Aqua magazine article on draining intervals

[dlleno]

Greetings all,

those who have followed my posts know where I stand on the subject of drain intervals and especially purging, and this post is about that subject as well, for those who are interested.  I ran across an article on the Aqua magazine site, in their "features" section which gives some more detail especially regarding the need to drain and the consequences of the high bather load in heated water.  These are not new details for those who are aware, but frankly this was a good reminder for me as to what the water must endure. It even opened my eyes a little more.    Here is a link to the full  article:

http://aquamagazine.com/features/spa-soup-why-we-dump-spa-water.html

Highlights from the article include a long list of things that are contained in the various bodily fluids that end up in the water -- and we're not talking just the 3 pints of sweat per person per hour :-). for example, pharmaceuticals that accumulate.  The author concludes with this statement:  " That relatively small liquid base, to which all the ingredients we've discussed are added — from live bacteria to creams and oils to disinfection byproducts — makes for a rather dense spa soup. Which is why, on a regular basis, you should dump the water and start from scratch."

Anyway the article is quite a good read, and for me it solidly ratifies the need to drain .  The author didn't discuss purging ,unfortunately, as I suppose this subject has too many opinions, but I will say from personal experience I learned to purge at least every other drain interval and sometimes every drain.  Adding a purge product (I use "Ahh-some" as do many here) to the water just before draining is a no brainier to me because it takes such little incremental effort.  There's just so much information that is now known which, combined with what I personally discovered and learned, makes me more determined than ever to purge regularly. 

I won't clutter the forum with my "purge" story again, but I will highlight that I'm glad I clean the soup out and wash the bowl regularly.  with apologies for the analogy, draining without purging is (to me) like eating from a dirty plate without washing it first:  you can put new water in the tub but that doesn't scrub the pipes

-dlleno

 

[Ahhsomeguy]

The recent "SPA SOUP" article published in the April 2017 issue is a "must read" for everyone in the hot tub business and for every hot tub owner.  Mr. Lowry is a recreational water expert who has written numerous factual and educational articles for the industry over the years.  I agree with the previous post that the article did not go deep enough in regards to biofilm accumulation in the plumbing infrastructure, but the article does lend very strong support for more frequent water dumping because of what is in the water itself.  To the many posters on this forum who are telling owners that they need not dump the water or dump it as often, this article should open their eyes to the fact that regular water dumping in hot tubs is essential.  Here is the link to the article.

http://aquamagazine.com/features/spa-Soup-why-we-dump-spa-water.html