ncc63725 Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 I have a 2009 Hot Spring Vista with the ACE salt cell for chlorination. I'm experiencing a problem I've never had with this tub and cannot find information about anywhere. I just drained and filled the tub the first week of March. Used it twice since then, no trouble. I went out to check the chlorine level and do the maintenance on the salt cell when I opened the tub to find that the water had, in a period of just a couple of days gone from blue to greenish-black. I've never seen water like this in a tub. On top of that, a coarse, black material appears to have come out of the jets and settled into areas of the tub. I grabbed one of these chunks and it's quite brittle and breaks apart, leaving a black stain on your hands. I ran the jets, they all worked. The heater is working, the temperature is maintaining itself at 100. I'm flabbergasted because I cannot tell where this came from. I did do a quick chemistry check before I drained it; free chlorine was really high and ph was high as well but other than that it was normal. The really high free chlorine and total chlorine makes me think that maybe the salt cell malfunctioned and super-chlorinated the water? Still, I'm not sure that would produce black chunks and turn the water black. Upon draining the tub, the entire thing is now badly stained. It does wipe off, but will require a sponge or something; just spraying it with water does not bring it off. Nevertheless I'm now afraid to refill it not knowing what this is or where it is coming from. Does anyone have any ideas? Any ideas of what I can use to get all of this staining off? Maybe something I can put in the water to help dissolve it so that I do not have to hand clean every inch of this tub? Pictures attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 Wow. That is something. @castletonia, @CanadianSpaTech, any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castletonia Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 Damn! One observation I have is I looks like streaks coming down from a lot of the jets. How does the ACE cell look and what was the chlorine and pH levels prior to this occurrence? My thinking is that something, maybe jet gaskets, was deteriorated due to really high chlorine and or low pH. All just I guess because I’ve never seen this before. No disrespect, but I do have a hard time believing this occurred over a few days, especially if water chemistry was good unless someone put something they shouldn’t have in the hot tub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 Wow is right. I know nothing of the ACE system. Not used much up here. Having said that I have seen the carbon rods used in Bromine generators crack/disintegrate and disperse similar black "soot" throughout the spa. Cleaning Vinegar (10%) might work. Filling and dropping the ph way down. Then running some Ahh-Some through to clean inside the plumbing, draining and then cleaning again with the vinegar using a soft scrubby. You have got some work ahead to get it back to clean and safe. Personally I would delete the ACE system all together but that's just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncc63725 Posted April 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 4 hours ago, castletonia said: Damn! One observation I have is I looks like streaks coming down from a lot of the jets. How does the ACE cell look and what was the chlorine and pH levels prior to this occurrence? My thinking is that something, maybe jet gaskets, was deteriorated due to really high chlorine and or low pH. All just I guess because I’ve never seen this before. No disrespect, but I do have a hard time believing this occurred over a few days, especially if water chemistry was good unless someone put something they shouldn’t have in the hot tub. The salt cell itself looks fine. And I agree that there are streaks as well as what looks like some rust coming down from the jets. That would lend itself to the theory that the material is actually eaten-up gaskets. As for chlorine and PH I can only speak to the last time I checked it, which would be the last time I used it which would have been the second week of March. At that time chlorine was a little on the low side and PH was normal. That said, I keep the cell set on the lowest setting because it's just me using it and my usage is very occasional, maybe once or twice a month. You are probably onto something with the chlorine because I did check it again before I drained it and it was off the scale on both free and total chlorine. But what I don't get is how that happened given I keep the cell on usage level 1, the lowest. It is a new cell; I just replaced it when I refilled the tub in early March, so I'm wondering if it was/is defective and is ignoring the usage setting. If so, and it was working overtime to chlorinate the tub, I could see how it would get so high it would eat up the gaskets and that would account for the black material and staining. I guess I should have been checking it more frequently than once a month but for 10 years I've never had to deal with it that much. My guess is the new cell is defective and is constantly generating chlorine. Now the question is how am I going to clean all of this melted gasket material off the tub and out of the plumbing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castletonia Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 2 hours ago, ncc63725 said: The salt cell itself looks fine. And I agree that there are streaks as well as what looks like some rust coming down from the jets. That would lend itself to the theory that the material is actually eaten-up gaskets. As for chlorine and PH I can only speak to the last time I checked it, which would be the last time I used it which would have been the second week of March. At that time chlorine was a little on the low side and PH was normal. That said, I keep the cell set on the lowest setting because it's just me using it and my usage is very occasional, maybe once or twice a month. You are probably onto something with the chlorine because I did check it again before I drained it and it was off the scale on both free and total chlorine. But what I don't get is how that happened given I keep the cell on usage level 1, the lowest. It is a new cell; I just replaced it when I refilled the tub in early March, so I'm wondering if it was/is defective and is ignoring the usage setting. If so, and it was working overtime to chlorinate the tub, I could see how it would get so high it would eat up the gaskets and that would account for the black material and staining. I guess I should have been checking it more frequently than once a month but for 10 years I've never had to deal with it that much. My guess is the new cell is defective and is constantly generating chlorine. Now the question is how am I going to clean all of this melted gasket material off the tub and out of the plumbing? I can't speak for a defective cell, but if there was an issue with the system generating too much chlorine, I would think it would have something to do with either the salt controller or the electronics. I would think the cell just does what its told to do. Too late now, but really curious how high the chlorine level really was. You could try a vinegar and water mixture or Off The Wall cleaner by BioGuard. I would definitely be in contact with your dealer about this. Just a heads up, due to Covid-19, Hot Spring tech support is working remotely and response times are a bit slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 23 minutes ago, castletonia said: response times are a bit slow. Like THAT'S anything new! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castletonia Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 3 hours ago, RDspaguy said: Like THAT'S anything new! Maybe its different for me as a Hot Spring / Caldera dealer, but I feel Watkins support is the best I've ever experienced. Granted, Marquis is the only other top tier brand I have personally dealt with, and their support is pretty good, but in my opinion pales to what I get out of Watkins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 That was just an in-general statement. I have worked for one HS authorized service center, but didn't see many there and it was usually nothing that I needed to call for. As an independant, they won't talk to me. Even though the local dealer gave my number to out of warranty customers. So I always had to figure it out myself. No big deal, that's what I do. But it might be why I don't like working on watkins, even though I owned one for 2 years. Loved that Caldera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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