Technichlor (After-Market Salt Water Chlorine Generator)

[walleye]

I let my PH drfit too high and I got the same scaling sysmptoms. I vacuumed up the scale and I put the technichlor in vinegar and it cleaned right up, PH has been kept at 7.4 to 7.5 with zero issues since. Good scare for sure. Turned out I had a bad testing kit that showed PH at 7.5 regsrdless. Once I used a different kit, the PH was around 8. Never hurts to have an alternative kit to keep your regular kit honest. Anyway, I love the SWG, best thing I bought for my hot tub IMO.

[dc_350]

I let my PH drfit too high and I got the same scaling sysmptoms. I vacuumed up the scale and I put the technichlor in vinegar and it cleaned right up, PH has been kept at 7.4 to 7.5 with zero issues since. Good scare for sure. Turned out I had a bad testing kit that showed PH at 7.5 regsrdless. Once I used a different kit, the PH was around 8. Never hurts to have an alternative kit to keep your regular kit honest. Anyway, I love the SWG, best thing I bought for my hot tub IMO.

Just bought the Taylor test kit...be interested to see what the results are! Also soaked the SWG in vinegar yesterday and it looks good as new! Thanks!

[dc_350]

Just used the Taylor kit for the first time...everything looks good...except the PH which appears to be off the scale. On my 4th round of adding sodium bisulfate and still can't get it down to an appropriate level...sheesh...

More to follow....

[arches2]

Just used the Taylor kit for the first time...everything looks good...except the PH which appears to be off the scale. On my 4th round of adding sodium bisulfate and still can't get it down to an appropriate level...sheesh...

More to follow....

use the acid demand test in the taylor kit. It will tell you exactly how much acid to add and you can just do it once.

[dc_350]

ph was definitely the problem...stabilized it at 7.4 and no build up in the unit since...

Next question...combined chlorine. Does any one measure this? And if so what level do you try to keep it at and through what process?

Thanks in advance!

[chem geek]

You can measure this, but if you do make sure it's just before your soak or sometime well after your soak (at least 24 hours after). The Combined Chlorine (CC) level will rise when chlorine reacts with your bather waste, but this is temporary and will drop back down when it further oxidizes such waste. If you use a 25 ml water sample, then you can get a 0.2 ppm resolution for the FC and CC tests. The CC will usually be <= 0.5 ppm so if you use the 10 ml water sample it will usually have the water go clear with one drop of FAS-DPD solution (after you've already done the FC portion of the test and then added R-0003 reagent).

If the CC is consistently above 0.4 ppm, then you can shock the spa by raising the FC to around 10 ppm or so, but that's really not the best approach since having CC without bather load isn't normal. If you aren't clean getting in the spa, then you may be bringing in hard-to-oxidize organics such as oils or sunscreen or lotions that may only partially react with chlorine to form a more permanent CC. The best approach is to not introduce such products into the water, but if you do and they become a problem with scum lines or odor, then you can use enzyme products to break them down or clarifiers to help move them to the filter or scumballs to physically remove them.

[dc_350]

Appreciate the quick reply!

Decided to start over, draining and refilling the tub. Learned a lot from this thread and decided to start clean.

Is there a preferred order in regard to balancing the water? I know that adding salt should be last but what about FC, PH, alkalinity and hardness? Does it matter which you do first? Understand that AL and PH are interrelated...

Also, should the tub be at temperature before starting any of the tests? Or is it inconsequential?

Thanks!

[chem geek]

You usually get your chlorine in there early so that bacteria doesn't grow. If your TA is high then you usually deal with that first since it requires acid addition maintaining a low pH while aerating and then you adjust pH by continued aeration. Since most fill water has a higher TA than 50 ppm, you usually lower the TA before adjusting the pH to its target value. The calcium hardness doesn't matter when you add it. If you are adding 50 ppm Borates, I'd do that after you've adjusted TA and pH (you may need to adjust pH again after adding the borates). As for temperature, you can do these adjustments at lower temps if you like, but the lowering TA procedure will go faster at higher temps.

[Spa Dreamer]

Update after 1 1/2 years of use: I definitely still recommend it. I add 30 ppm of CYA upon a fresh fill so that the chlorine is not so destructive of swim suits. I've also found that a few tablespoons of borax on start up is useful to help regulate the pH. Other than that, I don't add anything. I measure chlorine 2x per week and pH weekly. With borax, the pH rarely moves much, but without it has a tendency to rise, so you will likely need to add acid every week or two to bring it back down. Also, the Technichlor allows you to adjust the chlorine output. My spa is 240 gallons, and I've found that level 3 (the default) is best in the summer when the spa isn't used much, but level 4 is needed during periods of heavy use. For a larger spa, I would imagine that levels 4 and 5 are needed.

Really, it is a very simple process, and the unit does a great job of keeping the chlorine at good levels. You will add pool salt upon a fresh fill, but you shouldn't need to add it thereafter.

First thanks to you and Chem Geek and all others for generously sharing all this helpful info.

I have a Dream Maker spa too, [260 gal] that I just converted to SWCG - ColorChlor 110 [was advertized as a "mini" but judging by the instructions and 10 levels of generation i think it's a standard?]

My spa came with Baquaspa which made me wheeze - so went searching for alternatives.

It also came with a Prozone ozonator [uV based] which I'm pretty sure never functioned until recently as the "installer" just tossed it into the pump compartment instead of mounting it and the air tube had a hard 90 degree kink in it at the body of the unit. I was originally going to use the OZ gen and mineral stick [Nature 2] and MSP - then I saw it needed weekly shocking with Dichlor and my spa says specifically use of Dichlor or Trichlor will void warranty - I'm not sure why? [its out of warranty but I figured they have their reasons.]

All that said... here are my questions.

1 Is my ozonator helping, or should I turn it off? It says to be effective the pump has to run for 6 hrs a day, and my controls only let me over ride and run it for 2 hrs at a shot... so I would have to do that three times a day to fully ozonate the tub, depending on the ambiant temp. and how hard it's working to maintain temp.

2 Can I still use Nature 2 or is it not possible to combine MSP and SWG - or is it just redundant?

I do tend to be a 'belt and suspenders" type - but not when it's no use.

3 Above you say "a few tblsps. of Borax" - do you have a target PPM you're shooting for? I've seen 50 ppm of barates mentioned, but that would require about 15 oz or 37.5 TBLsps of Borax. for my 260 gal. unless I have the math wrong.

Thanks in advance for all you tips and willingness to share your experience.

[Mark SC]

Sorry for the delay. You don't need Nature 2 or the ozonator. The chlorine will provide all of your sanitation so why incur the expense? Ozonators are pretty useless anyway from what I've read. They basically just sanitize a small portion of the water and the effect lasts just minutes. As for the borax, I don't have a target ppm. I just throw in a few tablespoons at spa fill to offset the acid from the dichor/CYA that I've added (target of 30 ppm for the CYA) so that the pH is 7.4-7.6. I've found that even a few tablespoons helps stabilize the pH (a spa blanket helps with that too). I do recommend checking the chlorine level 2x weekly, especially if the spa isn't in use. I've found that the chlorine level can fluctuate with use. I use Hot Springs test strips to check the chlorine. I've found them to be quite accurate and convenient for chlorine testing (but not for pH--a drop test kit is needed for that)--even if they are pricier than other test strips.