Can Anyone Recommend...?

[Raeven]

I have a Hot Spring Envoy spa. My water is very full of iron, and although I use Sequa Sol as a sequestrant when filling the spa to attract the iron out of the water, the water line still has a sticky residue of iron-colored yuck. Does anyone know of a good product I can use to clean this off? I don't want to adversely affect the water chemistry, and I do use chlorine so want to be careful about mixing chemicals.

Any help or suggestion would be appreciated!!

Thanks, Raeven

[Nitro]

You might try a dry cloth or paper towel. If it's real bad you can also use a little Baking Soda on a wet sponge, but you have to be careful about getting in the tub. It will raise your TA. The other option is to buy a product specifically for cleaning spa shells from a spa supply store. It will be pH neutral, so you can use as much as you like.

Also, if you take showers before entering the tub, and don't wear anything like lotions, conditioners etc., it will cut down on the goo.

Lastly, assuming you have well water, if you have a water softener, use the water coming from it to fill your tub next time. It will remove the Iron. However, you'll need to add Calcium, because it will remove that too.

[whodyawant]

Lastly, assuming you have well water, if you have a water softener, use the water coming from it to fill your tub next time. It will remove the Iron. However, you'll need to add Calcium, because it will remove that too.

I'm curious about this topic because we have a Kinetico water softener in our home, and even with that we always get some of that reddish goo in our toilet bowls before they need a cleaning. I always figured it was iron, and so didn't believe our softener took that out of our city water. I have always tried to fill our spa by turning our soft water on bypass and filling it with the city water, but have had times when I have rubbed the scum line off of my spa with a white washcloth and the residue would have a reddish tint. I must say though, I have used two different products in my spa. One is Quantum Sequest-All and the other is Leisure Time's Defender. When I use Defender, I did not have so much of that tint to the scum line. You add the whole bottle on an initial fill.

As far as having it in the water lines-I have never checked, I may have it there too. Perhaps on a new fill you should try one of the "swirl away" products that you add prior to draining. I have not tried one of the products yet, but that would be something I would look at first. The folks on here would have some good suggestions for such a product. And I wouldn't mind knowing their answer to that question as well!

[Nitro]

I'm curious about this topic because we have a Kinetico water softener in our home, and even with that we always get some of that reddish goo in our toilet bowls before they need a cleaning. I always figured it was iron, and so didn't believe our softener took that out of our city water. I have always tried to fill our spa by turning our soft water on bypass and filling it with the city water, but have had times when I have rubbed the scum line off of my spa with a white washcloth and the residue would have a reddish tint. I must say though, I have used two different products in my spa. One is Quantum Sequest-All and the other is Leisure Time's Defender. When I use Defender, I did not have so much of that tint to the scum line. You add the whole bottle on an initial fill.

As far as having it in the water lines-I have never checked, I may have it there too. Perhaps on a new fill you should try one of the "swirl away" products that you add prior to draining. I have not tried one of the products yet, but that would be something I would look at first. The folks on here would have some good suggestions for such a product. And I wouldn't mind knowing their answer to that question as well!

A water softener should remove the iron. However, I'm not an expert on water softeners, so I don't know if it's the actual softening of the water, or a built in filter. I do know my friend has a water softener and a separate sediment filter. His water is really bad.

You can also buy a pre-filter you attach to the hose while filling the tub. It supposed to help. I would always used softened water whenever possible, and try to filter it as much as you can. The less you put into the tub the better. Just remember to check and add Calcium.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Water softners do not remove all the iron in areas that are loaded with it. We see this a lot in New Englad.

First, to get the scum line off, as Nitro said a papertowel works well. I would add personally spray it with an enzyme product,(such as Leisure times or Spa perfect) this will not effect the water chemistry and will help remove the goo. Are you using any other type of clarifier? Many scum lines are caused by clarifiers that are oil based. I would suggest using Sea Klear Clarifier on a weekly basis. This will do a few things....help keep the water clear, continue to remove metals, reduce or eliminate the scum line and make filter cleaneing much easier since it does not gob up.

Also as Nitro said, on your next fill, not only run the water through the softner, but using a pre filter will also remove more of the iron, you just may need to adjust your hardness after.