Will An Ionizer Work With Soft Soak System?

[Marty]

Currently my ozonator is not working, and am waiting for the new one to arrive. But I've been contemplating adding an ionizer also. As of late we have been having to add a lot of shock, and was thinking that the ionizer could help reduce the chemical costs. So what do you good people think?

Bob

[Marty]

Currently my ozonator is not working, and am waiting for the new one to arrive. But I've been contemplating adding an ionizer also. As of late we have been having to add a lot of shock, and was thinking that the ionizer could help reduce the chemical costs. So what do you good people think?

Bob

Come on some one has got to have an opinion on this !!!

Bob

[chem geek]

Bob,

The ionizer should not change the sanitizer usage by very much at all. The metal ions (silver and copper) will kill bacteria and prevent algae, but the quantity of chlorine used to kill bacteria is not measurable while algae growth in spas is also minimal.

An ozonator is a mixed bag. It will oxidize some of the organics and ammonia that chlorine would have oxidized so chlorine usage should drop. However, the constant aeration from the ozonator will also outgas more chlorine so the chlorine usage will increase from that. From what I've seen with one user who did careful measurements and comparing that to non-ozonator spas, it seems to be somewhat more beneficial than not in terms of quantities of chemicals. However, the aeration also causes the pH to rise so you'd need to add acid or use Dichlor to keep the pH from rising.

It seems that you are seeing a net benefit from the ozonator because now that it isn't working you are using more oxidizer. The rough rule of thumb is that it can take up to 7 ppm FC in 350 gallons per person-hour of soaking at 104F. Without an ozonator, much of this chlorine gets used up within an hour after you add it (usually after soaking) while the rest slowly drops until the next day. With an ozonator, the chlorine doesn't drop very much when you add it, but it reduces over time more quickly, so you can usually get by with adding a little less than if you didn't have an ozonator.

Richard