Went Back To Chlorine

[djmatte]

Well with the new hot tub came a free pack of new chemicals. We were offered the option of a chlorine pack or pristine blue. I really wanted to give the PB pack a go since it was free. Absolute PITA. I really liked how it felt, but out of 2 attempts, I had to scrap it. On both runs, I ended up with really green and cloudy water. After the first run, I ran a jet cleaner and emptied the tub twice to make sure it was mostly cleared. The second specifically I was exceptionally cognizant of what I was doing and when. Everything looked good the first 3 days where we used it twice and shocked both nights. 2 days of no use, and the green cloudy color was back. This green should show up when there is too much PB in the system, but I checked on the test kit and it only read .3 (which calls for adding more PB). Had a digital sample done at the dealer and they couldn't pick up any BP in the water sample at all!

Needless to say I am back to chlorine and won't look back. Learned my lesson for sure though!

[chem geek]

Strange that it was green with the lower copper level, but if the pH gets high (say to 8.0 or more) then it can still get green, though usually a clear green. Cloudy green is usually algae which is uncommon in spas that are covered, but perhaps it was just bather waste building up. At any rate, the Pristine Blue is copper ions alone so doesn't kill fecal bacteria and it doesn't oxidize bather waste so doesn't work well at all in spas with no ozonator. If you are going to use a metal ion system, then Nature² would be better with its silver ions and use of MPS as an oxidizer/disinfectant (with the silver ions in hot water).

[Spa_Guru]

It has been my experience that the much-maligned chemical Chlorine is often the simplest to use, and by far the cheapest and fastest to disinfect with. Where I see customers go wrong with it is drastic overdosing. First they ignore the tub for a couple weeks (or longer), open the cover and -OMG- it looks gross, so they pitch in a half cup of chlorine and :::POOF::: and hour later the water looks spectacular, so they jump in to enjoy their tub, get eye and skin irritation from the 50+ PPM levels, blame the irritation on a "chlorine allergy" and spend hundreds of dollars and countless hours pursuing whatever magic bullet sanitizing system the local spa shop pushes off on them.

[djmatte]

 

Strange that it was green with the lower copper level, but if the pH gets high (say to 8.0 or more) then it can still get green, though usually a clear green. Cloudy green is usually algae which is uncommon in spas that are covered, but perhaps it was just bather waste building up. At any rate, the Pristine Blue is copper ions alone so doesn't kill fecal bacteria and it doesn't oxidize bather waste so doesn't work well at all in spas with no ozonator. If you are going to use a metal ion system, then Nature² would be better with its silver ions and use of MPS as an oxidizer/disinfectant (with the silver ions in hot water).

 

I do have an ozonator and the pristine blue setup does utilize a shocking system to sanitize on top of it. I was not so concerned about how it disinfects. But the fact that I went 2 days of no use (after shocking it) and it was THAT green left me a little irritated. Either way, I went with old faithful chlorine. I know it and its a cheaper option in the long run. At least I didn't shell out money for the PB only to find out it wouldn't work for me.