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Onzen And Tub Maintenance Update


BMR

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I have detailed several problems with my Arctic Spa tub that I have been having, but may be finally on the road to a solution. I am finally getting Bromine in the tub and have the water clear. I have delayed posting about this, because I am trying to get this thing down to a rythm that works. I think that the tech must have did something that caused the onzen to work, although he says it was fine.

The one odd thing about this time is that I did everything right, ie. fresh fill, put in the salt, set the cp and fc correctly and no bromine at all in two days. Adding some refresh is what then caused it to work. I am at a loss in this matter, as I understand what refresh does, but this should have not been necessary initially, as a fresh fill with clean untouched water, proper salt, and running for two days should have produced the bromine. Any thoughts in this regard ??? I have found too, that I have to add about a cap of refresh and start a boost cycle everytime that I use it, to get the water to register a fair amount of bromine the next day, although this could be related to too low a salt level, which I have now corrected. I also have some questions that I have detailed below. When I get this all sorted out, I am going to write a guide to this whole process for new users and ongoing users as well.

Questions:

1) I get tons of bubbles from the onzen when in a filter cycle, but if not in one, no one big bubble after 10 secs. Spa people say onzen is off if not filtering thus there should be no big bubble. Do you have an explanation on that one ? ( Nigel )

2) My water is very clear when I get in. If I turn on the jets, it goes extremely cloudy and you cannot see through it. When you turn off the jets, it stays cloudy for about 2 - 5 min and slowly settles down to clear again. Is this the same for other people? Is it the salt that is in the water being churned up ?

3) Exactly how much salt did you add ( cup fulls on a fresh fill ? ) I added two cups to my 7 ft tub, but have now added about 3/4 more a cup since dealer says using a test strip that my level is 1500 ppm.

4) When you first open the spa, is there a smell ( not bad, not chlorine, but still a bit of a chemical smell )?

Thank you,

BMR

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BMR, I've read some of your other posts and I sure hope you get this worked out. I know you spent a lot of money and it just seems like Arctic needs to take a serious look at their customer education program. When they are pushing this optional Onzen system there needs to be an in-store training session. I don't know how much they charge, but I'm sure it is a premium priced option and it just doesn't sound like you or the other guy who was having problems are getting premium service. I think the dealers don't really understand it and then they kind of run and hide after the sale and read instructions from the trouble shooting guide. I really liked what I read about the Arctic product, but they don't have a dealer in the Atlanta area (maybe a good thing). We'll be buying a second tub for our mountain house and I have to choose something that can be left alone for a couple of weeks.

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BMR, I've read some of your other posts and I sure hope you get this worked out. I know you spent a lot of money and it just seems like Arctic needs to take a serious look at their customer education program. When they are pushing this optional Onzen system there needs to be an in-store training session. I don't know how much they charge, but I'm sure it is a premium priced option and it just doesn't sound like you or the other guy who was having problems are getting premium service. I think the dealers don't really understand it and then they kind of run and hide after the sale and read instructions from the trouble shooting guide. I really liked what I read about the Arctic product, but they don't have a dealer in the Atlanta area (maybe a good thing). We'll be buying a second tub for our mountain house and I have to choose something that can be left alone for a couple of weeks.

The one thing I have to say in fairness to Arctic Spa, is that the spa clearly is heads and tails above others that I have seen and now that I am able to use it, sitting in it is fantastic and I can see myself using it everday. The tub itself feels quality and I hope for many years of use. I am just hoping to now get myself into a good routine of keeping the tub clean and clear with no difficulties.

BMR

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Hey BMR,

2 cups of salt is not enough salt... did you mean 2 kgs? For my Yukon the minimun is 3.3kgs of salt, roughly half the bucket that is provided. The water will be cloudly after the salt is added initially and then it clears up in a day or two after filtration. The cloudiness you are mentioning sounds like it's just after you run the jets with the air on which like you said clears up after it settles a bit.

When you add Refresh you will get a small bromine reading if you test shortly afterwards. I personally had a small reading of bromine once but my Onzen wasn't working at that time so the reading came from the Refresh. My issue was that the electrical wires to the Onzen system were never hooked up.

I'm also curios about the smell, I think I've read that when you open the tub that you will get a whiff of ozone. The Onzen system is a 2 part system from my understanding, 1 piece of it is a ozone generating system and the other is a bromine generating system. I've also heard though that if you do have a chemical smell that you haven't added enough Refresh to counter act the byproducts of the bad things killed off from the bromine. Can anyone clarify that Onzen systems should have a chemical smell and if they do what should be done to fix it?

I'm no expert, I've had my tub since October 08 but my best guess is that you still have a lot more salt to add, at your current salt levels no bromine will be generated by your Onzen system. Check out Dust's post on his summary of Onzen, he did an excellent job for new Onzen owners. Onzen Summary by Dust

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seems like Arctic needs to take a serious look at their customer education program. When they are pushing this optional Onzen system there needs to be an in-store training session.

Arctic offers a week-long factory training session for technicians. Dealers are not allowed to install Onzen as a retrofit until they have taken the Onzencourse. Factory training certificates should be on display in the store or service manager's office.

The "in-store training session" is commonly called "spa school" or "water care seminar" and most if not all dealers offer it. The session should cover Onzen as well as regular water care. It's customary to offer them on a regular basis (once a week, once a month depending on the level of sales) so call your dealer and sign up for the next available session.

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