppm it is going to take this amount???? Waters clear, no smell and like I said feels great. I should say that we put in a 1/2 cup after we get out in the evening and then by morning we register no chlor. either combined or free. We then add the second 1/2 of bleach. Any suggestions or just give the tub what it wants. thanks. steve

Hello Just a couple of questions. First it's time to dump the spa water. Were going to use our water from the pool to refill the spa.[ we use the bbb system] I went today and pickup two packages of sodium bromide to use as our bromine bank. First question:::: As stated on the back of the package. This product developes a bromine reserve in spa water. It is not a sanitizer. This product helps eliminate chlorine odor and helps prevent the formation of unwanted compounds when using bromine tablets. [ go brom/ by aqua one] In a two part bromine system I believe you add s. b. on fill and then use mps or bleach as a oxidizer and thats it??? So are they saying no matter what we need to use a floater with bromine tablets???? That the s.b. by itself will not sanitize the water through out it's life cycle???? Second question::::: If we are using bleach as a sanitizer in our pool why the heck do we need anything more [ bromine] in the spa???? Is the bleach harder to keep stable in hot water and the bromine even that it's not needed is easier to keep levels in the spa more stable. What do ya think????? steve

Hello not a expert, but IMO it's soap from cloths, makeup, etc. We don't use defoamers because they usely leave a scum line on the surface of the water or what appears to be a oil slick type look. A couple of things that we have tried with great results. First we scoop as much of the foam off as we can. Clean the water line of the tub. If you have a rinsable filter we do that twice aday till tub is cleared up. Also a scum ball does work wonders after you have the problem under control. Second and again IMO if our chemicals are off ph/alky we have notice a foam on top of the water, but no scum line. FYI We used defoamers . They made the water cloudy/milky with the jets running, oil slick on the surface and IMO just cover up a problem and not fix it. You might contact waterbear he has some great advice for all. steve

I called capo industries today and talked to their chemist. [ they are the makers of the artic pure products] waterbear you were spot on. Yes the peak boost does contain sodium bromide and is used as our bromine bank. steve

Boetta Say That again. It's easy to upgrade from artic to peak??????? I've been having heated discussions with our artic dealer about this and have been lead to believe it can't be done. Please explain how this was done step by step and cost please. steve

It's been 13 days without using the peak boost. Water looks great, smells great and no complaints from the peanut gallery. [ except me] jumped in the other night.[ aprox. 35 min.] this time it took 48 hrs. for the skin reaction. Not quite as bad as before , but to the normal person it would be nasty. bromine level is staying pretty much even, no change in the ph, but our alky. seems to drop off quite a bit???? We shock with 1oz. activator after every use and 3oz. actvator once a week. No floater. The spa seems to like it, I know my pocket book does because other than bringing the akly. up we have not used any other chemicals. Which is a first. steve Test results hth drop test kit. [ taylor k-2006 on the way] bromine: 3ppm ph: 7.2/7.5 range alky: average 60ppm [ we have to bump it up to around 100ppm] tds:: bogus

Well we figured out what was causing the water to be a little off. As we were in line yesterday with our 15 gals. of bleach the lady at the checkout said. Having a problem with algae in the pool are we. I just smiled. She said she had bought hers this morning. We had been keeping our chlor. level at aprox. 3 ppm. Now that I understand what cya are Well you might say game over. Were on top of this and will fight the fight till we clear the pool up. Just for the record we have ordered a real test kit from taylor and not one of these cheap ones that ever pool store in our area says you need. steve chlor: very high, no way to test [1 gal. bleach = aprox. 2ppm] I put us at 22-24ppm ph: 7.5/7.6 alky: 150ppm cya: 70-80

Ok please inform me as to cya? I hope it's in the same file as tds!!!!! I checked and our cya are aprox. 70 - 80. I know dump the water right. When I stated what we have used in our pool for two yrs. Your first question was what is your cya measurement????? Fill us in on what the chlor. we used and cya have in common. The chlor. we were using ain't the cheap junk, but just the oppisite. Why would it have a effect on this measurement. Not to sound impolite but I'll fill the pool in with dirt before I dump anymore water and have more trucked in this year. Were already up to 25,000 gals. and enough is enough. Sorry about that , but I do feel better now. Please for all to benf.. explain. thank you. steve

I agree with you. As instructed by our dealer. We are to add 4 oz. peak boost, 4 oz. refresh, 1-2oz. best defense, 1/2 clarifier each and every week???? We have stopped using the peak and put in one oz. of the refresh after every use and we shock the water once a week with 4oz. of refresh. We do not have a floater, but I will check into this. I really think that the sodium bromide levels are so high in the tub that it might be causing most of our problems. I look forward to dumping our water and trying something that might be a lot sinpler. thank you. steve

You asked why???? I have trouble with the spa and skin sensitivty.[ Bromine] We use a product that we found out continues to put sodium bromide in to the water and I just can't take it.[ nasty chem. burn] We are going to try simple refilling the tub and adding the proper amount of sodium bromide at the beginning and just use bleach to maint. and shock the spa. Instead of 50 different product each with their own use in either the spa or the pool, we simple are going to try going to the b.b.b. system. It certainly is not about the money, it's to make life simple for my wife when I have extended stays away from home. Also I have got to work out this skin problem. steve

Just wondering if this is normal. We have used sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione, dihydrate in our pool for two years. We are in the process of swithing our spa over to bleach and felt we would like to try it on the pool too. Our levels[ clor, ph, alky] are spot on, but I notice the water seems a little peakess. It just doesn't have that sparkle. Should I be concerned or is there a trick to using bleach. For the record it's straight clorex unscented and we have been using it for a week now.Thanks for all info. steve

[After reading my post. I should of added we do have artic ozonator on our frontier. steve

I sure wish we had bought the peak. What that old saying??? If I knew then what I know now. Based upon your useage [ we use our frontier a ton] IMO every little bit helps. There were some threads on this site awhile back that had some pretty good info. on purchasing a ozonator or not. It might be worth your time read them. Good luck. steve

I can't help on the pricing, but make sure you get PEAK OZONATOR!!!!!!!!!! We purchased a frontier lengends series tub with artic ozone. If I new then what I know now for sure would have demanded the peak system. We use our tub a lot more than the average person. Is the model your looking at a 05/06/07???? Positives for artic:::: you sink down real nice.[ cold wind blowing you'll know what I mean] Dealers very helpfull and just a ton of artic owners on this site to help you with problems or concerns. Great control over flow of water and pressure at each seat. Filter maint. very easy. Negatives:::: ours is a early o6 model and we have had quite a few jets break.[ only happens when you drain tub and suck out lines] Replacements of a new style with no breakage. pump 1 a little noises. I would like to see when the tub is filtering it grab more water from the second side of the tub. All in all a great tub and we would not hesitate to purchase another one. Hope this helps. steve