Is there any way to set up the hot tub so I only have to work on it once a week? I know I should daily but I can't. Critique my idea.

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ahrenboulis

Member
Feb 20, 2023
11
Boulder, Colorado
Hey All,

I have been reading a bunch and practicing and I feel confident taking care of the hot tub now if I can do it everyday. But the hot tub is at my Airbnb which is its own house. I dont live there, the guests want their privacy, and I have another job. So I cant take care of the hot tub every day or add chlorine everyday. I know someone has figured out how to make it work because I have stayed at Airbnbs with hot tubs and no one has ever come by to work on the hot tub while we were there.

So onto my idea. Every Tuesday morning I can work on the hot tub. I will test everything with my K-2006. I will adjust all levels. Then I will use a 1 inch dichlor puck and leave that for the week. I know that we shouldnt use pucks with covered hot tubs because it will destroy the cover and because the dichlor has stabilizer which builds up and then my CYA is too high. So my plan is to drain and refill some of the water each Tuesday to keep the CYA levels stable. And for the cover I think I just have to eat the cost and replace my cover more often than most people will have to.

What do you think?

Or if someone has a link to instructions on taking care of a hot tub only once a week please send it my way.

Thanks
 
Hot tubs that YOU use at YOUR house need to be maintained frequently - every day if possible.

Hot tubs at a rental, where you have no idea what is going on in there - spilling beer, bathing suits full of detergent, unwashed people, other things - once a week is not going to cut it.

However, if once a week is all you can do, then some sort of dosing system would be my choice. Maybe a puck in a floater, but some sort of peristaltic pump with bleach might be better.
 
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ahrenboulis said:
What do you think?
Click to expand...
I think you need a way to test and sanitize the tub based upon use. It's one thing to get a schedule down for idle times, but the usage demand will vary heavily between renters. Nothing will give you terrible reviews like hot tub rash. We got it a couple of times from the water park and it was strong enough to need antibiotics from the Dr.
 
A swg or possibly even Bromine is probably the best solution.
With a swg you still may run the risk of there being too much or not enough fc depending upon the setting & bather load.
It may take some tinkering. Are you going to ask guests to add anything after use? If not things can go south quickly - like in 1 day, wayyy before Tuesday comes back around.
Alternatively,
There is a swg that is supposed to be “automatic” but some have had issues with it as apparently it has it’s quirks. The company seems to be ok to deal with though according to other members.
www.controlomatic.com

SmarterSpa - ControlOMatic

SmarterSpa is the only saltwater chlorine generator with chlorine detection built into the electrode. It knows when to turn on. When it turns off, it will stay off until chlorine production is needed again based on the chlorine measurement. Eliminate the guesswork. Relax. Buy Now SmarterSpa...
www.controlomatic.com www.controlomatic.com

I haven’t seen dichlor tablets in the usa. I have a feeling you’re referring to 1” Trichlor tablets which can dissolve rapidly in hot water & result in very high fc & acidic water conditions. Not good for people, surfaces, or equipment.
 
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You can not use 1" tabs of trichlor (dichlor is not available in a tablet form). They will dissolve way too quickly and your FC will go through the roof. You also risk crashing pH since they can be quite acidic.

Find a way to convert it to a bromine tub and then you can use brominating tablets. If the tub has an ozone generator, that can be used to activate the bromine and help maintain a decent residual. You should leave detailed test and cleanliness instructions for guest with a cheap Bromine/pH tester or test strips (use individual pH and bromine test strips, not combo strips) so they can at least check the levels before going in. If your rental gets heavily used, you should consider changing out the water more frequently, like monthly, to keep the system sanitary. I would keep logs of EVERYTHING, including test data and purge schedules, so that there is minimal liability exposure on your part.

Honestly, I don't know how AirBnB/VRBO/etc owners sleep, the nightmare images of liability issues would keep me awake all night long ... then again, the idea of being a landlord has never appealed to me so there's that ....
 
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Okay I can have the guests add a tablet of dichlor in after each use.

These are the dichlor tablets im talking about. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0130CVO7W?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details#customerReviews

So are these not slow dissolving tablets? Are they just a tablet form of fast dissolving dichlor?

This hot tub does not have uv or ozone. Its a nordic spas hot tub.

Ill look into swg or bromine but nordic hot tubs say that you cannot use salt in their hot tubs. And ive read people on this forum say that bromine has some studies our recently that its bad for you. But if thats not true I'm open to it. Also can nordic hot tubs be converted to bromine?

I have a few more questions. Please dont crucify me. I know you say that trichlor tablets dissolve quickly but this trichlor tablet says it dissolves over a week. Here is a quote from their page. https://www.amazon.com/LEISURE-TIME...qid=1676935508&sprefix=dichlor,aps,141&sr=8-3
  • SLOW DISSOLVING, LONG LASTING: Sun protected for longer chlorine life, HTH Chlorine Tabs dissolve slowly and last up to one week
 
ahrenboulis said:
I know you say that trichlor tablets dissolve quickly but this trichlor tablet says it dissolves over a week.
Click to expand...
Both links you posted is for granular Dichlor. That is powder and you toss a capfull (etc) in, they not tabs.

The HTH tabs you mentioned would be slow dissolving in pool water, but quick in a 104 degree spa.
 
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Those are dichlor tablets but they are super fast dissolving. We recently had a user on the forum from Canada that switched the maker of his bromine tabs and they accidentally got those dichlor tablets in the same bucket as bromine tablets. When he added his usual amount of bromine to his floater he noted that the next day his sanitizer levels was off the charts and his pH was much lower than expected. When he checked the floater, a few of the tabs were completely gone. Those were the dichlor tabs.

So those chlorine tablets won’t be too useful for maintaining the tub unless someone puts one in every day. But then you’ll have to contend with too much CYA building up in the tub which will reduce the sanitizing chlorine levels below what is considered safe for disease prevention.
 
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ahrenboulis said:
Hey All,

I have been reading a bunch and practicing and I feel confident taking care of the hot tub now if I can do it everyday. But the hot tub is at my Airbnb which is its own house. I dont live there, the guests want their privacy, and I have another job. So I cant take care of the hot tub every day or add chlorine everyday. I know someone has figured out how to make it work because I have stayed at Airbnbs with hot tubs and no one has ever come by to work on the hot tub while we were there.

So onto my idea. Every Tuesday morning I can work on the hot tub. I will test everything with my K-2006. I will adjust all levels. Then I will use a 1 inch dichlor puck and leave that for the week. I know that we shouldnt use pucks with covered hot tubs because it will destroy the cover and because the dichlor has stabilizer which builds up and then my CYA is too high. So my plan is to drain and refill some of the water each Tuesday to keep the CYA levels stable. And for the cover I think I just have to eat the cost and replace my cover more often than most people will have to.

What do you think?

Or if someone has a link to instructions on taking care of a hot tub only once a week please send it my way.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Spas for residential use have enough issues with water quality. Two people in the average spa can use all the sanitizer in the water in 20 minutes. Your spa probably has a capacity of 3-400 gallons of water. That's like having 150 people in the average home swimming pool. Except, these are people who are sitting in hot water sweating out a large amount of perspiration and body oils, not to mention what else they may be adding to the water.
Yours is being used as a commercial spa, likely with heavy use by the guests. Not sure what your insurance is, but you don't want a guest complaining that the rash they and their children got can be traced to your spa that was not maintained as a commercial spa should be.
The liability issue alone should make you re-think how the spa is going to be maintained.
 
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Ohh is sent the wrong link for the second one. You're right. I sent two dichlor ones.



I meant to send this for the trichlor slow dissolve tab. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09R824NVT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title



Are you saying that it will dissolve quickly instead of over a week because of the high heat?



I'm willing to try other options I'm just trying to see what my options are.



So does it sound okay if I'm doing a thorough rebalancing and cleaning every week and then the guests put in one dichlor tab after every time they go into the hot tub? I know the cya will get too high but I can drain and refill it.



I could try and figure out how they could put in bleach every time they go in but idk it feels like guests might be weirded out putting in bleach. Plus they would have to measure it where as dropping in one tab of dichlor is easy. If you guys think I should use bleach for sure I can figure out a solution.

I'm not trying to give the guests too much work.
 
ahrenboulis said:
Are you saying that it will dissolve quickly instead of over a week because of the high heat?
Click to expand...
It appears to be standard Trichlor tabs.

  • COMPATIBLE WITH ALL POOLS: This product is great for all pool types, including saltwater systems; Use 1" tabs for above ground pools, 3" tabs for inground pools; Use in floater, feeder, or skimmer basket
They don't last long in hot tubs.
 
Yes- Those Trichlor tabs will dissolve too quickly in hot water. They are meant for small swimming pools.
Converting to bromine just entails using bromine instead of chlorine for your sanitizer.
There can be chlorine involved but in a bromine tub it isn’t the sanitizer, its just the oxidizer to reactivate the bromide bank.

How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?

Originally Posted by waterbear There is a lot of misinformation on the proper way to use Bromine so I hope this primer is helpful. First, you need to establish a bromide reserve in the water. Bromine tablets can do it by themselves but it can take literally weeks until enough dissolves. Some...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

As soon as you add bromide to a chlorine tub/pool it becomes a bromine tub/pool. The only way to go back to using solely chlorine is to replace the water. The old saying is “once a bromine pool/tub always a bromine pool/tub”.
In a spa this isn’t a big deal because regular purge, drain, & refills are part of maintaining the spa anyway. There are lots of people who alternate between chlorine & bromine use depending upon their upcoming situation.
The most recent nordic manual states only to use granular dichlor & prohibits floaters of any kind, especially Trichlor, as well as bromine, liquid chlorine, or a swg.
It also doesn’t mention cya anywhere.
You will have to decide which road you want to take but I can promise that Trichlor will absolutely cause problems. There are many members here that use the dichlor then bleach/ dichlor then swg method
& the bromine method properly as outlined in the two stickies that are pinned to the top of this subforum that don’t experience any issues.
It is also well known here that some manufacturer’s recommendations can be outright bad advice, for instance my manual (by one of the largest hot tub manufacturers) says to pour dichlor & all chemicals directly into the filter compartment! Which is a huge no no.
As I said above, you will need to pick your poison, a sanitized tub & happy guests or follow everything the book says. If you go the dichlor only route or the dichlor then bleach method in your situation you will need to depend on your guests to add it or you’ll need to check it daily, once a week dosing if the tub is being used just won’t work. You’ll also likely need to drain & refill after each guest.
 
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Question - do you have a management company for your AirBnB or a caretaker/cleaner that resets the place after every guest? I know a few peeps from church that do the AirBnB thing and they pay for a management company to handle the day to day needs of the rental. I’m sure those management companies make a nice profit but if you have one they can probably send someone to do a quick dose of the tub.
 
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Alright thanks for all the help. I will stop the tabs and probably ask the guests to drop in a dichlor tab every time they use the hot tub. Or some amount of bleach.


So with bromine i can work on the hot tub less frequently?

I do have a management company. I just take care of the hot tub. I'm considering getting a spa company to come take care of the hot tub. But I don't understand what they will do since they only come once a week. Do they just switch it to bromine too?
 
ahrenboulis said:
The part that I'm confused about is I've stayed at lots of Airbnbs with hot tubs. What are those owners doing?
Click to expand...
Most are likely bromine & have ozone as @JoyfulNoise outlined in post #6.
It still is not a perfect solution but it’s the one that is the least likely to allow the tub to be grossly under sanitized when in use & prevent too high of sanitizer levels when not in use.
 

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