canadave

Chlorine, by itself or when used to convert bromide to bromine, is the most common way to keep hot tub water sanitized. I can't imagine how you got the understanding that it "is not a great idea for hot tubs". Purox is a more concentrated chlorine solution (10%-12%) than household bleach (5%-6%) so you would use less of it for treating your tub's water. There are calculators available online that will tell you how much to add based on the concentration % of the chlorine solution you are using. Sorry that I don't have any info. on the tubs that you are considering. Best of luck with your decision. Hi, my understanding not to use Purox in a hot tub comes from this link: http://www.spas-direct.com/chemicals.php It says, under Liquid Chlorine: "Sodium Hypo chlorite has a very high pH, and when used in a spa can help the formation of calcium scale and make pH maintenance difficult. Liquid Chlorine is not recommended in spas."

My wife and I owned a hot tub 15 years ago, then moved and left it behind. Now we're ready to buy another one, and we're a bit overwhelmed with information and contradictory opinions. We've basically got it narrowed down to two options: Option 1: Buy a new hot tub from Arctic Spas. We're looking at the 8x8 Kodiak model. It'll be about $13,000 CAD with everything. We've heard all kinds of things about Arctic Spas. Most reviews I've read seem to be great. Then I phoned a service guy locally who does inspections of hot tubs (and who presumably has no reason to promote or slam any particular hot tub model), and he had nothing but bad things to say about them. He pointed out that their parts are proprietary, so they can charge whatever they want; he also said their trapdoor access panels make them difficult to service (as opposed to other tubs, which he said you can take the entire sides of most of them, making it easier). He also said there was some kind of issue with their heaters that has caused occasional fires (he mentioned a fire that happened in an A.S. tub in a town not too far away). Option 2: Buy a used (2012) Maax 811 hot tub from someone in town. This is listed at $10,500 CAD, and I could probably get that down to $8,000-$9,000. This is a bigger tub, has all the bells and whistles, but of course it's used, so no warranty. The owner told us he's used Purox liquid chlorine in it, which from my understanding is not a great idea for hot tubs. However, he demonstrated that everything works, and it seems to be in fine working order and condition. He also pointed out that although there is no warranty, if something broke and needed to be replaced, then that would still likely be cheaper than if we bought a different tub new. So, we're torn what to do. Everything I'd read up until now (except for this service inspector's opinion) has led us to believe that Arctic Spas are better than Maax as a brand. However, we can definitely get "much more tub for less money" with this used Maax; and I wonder, "how bad can it be, really, if everything is working fine?" Any comments/opinions?