Original > Hot Tub Forum
Questions for Hot Spring Freshwater (salt) Owners
bud16415:
There is a huge difference in treating after a heavy bather load the next morning and doing it immediately after usage. Having 8 hours or so for the sanitizer not keeping up makes the dosage required much higher to get it back in line.
One of the nice things about doing the dichlor/liquid bleach (Clorox) method is that you do it reactive to your usage. With heavy usage say 4 people in the tub for an hour I now have a feel for how much sanitizers to use. If I add dichlor I add about a tablespoon if the CYA is over 50 I add 1/3 cup of bleach. If the bather load was super high or I had a lot of people in it that didn’t shower first I might even double that always running the clean cycle. I put it in go in get dried off and changed and then the last step is when the clean cycle stops clean the tub. After a heavy use I will check the next morning and see what is left of the sanitizer I added and adjust.
If I was running my inline system or had a salt tub I would still have to add something for the imbalance based on load.
I really think the trick is getting it in as soon as you can after the usage and not letting stuff grow in there. Salt to chlorine generation is steady but doesn’t give you the punch when you need it most if it was set high enough for the peaks then it would be too high most of the time.
Johnrb3:
I have the freshwater salt system too and have been having issues with the chlorine readings. But, the store told me that I’m not going to see chlorine readings using the regular test strips that come with the hot tubs. That the freshwater salt uses a chlorine type that won’t register with the strips. I need to follow up with them still to figure out how I’m supposed to test the chlorine then, but according to them you can’t with the strips. So for now I’ve been going off that there is chlorine there even though I can’t tell. The only way I get a chlorine level to show on the strips is if I’ve shocked it with chlorine powder. (Didn’t know about the liquid bleach). Anyway I just thought I’d put that bit of information out into the universe. :) Does that sound familiar to anyone else as to why the readings aren’t showing on the test strips?
castletonia:
I’m curious what your dealer is talking about. I can test my floor models with Freshwater test strips, Aquachek test strips, a Taylor test kit and my BioGuard spinlab. If there is chlorine it will read.
Johnrb3:
Castletonia, so even the chlorine generated by the salt system should show up as a reading on the test strips?
I knew that sounded fishy. I never have a chlorine reading and thought something was wrong with my brand new tub, but they said it was normal to not have a reading.
castletonia:
Correct. Chlorine is chlorine, regardless of how you create it. It is possible that your output setting is doing just enough to keep the hot tub clean but not enough to generate a residual chlorine level. The fact that you are using the silver ion means you can have a low chlorine level (0.5 - 1.0 ppm). I would have your dealer check the phosphate levels. If you have high phosphates they will consume the chlorine rapidly and may prevent you from getting a reading.
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