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Ph Lock What Is It?


marquismark

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Note that MPS is net acidic.

As for the bromine not lasting, that is strange unless you simply got too far behind in oxidizing bather waste so the bromine continued to get depleted. If you have an ozonator and a bromide bank, then it should have been creating more bromine.

There's nothing special with borates and bromine. It works similar to borates and chlorine.

You are definitely understanding this really well now.

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Btw... The key for me when I was using spa sentry was to start with softened water. No ca problem then.

I do have a 2106. Ordered from Amatos which I found to be prompt and reasonably priced . Where do you guys get your reagents? I need more dpd powder and 872. I'll probably turn to Amatos again unless there's something better

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Had a BAD experience With pH lock. My calcium levels seemed to be good, but when I added the pH lock, it turned the water to "milk". Had to drain the tub and had a gooey paste all over the filter and a chalky residue all over the tub. The folks at Leslie's were stumped, say they've never seen it that bad before. The only explanation is that the water was too hard. Any ideas would be appreciated, but I'll probably just avoid any phosphate buffers from now on.

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A phosphate buffer will most certainly precipitate calcium phosphate if the CH level is higher -- anything above around 50 ppm is at risk, certainly above 100 ppm. That's one of the downsides to using such a buffer. There's no mystery here.

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dichlor then switch to bleach manages the CYA and FC levels better, and at a lower cost but at the expense of some loss in pH control which can be moderated with the low TA+ Borates method? Boy that is not story you will hear in a spa store, to be sure!

I acquired my first spa around 4 years ago via the purchase of a vacation cabin with a spa. I visited two or three of the local spa stores in an attempt to buy a Taylor 2006 test kit as recommended here. I was struck with how large and empty the local spa stores were. Who was supporting the operation of these stores? None of them had the Taylor test kits and they wrinkled their noses at me when I did not want to accept their "equivalents". So I ordered my test kit and related supplies from the Internet. To make a long story short, for the last 4 years the water quality of my spa has been extremely easy to maintain using di-Chlor/bleach method with borates. Clorox and 20 Mule Team Borax from the supermarket and muriatic acid from the hardware store. My guests often comment on the sparkling water, gentleness on the skin and lack of typical spa odors even though I only change the water once or twice a year and it gets a fair amount of regular use.

Of course the spa stores are not going to recommend this method - I have not set foot in a spa store since my initial (unsatisfactory) visits. I avoid proprietary chemicals. Why would I want to add something to my water when the manufacturer is not even going to tell me what I'm adding? I'm sure I'm saving a lot of money too.

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yea I joined this forum to help me make that same transition and have benefited enormously from the expertise here. It has been a mind bending process but things are making so much more sense now its like the spa store fog has been lifted. I operated my first hot tub quite successfully for 20 years using high dollar proprietary chemicals, and following the store's advice. But now I know, for example, that I have been filling my spa with unnecessary CYA and that there are much cheaper ways to oxidize sodium bromide.

There are stores that have varying degrees of expertise, to be sure, and some are very knowledgeable. Some owners invest heavily in training and have stable organizations. but they will all be guided under some proprietary label. Most of the trained experts, however, will speak over their heads and pull stuff out of the air if they are challenged because they don't understand the underlying chemistry -- they rely on what they have been told and how the big label companies have trained them. I know. I was under their guidance for 20 years, and so my mind was in that groove of "the solution to your problem is always found on our shelf". Can't really blame the store owners though -- they are in business to make money after all. So are the big label companies.

Frankly, some need that approach, and a great many spa store customers are highly successful in maintaining their spas. I'm just glad I'm pulling out of the fog. and it sooo much more rewarding and fun to do it for less.

So again, hats off and thanks to the experts here that consistently offer sound technical explanations and lifting the fog

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