Can you refill the cartridges with regular 1 inch tablets? I saw a video about doing this, but some people in the comments are saying this will destroy the hot tub. Thoughts?
Frog @ease Smartchlor inline system
- Thread starter rchesani
- Start date
Hey there neighbors! Welcome! As a rule here at TFP we avoid "Frog" products like the plague due to the metals they add into your pool/spa.
Have you considered using one of the small spa sized salt water chlorinators? This is the one I have:
I have never messed with pucks since my pool and hot tub are both salt system sanitized, but personally I wouldn't feel safe altering equipment that way. Chlorine pucks aren't entirely user friendly, and should not be mixed with other chemicals.
Maddie
(I see your name....are you Italian?? Do you belong to the local Italian-American club??)
Have you considered using one of the small spa sized salt water chlorinators? This is the one I have:
I have never messed with pucks since my pool and hot tub are both salt system sanitized, but personally I wouldn't feel safe altering equipment that way. Chlorine pucks aren't entirely user friendly, and should not be mixed with other chemicals.
Maddie
(I see your name....are you Italian?? Do you belong to the local Italian-American club??)
Hi, neighbor! We purchased our hot tub and it came with the Frog system. It does not work like the dealer stated
We have had our tub for one year and have already drained it 5+ times. The cartridges are supposed to last for 3-4 weeks and I find they last 2-2.5 weeks. We have a salt system swimming pool and never have any issues.
I just found this site today and plan to educate myself as much as possible.
My husband’s father was raised in an orphanage in Virginia after losing his parents to the Spanish Flu pandemic so we’re not sure of his Italian heritage other than the name.
Thank you for your response,
Roxanne
We have had our tub for one year and have already drained it 5+ times. The cartridges are supposed to last for 3-4 weeks and I find they last 2-2.5 weeks. We have a salt system swimming pool and never have any issues.I just found this site today and plan to educate myself as much as possible.
My husband’s father was raised in an orphanage in Virginia after losing his parents to the Spanish Flu pandemic so we’re not sure of his Italian heritage other than the name.
Thank you for your response,
Roxanne
Keep in mind that draining/refilling a hot tub 5x in a year is a tad more often than most who do it about every 3-4 months assuming that its used fairly frequently. That smaller quantity of water gets funky faster than the larger pool water.
Maddie
Maddie
The stuff that the Frog system uses is not the same a DiChlor tabs.
Having said that, the stuff the Frog system uses is not too swift. It is basically the same thing as those bleach tabs that your hang or put in your toilet tank. It is a different form of chlorine. They do not work great for a number of reasons. They are also quite expensive.
Tabs are really not good in a hot tub. They dissolve too fast and tend to over chlorinate the water. Tabs also add stabilizer (CYA) to the water, which you do want, up to a point. Stabilizer is a double edged sword type of thing. It helps "protect" the chlorine so it does not dissipate too quickly, but it also makes it less effective so you need more ppm to keep the water sanitary. Too little CYA and your chlorine will deplete quickly, too much and you will need to have large amounts of chlorine in the water to keep things clean.
What many people here do is referred to as the "DiChlor then bleach" method. They use DiChlor granules (which are the same thing chemically as tabs - but you are able to control the dose) to add chlorine and CYA until they get to a point where the CYA is where they want it (30 ppm or so). They then use bleach after that point to add chlorine as necessary - or some people use a salt water chlorinator as Maggie does, which is the same thing as adding bleach, you are just making it with salt water and electricity as opposed to getting it from a jug.
Having said that, the stuff the Frog system uses is not too swift. It is basically the same thing as those bleach tabs that your hang or put in your toilet tank. It is a different form of chlorine. They do not work great for a number of reasons. They are also quite expensive.
Tabs are really not good in a hot tub. They dissolve too fast and tend to over chlorinate the water. Tabs also add stabilizer (CYA) to the water, which you do want, up to a point. Stabilizer is a double edged sword type of thing. It helps "protect" the chlorine so it does not dissipate too quickly, but it also makes it less effective so you need more ppm to keep the water sanitary. Too little CYA and your chlorine will deplete quickly, too much and you will need to have large amounts of chlorine in the water to keep things clean.
What many people here do is referred to as the "DiChlor then bleach" method. They use DiChlor granules (which are the same thing chemically as tabs - but you are able to control the dose) to add chlorine and CYA until they get to a point where the CYA is where they want it (30 ppm or so). They then use bleach after that point to add chlorine as necessary - or some people use a salt water chlorinator as Maggie does, which is the same thing as adding bleach, you are just making it with salt water and electricity as opposed to getting it from a jug.
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