fill a stand alone spa with pool water? SWG for spa?

[atttech-2]

We will soon be buying a 4 person spa from Costco, I am just starting to read about caring for a spa and have few questions..

I keep the pool CYA level around 35-40, TA stays around 60 with a pH near 7.8 if not slightly lower, CH around 600 due to fill water build up.

Does anyone see any problem with filling and/or occasionally refreshing the spa by draining into and refilling with pool water, will the high CH be a problem? If I should not fill with pool water can I still drain into the pool as a way to not waist water?

how often should I drain and refill the spa?

Anyone tried an aftermarket SWG for spa like a Saltron would you recommend it if so what brand. My presumption is that a SWG for a spa might be good to maintain FC day to day while not in use, but I will still need to manually add for every person hour of use is that correct? Would a stenner be a better option for ease of dealing with fluctuations as well as allowing for less filter pump run time?

how many hours per day should I run the filter?

Thanks for any advise.

 

[Jimrahbe]

a,

I am a relatively new Spa owner, so I don't have the answers to all your questions, but one of the first thing I did was to buy a Saltron SWCG.. It has been running for over 6 months and I love it. I bought the "mini", which is basically a power supply that gets plugged into a GFCI outlet and a "cell" that just gets dropped over the side of the spa. There is no plumbing or flow switch like a pool SWCG would have.

It keeps my FC pretty stable and I rarely add any liquid chlorine. The wife and I use the spa almost every evening, but for just a half an hour or less. Also my spa is only 200 gallons... I can't remember the exact cost , but less than $200, so even if it only lasts a couple of years, it will be worth it to me.

You should drain them every 90 days or so... I suspect that the more you use it the more often you will have to drain it.

My spa runs all the time... The water circulates slowly and on mine anyway, there is no running the filter like there is on a pool filter... The "jets" automatically come on for a few minutes about every 12 hours or so... Or of course, anytime I turn them on when using the spa.

Unlike my pool filter, the spa filter is never visually "dirty".. I have two of then and just swap them out every couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the filters will not filter out body oils etc... That is the primary reason you have to drain them so often...

We love ours and I suspect you will love yours also... OK, I love it in the winter months, in the summer we are more like just good friends..

Thanks,

Jim R

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A couple of pics..

Jim R.