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Chlorine or bromine


Scottieg

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I am new to the hot tub thing, my first hot tub will be at my house on Wednesday. I have done a lot of research and read a lot of forums. I know this topic has been talked about a lot, being new to this I am asking the question only because I don’t know how often products change. If you were starting off would you go with Chlorine or Bromine and why? What products do you use?

 

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Forums are great for all information you need. Go to Hot Tub Water Chemistry in the main menu and look through the posts first. You will probably find your answers from another Q&A thread. There are several water chemists who give very well researched information based on their years of industry experience and expertise. Follow them. Chem Geek is one name that pops up in my mind. You will likely learn quickly that chlorine is the best sanitizer with bromine close second. Ozone is another supplemental sanitizing system; it works well with bromine, has some negatives with chlorine. Each product will have some additives suggested. Again, look through and read the threads previously posted in water chemistry section. It will work out well for you.

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Pay particular attention to the pros who recommend using common household products rather than paying premiums for spa specific brand name concoctions that are the same as the household stuff. And order a Taylor test kit when you decide whether you will use chlorine or bromine. It is user friendly; you do not have to be a chemist to use the tests or understand the readings. I have 2 spas. Both are in California, one near the coast, one in the mountains. The weather and environments the exist in are as different as the zones where they operate. One is seldom used, sits for weeks at a time.  It is the farthest from my home, up in the mountains. It has been maintained with excellent consistent balance and sanitation using bromine with an ozone generator on a circulation pump that runs 24/7. Bromine deploys into the water in tablet form over time and does not break down with heat like chlorine. Chlorine bleach is added periodically to super-sanitize the spa and recharge the bromine. I turn the heater down when I am not there, only heating it for use for a few days at a time, a couple to a few weeks between uses.The ozone is an after-market unit that I easily installed and was simple to plumb into the spa tubing after the heater. In my other spa  at the coast I use chlorine in common liquid household bleach form as the sole sanitizer. This works because that spa is frequently used, so it gets maintained regularly. Since chlorine and ozone tend to interfere with each other I do not use ozone in the chlorine spa. All the information I used to decide which system to use came from the water chemistry forum, searching for threads that seemed to meet my needs and reading, rereading, then asking questions of the pros who are always very helpful. Take the time to find appropriate threads for your questions and to understand them. It pays off to get your spa set up right once with good advice, not from the stores or sales people, but from the forum experts.

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Sounds like fun. Lately, I've been exchanging a few gallons of 104 degree water with fresh 200+ degree water each time I use a two person tub, in order to warm it up a few degrees past the granny setting.  The water is being refreshed, as such, this seems to work pretty well for maintenance, instead of advanced techniques with chemicals. Of course, bathtubs don't use them because all of the water is changed out each time, so I think it follows that changing out some water in a hot tub is useful too, and I like it hotter, so I'm "bathing two birds with one bath", as it were. My theory is that I won't have to change all of the water out, as recommended when the chemicals become saturated, because the water will never be saturated this way, as long as I use the tub often and exchange some water in the process (I've tried testing it before and after, and it looks like the concentration of chemicals is lowered by mixing in fresh water, naturally, and if this is timed to where the chlorine is thinning out before I "rednecktify" my little hotspring from a stovetop,  then I'm bathing in fresher water, which I'll add more chlorine to afterward). I've read that smaller tubs can be tricky to balance water in anyway, so maybe switching it out gradually is a good idea, even if this wasn't done for increasing the temperature. My spa would have its water volume recycled gradually over a span of 38 uses in that case, which would be more frequent than recommended in general, so the water should stay fresh enough without having to be reheated all at once.

Anyway, my point was that water is one of the "products" I use too (and don't forget to add water, or even try experimenting with that).

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It seems that there has to be a greater concentration of bromine used to get the same result as chlorine (something like twice as much).

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2.0 ppm of liquid bromine is necessary to provide activity equivalent to the 0.6 ppm of available chlorine —Comparison of Chlorine, Bromine, and Iodine as Disinfectants for Swimming Pool Water

🛀

 
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This paper describes a novel laboratory hot tub (LHT) apparatus and associated standard operating procedure (SOP) designed to reproduce the key biological, chemical, and engineering parameters associated with recreational and therapeutic hot tubs. Efficacy, as measured quantitatively by log reduction values, was determined against both biofilm and planktonic bacteria...
 
The method also displayed sensitivity by differentiating between chlorine and bromine treatments; in every case, chlorine produced a greater log reduction than did the same concentration of bromine. —A laboratory hot tub model for disinfectant efficacy evaluation

 

Maybe the problem with having a higher concentration of one versus the other would be the presence of more Trihalomethanes...

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Bromoform can be absorbed into the body by inhalation and through the skin. The substance is irritating to the respiratory tract, the eyes, and the skin, and may cause effects on the central nervous system and liver, resulting in impaired functions.

 

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