Thoughts on Cleanwater Blue for hot tub?

[pabeader]

I have used this product for 3 years in a hot tub that I rehabbed. It needed a new outer frame and siding. Pumps were good and even the ozone gen worked.

At the time I wasn't TFP so I was against chlorine smell. Didn't know anything back then.

I use Cleanwater Blue and non-oxi shock. pH up, pH down. That's it. Plus the ozone of course. I haven't changed the water in all this time. Not once. Never had 'itch'. No rashes. Not even on fair skinned redhead granddaughter.
Since we have moved from that house and left the tub behind, I've had my son check on it. He says it's still doing fine and has used it a time a two, after mowing the lawn. He has kept up the dosing and cleaning the filter. He was able to replace a bad control board and heater so I figure he's earned the usage.

I'm just wondering what the general consensus is on this product and is my experience typical?

 

[chem geek]

Cleanwater Blue is copper ions so as shown in the table in this post it is not just slow to kill pathogens but does not kill fecal bacteria. Hot tub itch/rash is mostly from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and some phenotypes are not killed by copper. I put together a list in this post on another forum of all the hot tub itch/rash/lung incidents that were reported and you'll note that one of them (there may be more than one since some reports weren't specific about the system used) was using the Cleanwater Blue system as reported in this thread. However, I do not believe an ozonator was used in that spa.

I suspect that you are running the ozonator long enough that it puts enough ozone in the bulk water area to prevent biofilm formation on some spa surfaces, but that might also degrade the hot tub cover faster. The ozonator would also oxidize bather waste (the non-chlorine shock does some as well) so with low to moderate bather loads it could keep up with that. The copper may help some inhibiting some bacteria but I think the ozone is helping more. Non-chlorine shock does slowly kill bacteria, but not fast enough for it to be called a disinfectant on its own.

If you wanted to not use chlorine but still have a fast-acting disinfectant in the water, then using Nature² with its silver ions and non-chlorine shock (MPS) would be better and would still work well with the ozonator. This is EPA-approved since the combination of silver (not copper) ions with non-chlorine shock results in more powerful oxidizers that disinfect (sulfate radicals and divalent silver ions as described in this post). Note that this is ONLY EPA-approved for spas, not for pools, because a hot water temperature is required for the silver/MPS combination to be effective as a disinfectant.

 

[pabeader]

I appreciate the input ChemGeek! If we decide to move it here I'll look into a better/different system.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

At my house the kids like to bounce back and forth between the stand alone hot tub (when up and running) and the pool. I'd be concerned about having the copper in the pool and could the kids be transferring it unwanted in to the pool in enough quantity over time to cause me grief?

 

[tim5055]

At my house the kids like to bounce back and forth between the stand alone hot tub (when up and running) and the pool. I'd be concerned about having the copper in the pool and could the kids be transferring it unwanted in to the pool in enough quantity over time to cause me grief?

this is exactly why I treat my spa with CYA & chlorine. This way I don't feel bad every 3 or 4 months because I just drain the spa into the pool, then refill the spa.