Aroma Therapy

[TinyBubbles]

Hi biggz, long time no post. I hate to hijack your thread, but how many gallons is your spa and how much bleach do you put in it after a soak?

[biggz]

Happy holidays Tiny, My tub is 300 gallons and I use liquid chlorine 10 - 13% @ 2-3 oz per soak. Have you tried the calgon yet? It's a lot more cost effective than the liquid stuff IMO.

[B0Darc]

It occurred to me that many folks are switching to unscented bleach as a chlorinator for their spa. Mixed with the aromatherapy question is seemed obvious that *perhaps* using the scented bleach would be possible. I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THIS. I also went online and found the answer on Clorox's web site <click me> turns out they are not recommending it either!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`quote~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q. Do Clorox® Bleach Citrus Blend, Mountain Fresh and Fresh Meadow® and Clorox® Splash-less Liquid Gel bleaches disinfect?

A. Our fragranced and Splash-less Clorox® Bleaches are not registered disinfectants. If you need a registered disinfectant, you can purchase Clorox® Regular-Bleach at almost any store that sells laundry products. Make sure that "Disinfects" or "Kills germs" appears on the label.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`end quote~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...still curious, but wary of any fragrance that can sit in a bottle of pure clorox and survive (!!?!!) since my fragrances disappear as soon as I add chlorine. Where's that chem geek when you need him?

[chem geek]

Don't be too worried about the statement from Clorox. Part of the reason that the fragrant bleaches are not registered disinfectants is that it costs a lot of money to do the studies to prove efficacy of disinfection with the EPA. In fact, this is why Clorox only registered their Regular Bleach for use in pools, not spas. It's not that it won't work in spas -- chlorine is chlorine -- but rather doing the tests is expensive and clearly the volume of bleach that could be used in pools is far higher than what would be used in spas so economically it makes more sense to only register for one product and only for pools. Legally, Clorox has to say what they are saying -- that only certain products are registered as disinfectants for specific uses.

As for the fragrant bleaches themselves, I suspect that they are lower in concentration of chlorine than Regular Bleach and it is possible that the fragrance that they use which obviously is designed to withstand breakdown from chlorine may interfere with its disinfection capabilities -- but that's a "may". This link shows the MSDS for the Clorox scented bleaches where the chlorine concentration is "< 3%" so it's going to take some experimentation to figure out the proper dosing. Also, I have no idea if continued use with the fragrance would lead to any side effects in terms of chemical remnants -- my guess is no since the fragrance probably mostly outgasses before getting broken down.

By the way, I'm not so sure the fragrance is breaking down that quickly due to the chlorine. I suspect it is simply getting outgassed quickly due to the higher temperature and aeration in the spa.

Richard

[B0Darc]

Interesting... I may experiment. My skin is very sensitive to different detergents/fragrances. I have to think the scents are *somewhat* safe as they are made to wash baby diapers in...of course you're supposedly rinsing then totally in the washer, but still some of the scent remains in the article of clothing/bedding/whatever that is going next to skin.

Chem geek, if I remember correctly full strength bleach is 6%? Pool Chlorine is 12-13%? and if I read correctly the scented bleach is half strength (3%)? haha I just looked at the scents again and the choices aren't too great... I can smell like pinesol, flowers, or springtime fresh ...awesome!

Bo "still waiting for Clorox to make a Rosemary and Eucalyptus scented bleach" Darc

[chem geek]

Yes, Clorox Regular and off-brand Ultra bleaches are 6%. Chlorinating liquid is usually around 10% or 12.5%. The scented bleaches just say "< 3%" so they could be weaker than even 3%.

[B0Darc]

I may start a new thread in the chemistry forum but to close out this spiraling-out-of-control thing I created re: scented bleach... well I tried it. I was in the grocery looking at the bleaches and saw that Clorox makes a Lavender bleach! That should be good... turns out no. It may do something for laundry but it does zero for your spa experience. Chem geek mentioned the scent may be durable enough to survive being an ingredient in pure bleach, but that it would likely off-gas once added to the spa. It did exactly that... it didn't last 10 seconds!

It was time to shock my spa so I added quite a bit... estimating it to be half strength (does NOT say it is a disinfectant on the label per previous posting here). Plus I was experimenting with it's ability to make my spa all lavendery. Didn't work. Didn't cause any problems, it's just bleach. It's just more expensive because its not full strength only 3% not 6% like regular Clorox or no-name Ultra-bleach.

Ba humbug! Well it's not like it was *made* to scent your spa... So I added like a pint of the stuff (3 oz of 6% daily = 6 oz of 3% X 3[shock] = 18 oz of 3% lavender clorox) yesterday early as a weekly shock. Left the cover off for an hour. Tested a couple times with the hand-wiff test ...smelled lots of chlorine and no lavender. Sniffed the wifey's neck this AM after getting out... no lavender *sigh*

Scented bleach for spa aromatherapy? I'm a dork!

[chem geek]

B0Darc,

You're no dork; you're an experimenter! It was certainly worth a shot to see what happens. At least now no one else needs to try using scented bleach in their spa.

Richard