Hot Tub Water Source

[jsweezer]

Just wondering if i should fill my spa from the water indoors that uses the whole house water softener or from the outside source that bypases the water softener?

[Spa God]

Bypass the softener for sure.

Water low in calcium is extremely aggressive and will pull calcium from wherever it can... your plastic fittings, metal etc.

You are better to have hard water and use a stain and scale inhibitor, or Aqua finesse, than to have soft water.

Especially from a salt softener system.

[Dnepr Dave]

Plastic fittings and metal parts don't have any calcium in them, there is nothing in them that the water can "pull" out, especially in a plastic spa. I use rain water, collected from my roof for filling my spa, it has very very little calcium. No problems with any fittings, plastic or not being attacked.

Now if you had a Gunnite and plaster spa, it would be a different story.

Dave

[david_bilton]

water "hardness" is an old laundry term the more calcium in the water the harder it is to make bubbles you need to have some calcium for that reason (as dig out the old N.S.P.I. book)not enough will give you etching of plaster,aggressive water,and pitting of surfaces.to much will get scale,filter calcification (turns your sand to cement)cloudy water,and more.so don't use your soft water and check your TA.so protect your investment and do proper water balance PH,TA,Cal,and TDS.don't do the smoke and mirror thing get real help go to your pool and spa dealer beware of snake oils

[Spa God]

Plastic fittings and metal parts don't have any calcium in them

??? Many plastics contain fine calcium carbonate and calcium chloride, also the presence of Poly(acrylic acid) which is in effect a modified calcium phosphate cement... I do not deign to know the chemical make up of all plastics in a hot tub but to say the above is simply not correct.

Also not only is a calcium a metal (an alaki earth metal) it is also present in many metals in various form including metal oxides, sulfides, nitrates and carbonates.

Sorry mate but yer off base on that one...

[Dnepr Dave]

While some plastics do use fillers, they are encapsulated in the plastics that the fittings are made of and not subject to leaching or chemical attack by spa water. Atomite (CaCO3) is used to give a marbled look to plastic castings, but mixed in the plastics, is inert to chemical attack. Any other fillers used in plastics are silica (microballons & microspheres) and glass based (glass fiber) and are chemically inert, encapsulated or not. Calcium chloride is never used as a plastic filler.

Calcium is a metal, as you said, but it is not present in the stainless parts that the spa water come on contact with.

Overly soft water is much less damaging to a modern portable spa than hard water, which can leave calcium depostis when it precipitates out.

I've been working with water chemistry and plastics production, in the marine industry, for the last 27 years, I know what I'm talking about.

Dave

[Spa God]

Cool we agree... there is calcium in plastic and metal... :-)

Calcium carbonate (also called whiting) is used to make plastics white used because of its availability, ease of processing to specific particle sizes and it’s compatibility with a wide range of polymer types.

One limitation is that it reacts with acids so should not be used in acidic formulations or environments.

even encapsulated there is leaching, especially if the water is running acidic. there is virtually no substance on earth that is immune to water absorption and therefore reaction... hell even steel has an absorption rating...

but to be honest plastics are not my speciality so i likely have a good smattering of misinformation in this one :-)

[jsweezer]

wow YOU GUYS REALLY GET OFF TRACK FAST?

STAY FOCUSED PLEASE ITS A SIMPLE QUESTION SOFTINER OR NOT PLEASE ANSWER:

WATER SOFTNER YES OR NO WATER SOFTNER NO

tHANKS AND PLAY NICE

[PaulR]

Yes, use the softened water. If it turns out to cause a problem you can always make the water harder; the opposite is not true. Actually many people give 100-150ppm CH as a good target level because it helps reduce foaming from the jets.

If you said what your spa is made of, and how hard your non-softened water is, it would be possible to judge whether the hard water could be a problem.

--paulr

[Dnepr Dave]

No water softener. Just treat your city water or well water with the proper spa chemicals. You can even test your untreated tap water, before you first fill and calculate what spa chemicals you'll have to add using the pool calculator:

http://www.thepoolcalculator.com/

Yeah, we're nerds, we get off track, sometimes.

Sorry!

Dave

[PaulR]

So there you have it, one answer each way (and I promise we didn't do that on purpose!). Really the answer is "it depends" and some of us make different assumptions to lean one way or the other.

If you live in an area with ridiculously hard water, it would be relatively easy to get calcium scaling and you should definitely use the softener. If it's only moderately hard, you can avoid that risk pretty readily, and it doesn't matter too much whether you use the softener.

--paulr

[Roger]

wow YOU GUYS REALLY GET OFF TRACK FAST?

STAY FOCUSED PLEASE ITS A SIMPLE QUESTION SOFTINER OR NOT PLEASE ANSWER:

WATER SOFTNER YES OR NO WATER SOFTNER NO

tHANKS AND PLAY NICE

I've always preached half and half to those who ask my advice.

[jsweezer]

wow YOU GUYS REALLY GET OFF TRACK FAST?

STAY FOCUSED PLEASE ITS A SIMPLE QUESTION SOFTINER OR NOT PLEASE ANSWER:

WATER SOFTNER YES OR NO WATER SOFTNER NO

tHANKS AND PLAY NICE

I've always preached half and half to those who ask my advice.

Ya know that sounds good gona do 1/2 and 1/2 an see what happens.

[hottublady]

I was told it was okay to use a water softener as long as I add extra hardness, but now I'm on Silkbalance.

[premiumhottubs]

I would recommend that you use your garden hose to fill the spa and bypass the softner. If you are using a garden hose to fill the spa, allow the water in the hose to flush out for several minutes. Stagnant water in hoses can contain bacteria which could cause skin irritation to some bathers. To instantly adjust the pH to a proper range, add Leisure Time pH BALANCE. Upon filling the spa you should add one bottle of SPA METAL GON for up to 500L of water. SPA METAL GON prevents staining resulting from trace metals in source water such as Copper or Iron.

For more information on hot tubs feel free to ask at our fan page. hottub.indulgemedia.ca

Premium Hot Tubs

Vernon Jacuzzi Experts

Vernon BC

premiumhottubs.ca

[hot_water]

No softener: a.) there is no reason, b.) there is some disagreement over the need for calcium in plastic spa water, but why be the gunea pig? c.) many if not most manufacturers recommend no softener water d.)Leisure Time (chemical manufacturer) recommends not using soft water.

If your water system includes a reverse osmosis system, then absolutely don't use that water. The RO plus softener creates "thirsty" water that WILL pull ions out of other materials.

Using soft water and adding hardness doesn't make a lot of sense. Why not use the hard water in the first place if you are just going to add it back?

I agree with premiumhottubs, his are good suggestions. If you don't have metal gon, or want to save the $$, you can call your water company and find out if you have any significant metal in your water. If your water has no significant iron or other heavy metal ions, no need for the metal gon.