dashmer

DarylA, Sounds like you and I are on the identical path only I was where you are a couple months ago. My first water was run on beachcomber advice and chemicals. Dichlor then bleach method is working great for me. If you do go that route, get yourself a shotstigo bottle from Amazon for dosing the chlorine. Best $20 I have spent on the tub.

Thanks waterbear. Great info.

@waterbear, what PPM of FC do you recommend shocking to? I am hoping to be away for 8 or 9 days this summer and may not have anyone to dose the tub while I am away. Thanks

Going back to the problem of salt corroding the heater, is there sufficient salt buildup in 3-4 months of using the dichlor then bleach method to cause problems with an incoloy heater?

Thanks waterbear. Appreciate your experience and advice.

Thanks @waterbear. I was hoping to hear from you. Glad you corrected my belief that Carefree included MPS. They advertise it as a 4 in 1 non-chlorine oxidizer, sequestering agent, biofilm disruptor and clarifier. I was not aware that there were multiple flavors of non chlorine shock. It may be coincidence but my wife has complained about skin irritation a couple of times and now that I think about it, it may have been close to when it was treated with Carefree. I think we will stop using the product and see if her issues disappear. Do these chemicals dissipate over time? Is MPS less like

Hello, I have some questions about using other products I have on hand and if they are compatible with the dichlor then bleach method. First, an outline of where I am at the moment: Second hot tub water fill and first using the dichlor then bleach method. Now 1.5 weeks in. 360 gal beachcomber tub Using 10.3% sodium hypochlorite (pool bleach). TA:70, CH 160, pH 7.6 tub is used daily On fresh fill, as per manufacturer recommendation, I added dichlor, carefree (non chlorine shock plus some other properties) and 13 tablespoons of soft (boric acid). The MSD

Understood. Thank you.

Thanks Waterbear, that what my gut feeling as well. I wondered if that formula you referred to was connected to CYA buildup.

Just starting the Dichlor then Bleach method on the second fill of our hot tub. First fill was dichlor only and CYA levels were very high after 5 weeks of daily use (>200 ppm.) The question is what is the formula or the expected water change interval when using the bleach method? In Nitro's post, he mentions 6 months but there are no base assumptions like number of daily bathers, etc. Our tub is used almost daily by 2 people for 30-60 min and I would like to know when to expect my next water change and what are the indicators it should be done earlier if higher bather loads? Thank

Thanks Waterbear.

Is there a chart that shows this relationship (i.e. CYA vs. recommended safe Cl level) or is it a linear 3x factor? When CYA is 3X the recommended level, you need 3X the free Cl? Thanks.

Thanks waterbear. Our tub has only been up a week and we are trying to determine our chlorine consumption. I will look into getting a K-1000 to save on the powder and titration chemical in my 2006. To your point above, we do get a prominent stable pink colour after adding the DPD powder, and I do trust the 2006 chlorine test. I cant help but wonder how much trouble people get into using test strips alone. I would have been adding dichlor like crazy if I followed their results.

I am having a similar issue with free chlorine reading. I have 2 different brand strips. One is 4 PPM lower than my K-2006 reading and the other is 6 PPM lower. I like using the strips on a daily basis so I am calibrating them against the Taylor kit and just adding the appropriate number of PPM to get my reading. Hopefully this is not a foolish thing to do.

Really nice to see your data on power consumption (note the excel sheet is unavailable). Thanks for posting. I do not have my tub yet (on order) but I have an energy monitor on the hot tub circuit to give me the usage data once we get it. There is not a lot of information on real world energy consumption out there. Spent a lot of time digging around for it, but other than a posting or two, pretty hard to come by.