Possible to disable ozone on tiger river Sumatran?

[Swampwoman]

Greetings. My current, ancient ('95) jacuzzi echo sport may be on its last legs after I "fixed" a leak on the weekend -- clearly it did not like the attention and the ham-fisted mucking about, because now I'm getting FLO and the pump won't run. If its just a relay I somehow gummed up with some blind silicon slathering or the pressure switch, I will have the repair guy fix it.

However, someone up the road has a newish tiger river Sumatran that is the same small footprint, and I'm sorely tempted to just buy it instead.

But it comes with the ozone-silver system, and I'm not sure I trust or want to muck with same. I use chlorine b/c I react to bromine. I soak daily, so daily maintenance is not an issue.

If I buy the Sumatran, will the ozone eat the chlorine? My fill well water is metal laden, so I use sequestrant...would that mess with the silver?

Alternately, might I like the results of ozone-silver? I'm pretty attached to very clean water and am wholly BBB with the pool. So im resistant to a mfg's "system" that includes an shopping list of must have/do when I'm not sure of how it works.

Thanks in advance for any contributions

 

[JVTrain]

You'll have to use chlorine as normal even with the ozone. Depending on the type and functionality of the ozone system, the advantage it will have is to remove chloramines after a soak more quickly than a system without ozone. If you run the ozonator during and for an hour or more after your soaks, it will help consume chloramines quicker. If you run the ozonator all the time, it can consume more of your chlorine than without. Some systems allow you to manually enable/disable the ozonator, but not many. Most will run whenever your pump is running. If you (can) set your filter run cycle for the day to coincide with your normal soak times and only have the pump run otherwise to maintain temperature, the ozonator can actually be helpful in a spa.

I'm not sure what "ozone-silver" means but the ozone part can be a benefit in the spa. The silver part... not really. Use the ozone generator, don't replace the silver cartridges or remove if you can without disrupting circulation. You could also just manually disconnect the power to the ozone accessory inside the spa cabinet if you don't want to use it.

EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION: The best explanation I've seen on ozone function, effects on chlorine demand is in this post by chem geek: Ozone Option
Exerpt: When people use the spa every day, then an ozonator typically cuts the chlorine demand in half since the ozone does effectively oxidize much of the bather waste in this situation. However, if the spa is less frequently used, such as once or twice a week, then the ozonator increases the chlorine demand causing a drop of 50% of FC per day instead of the more usual 25% per day with no ozonator. This has been shown over and over again in spas mostly reported at poolspaforum.

 

[Swampwoman]

Thanks! I'll go read up on ozone in your link so I'm ready for these newfangled hot tubs in the nearing future

As it turns out, I think I'm going to pass on the Tiger River Sumantran. It was in excellent shape at an awesome price, but the cover was too waterlogged to lift, and it was located on a second-story deck. By the time I was finished with the crane estimate I decided to instead fix old faithful, try to get through he winter, and perhaps just buy a similar hot spring new once the jacuzzi retires beyond repair. She only needed a capacitor and some seals this time...touch wood