So.....i Have This Idea About Chemicals....

[bart6453]

I am new to the tub world....and thinking about the different chemicals and doses.

I wonder why no one has come up with pre-measured chemical doses.

Wouldnt it be great to have 1/4 oz pills of dichlor kind of like the cascade pouches you throw in your dish washer. You could just grab a couple throw them in the tub after you are done soaking and walk away....easy for when you have had way too much to drink!

Maybe this is me just obsessing about making things easy for the masses...but it sure would be handy.

anyways...just a rambling thought.

[djousma]

I am new to the tub world....and thinking about the different chemicals and doses.

I wonder why no one has come up with pre-measured chemical doses.

Wouldnt it be great to have 1/4 oz pills of dichlor kind of like the cascade pouches you throw in your dish washer. You could just grab a couple throw them in the tub after you are done soaking and walk away....easy for when you have had way too much to drink!

Maybe this is me just obsessing about making things easy for the masses...but it sure would be handy.

anyways...just a rambling thought.

Easy for the masses would be auto chemical dispensers that inject the proper amount of chemicals automatically based on testing. You just fill the hopper, so to speak. The problem is that what works for one person may not work for the next. There are a lot of "rules-of-thumb", but no one's recipe is the same. I subscribe to the "less is more" theory for chemicals, others subscribe to "if a little is good, more is better".

[Elbyron]

Easy for the masses would be auto chemical dispensers that inject the proper amount of chemicals automatically based on testing. You just fill the hopper, so to speak. The problem is that what works for one person may not work for the next. There are a lot of "rules-of-thumb", but no one's recipe is the same. I subscribe to the "less is more" theory for chemicals, others subscribe to "if a little is good, more is better".

I like the idea of an automated testing device, even if it doesn't dispense chemicals and just tells the user what it recommends - kinda like The Pool Calculator with the testing device providing the "Now" readings.

My bromine floater is adjustable so after some tweaking, I can more or less maintain the sanitizer levels with only having to shock once a week. The water usually stays in balance pretty good for me, so I rarely have to use any other chemicals. But it would sure be nice to automate the weekly shock... some kind of bleach dispenser would be cool.

My sprinkler timer box is right next to the hot tub, I wonder if I could use it to send a scheduled signal to a contraption that would cause it to dump a cup of bleach through a tube and into the tub. Of course it wouldn't be able to lift the cover off, which I believe you're supposed to do after shocking. I wonder what happens if you don't?

The only theory I subscribe to is that if the tests show something is not in the ideal range, add chemicals and test again. It's not a matter of using less or more, what's important is the test results!

[Dr. Spa]

My sprinkler timer box is right next to the hot tub, I wonder if I could use it to send a scheduled signal to a contraption that would cause it to dump a cup of bleach through a tube and into the tub.

A peristaltic feeder would work well.

Of course it wouldn't be able to lift the cover off, which I believe you're supposed to do after shocking. I wonder what happens if you don't?

You insulating cover will prematurely degrade.

[chem geek]

If you set up the peristaltic pump to inject the bleach more slowly -- that is, at a slow flow rate and also did this with shorter bursts more frequently -- then that should be safer. You could also dilute the bleach as well.

Be sure to have Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in the water, such as with initial use of Dichlor, or else the chlorine level will be WAY too strong and will degrade the cover much faster. With CYA in the water, adding a small amount of bleach from the pump should be OK at normal FC levels. Shocking would be harsher, as noted, but with more consistent dosing and sanitation you may not need to shock at all.

[Nitro]

I like the idea of the Liquidator, but something smaller for spas. Supposedly it will limit the amount of salt added to the water.

[Elbyron]

If you set up the peristaltic pump to inject the bleach more slowly -- that is, at a slow flow rate and also did this with shorter bursts more frequently -- then that should be safer. You could also dilute the bleach as well.

Be sure to have Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in the water, such as with initial use of Dichlor, or else the chlorine level will be WAY too strong and will degrade the cover much faster. With CYA in the water, adding a small amount of bleach from the pump should be OK at normal FC levels. Shocking would be harsher, as noted, but with more consistent dosing and sanitation you may not need to shock at all.

Actually I use a bromine system, so when I mentioned automatically adding bleach I was referring to the weekly shock used to oxidize the bromide ions. So I'm not worried about CYA levels. What would be the effect of shocking a bromine tub (with bleach) and not removing the cover? Also, could slowly adding the bleach with the peristaltic pump act as a replacement for weekly shocking?

[chem geek]

Slowly adding the bleach during the week could act to reactive the bromine as you go, but it might be more necessary to shock the tub when using bromine if the bromine didn't oxidize bather wastes as quickly. So for that sort of weekly shocking, you should keep the cover off and I'm not sure why you'd have an automated dosing system for that purpose since it's only once a week.

[James141]

I was thinking of building a system based on this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PH-ORP-REDOX-CONTROL...alenotsupported

using the ORP value to control a solenoid to pump the water through an inline bromine feeder when needed and also use the PH side of things to up the PH when needed with a peri pump.

I decided in the end that the maintenance using bromine isnt really that much of a chore and it wasn't worth bothering.