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Dichlor/bleach Method In A Nutshell


Nitro

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I will post a full set of results as soon as I get home (1.5 hours) so that I’m sure I’m giving you the most accurate information possible. I just had our spa service company decontaminate, flush the lines and refill our tub 2 weeks ago. After what I learned on this forum and with a ton of help from dashmer, I started the dichlor/bleach method (with the omission of the borates since I was unaware) and my water has never looked for felt better. I’ve been checking twice a day with a Taylor k-2006 test kit and everything seems perfectly balanced. We finally returned to using the tub this weekend, and after 3 soaks, eve rash is back. It is so disappointing! 
Stay tuned for the test results. I appreciate any help I can get. We have only been hot tub owners for 4 months and absolutely love it. I’m determined to correct this so we can get back to enjoying it!

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Here’s my test results using the K-2006

pH 7.4

TA 70

FC 11

CC 8

CH 110

CYA is 100+ (the lines only go to 100 and mine as slightly below that when the dot disappears

I did intentionally increase the FC this morning using bleach. We aren’t using the tub right now (last soak was Sunday) while we wait for our skin to clear up so I thought I’d run the FC a little high in case we are dealing with bacteria and maybe it would wipe it out. 

What do you think? I will try anything you recommend to be able to get back to enjoy our hot tub. For reference, water is crystal clear, no foam and only a slight chlorine smell. 
 

Thanks for any and all help!!!

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18 hours ago, ItchyandFrustrated said:

FC 11

CC 8

CH 110

CYA is 100+ (the lines only go to 100 and mine as slightly below that when the dot disappears

your tub is overstabilzed which means the chlorine is not working since it's bound chemically to the CYA and that means your tub is undersanitized. 8 ppm CC indicates that something is probably growing in the tub. CC should never be higher than .5 to 1 ppm and ideally 0 ppm.

If you are doing dichlor/bleach properly your CYA would not be that high so you are doing something wrong

My guess is that the rash is from pseudomonas which can grow readily in undersanitized hot water, which is what you have.

You need to drain and refill and STOP using dichlor and switch to bleach when the cya hits 30 ppm.

You need to get your water balanced and learn how to maintain it.

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Thank you Waterbear. I've been fighting this since we got the tub and have been mislead by 3 separate Hot Tub retailers in our area. Not to mention the money I've spent that was completely unnecessary. It's a shame the salespeople are so dishonest (or unknowledgeable) about what it takes to properly maintain a hot tub. I'm so grateful I found this forum or we'd be in the process of selling our tub. We will be draining and refilling and sticking strictly to the dichlor/bleach method.

Thanks again for taking the time to review my situation.

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9 hours ago, ItchyandFrustrated said:

t's a shame the salespeople are so dishonest

I've worked in the retail end of the pool/spa industry and the bottom line is that they stay in business by selling you products, many of which are not normally necessary. As long as your tub is having problems you keep going back for the next "Magic In A Bottle" that will cure all your ills. I agree that many (most?) are very unknowledgeable about water chemistry and just spout out "things that everyone knows (that aren't true)" such as walking acid to lower pH and slugging acid to lower TA (it doesn't work!) or "Our TA increaser is sodium hydrogen carbonate and not sodium bicarbonate or baking soda which is why it costs $5/lb." (sodium hydrogen carbonate is just another name for sodium bicarbonate or baking soda that you can buy at the grocery store for about 50 cents a pound and it's probably purer!) but they are usually just salespeople that have only had training from the manufacturers of the products they sell, if even that.

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  • 1 month later...

@ItchyandFrustrated I'm not a spa expert like Waterbear and others on here, but this is my experience, it may help you: We got our hot tub 2 years ago, newbies. Followed the instructions from the spa dealer, fine for a few weeks, but often had cloudy water, dealer was hopeless, said it was fine etc. Then I started itching, skin rash (just me, not my wife or kids), I would go in once and then spend 4 or 5 days getting rid of the rash/itching. Finally came across this site/post and switched to the Dichlor/Bleach method after purging etc, which fixed the water, but I still had the skin problem! By a process of elimination I found that I had a reaction to CYA.  So I completely removed Dichlor and anything that may have CYA from my process and then had zero problems after that. My skin is fine and the water is clear.

So my process now is that I do a water change every 6 months, balance the water to get the PH and Alkalinity right (using the method on this forum), then I add concentrated bleach with no additives as santiser.  I'm in the UK and I just order Sodium Hypochlorite (bleach) 15% (sold as patio cleaner) from Amazon. Every time we come out of the tub I add the right amount of bleach and then every now and again (2-3 days) I add a bit more (50ml) if no-one is using the tub. For my tub (Jacuzzi J-375 - 445 gals / 1685 litres) I find that I need to add 70ml of 15% bleach per person-hour of bathing.  If I ever get it wrong and it goes a bit cloudy I dump 2-300ml of bleach in there and it clears it up overnight. The tub has a UV lamp in the system which cuts down any excess chlorine.

I don't know if this is the best way, but it's the only way I've found to stop my terrible skin irritation which would have meant selling the hot tub! And the water is crystal clear 99% of the time. I don't use any other additives of any sort.

Hope this helps.

 

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