New Hotsprings Limelight Pulse!! Salt, Chlorine, Bromine, or Ozone, Frog @ ease?!?!?! Can't decide!!

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heathjudeh

heathjudeh

Member
Mar 2, 2020
15
Atlanta
Hi All,

I'm having paralysis by analysis trying to decide on what sanitizing system to have installed on my new tub!

There are so many opinions!

I'm leaning towards the Freshwater Salt System but have some concerns:

1) It's proprietary so the cartridge refills look like they can become expensive
2) Many people are reporting that their cartridges aren't lasting the expected 4 months and having to replace monthly in some cases with high bather load
3) Sounds like many are still having to manually add chlorine
4) it's an additional $500 option - Also! Does it use a salt cell that needs to be replaced? How much is the cell and how often do the go bad?

Chlorine Concerns (I know this is the cheapest):

1) If I go away for vacation, how do I keep water balanced so I don't have a mess when I come home?
2) All my friends tubs are salt so I haven't sat in a chlorine tub in quite a while, concerned with the smell
3) More frequent drain/fill then salt, at least that's what they say?

Ozonator and Bromine option - I have no idea what these do or if either are a good option for me.

Details to consider:

1) Moderate to heavy usage (Wife and I + 2 young children, all will be bathed and no detergent in suits) Ocasionally have another couple in with us
2) 4-5 week-long trips taken per year where it will be unmonitored
3) I have a salt pool so familiar with keeping one

I have also considered just going with the free/included Frog @ Ease system, only using its proprietary cartridges when we're away and unable to monitor levels, and manually maintaining chemicals when we're home.

I'm lost and need to make a decision pronto!

Thank you in advance for any feedback!!
 
Hey H&J !!! Once you’re on TFPC, you have to throw out everything your friends do because you know that the ‘chlorine smell’ comes from CCs which is the chlorine breaking down contaminates, most likely due to improper care. The more effort you use to think about it, the less likely you are to want to use their pool/tub.

Literally treat the spa like a tiny version of your pool and it won’t smell either.
 
heathjudeh said:
Hi All,

I'm having paralysis by analysis trying to decide on what sanitizing system to have installed on my new tub!

There are so many opinions!

I'm leaning towards the Freshwater Salt System but have some concerns:

1) It's proprietary so the cartridge refills look like they can become expensive
2) Many people are reporting that their cartridges aren't lasting the expected 4 months and having to replace monthly in some cases with high bather load
3) Sounds like many are still having to manually add chlorine
4) it's an additional $500 option - Also! Does it use a salt cell that needs to be replaced? How much is the cell and how often do the go bad?

Chlorine Concerns (I know this is the cheapest):

1) If I go away for vacation, how do I keep water balanced so I don't have a mess when I come home?
2) All my friends tubs are salt so I haven't sat in a chlorine tub in quite a while, concerned with the smell
3) More frequent drain/fill then salt, at least that's what they say?

Ozonator and Bromine option - I have no idea what these do or if either are a good option for me.

Details to consider:

1) Moderate to heavy usage (Wife and I + 2 young children, all will be bathed and no detergent in suits) Ocasionally have another couple in with us
2) 4-5 week-long trips taken per year where it will be unmonitored
3) I have a salt pool so familiar with keeping one

I have also considered just going with the free/included Frog @ Ease system, only using its proprietary cartridges when we're away and unable to monitor levels, and manually maintaining chemicals when we're home.

I'm lost and need to make a decision pronto!

Thank you in advance for any feedback!!
Click to expand...

I hated my FreshWater salt system at first, until I flushed my tub with Ahhsome. I burnt up 2 cartridges in 3 months, because i was running the system on 100% output, and still supplementing with bleach. I thought the system was broken, but finally figured out my tub was just nasty. I found out about ahhsome, and flushed the tub and got all the crazy biofilm out of the brand new tub. After that, my next cartridge lasted about 7 months( instead of the 4 they claim ), and i was running it on level 2-4 with no supplemental bleach. I would recommend that the very first thing you do with your new tub is flush it with AhhSome, so you aren't fighting against dirty plumbing( on top of the high bather load you'll have the first few months ).

In the hot of the summer my usage is very little, so I put the system on level 2( of 10 ), and it stays absolutely perfect. I might add a bit of muriatic acid every few weeks to drop the ph back down, but other than that it is so nice to not have to touch the water.
 
I have the limelight flash. The salt system is perfect for what you are explaining. It’s a hot tub so yes you will need to supplement with chlorine because sanitation is just different than a regular pool especially with high usage. The salt system will come in handy when you go away on those long vacations and also help keep the water less harsh and less of a chlorine smell. You will love the limelight model.
 
Roaddogmm said:
I hated my FreshWater salt system at first, until I flushed my tub with Ahhsome. I burnt up 2 cartridges in 3 months, because i was running the system on 100% output, and still supplementing with bleach. I thought the system was broken, but finally figured out my tub was just nasty. I found out about ahhsome, and flushed the tub and got all the crazy biofilm out of the brand new tub. After that, my next cartridge lasted about 7 months( instead of the 4 they claim ), and i was running it on level 2-4 with no supplemental bleach. I would recommend that the very first thing you do with your new tub is flush it with AhhSome, so you aren't fighting against dirty plumbing( on top of the high bather load you'll have the first few months ).

In the hot of the summer my usage is very little, so I put the system on level 2( of 10 ), and it stays absolutely perfect. I might add a bit of muriatic acid every few weeks to drop the ph back down, but other than that it is so nice to not have to touch the water.
Click to expand...

Liz315 said:
I have the limelight flash. The salt system is perfect for what you are explaining. It’s a hot tub so yes you will need to supplement with chlorine because sanitation is just different than a regular pool especially with high usage. The salt system will come in handy when you go away on those long vacations and also help keep the water less harsh and less of a chlorine smell. You will love the limelight model.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for all of the feedback. Sounds like salt cartridge is the way to go for me. Hate being holed into proprietary cartridges but if I can extend the life to 4+ months by flushing the tub well at startup with Ahhsome and then maintaining chemicals and keeping phosphates under control.
 
No problem, not a fan of the cartridges being propriatary, but hoping they keep lasting. I don't have a lot of data to share, but I got 7 monhts on the previous one, and I am about 6 months into the current cartridge, and it is going strong.

One note, the tell tale that the cartridge is wearing out is that it starts reading low on salt. If it does that, don't add more salt unless you measure and need it. I have did an acid dip on the previous one when that started, and it extended it a bit. I haven't yet did one on the current cartridge, but probably will give it a try when the time comes.
 
Roaddogmm said:
No problem, not a fan of the cartridges being propriatary, but hoping they keep lasting. I don't have a lot of data to share, but I got 7 monhts on the previous one, and I am about 6 months into the current cartridge, and it is going strong.

One note, the tell tale that the cartridge is wearing out is that it starts reading low on salt. If it does that, don't add more salt unless you measure and need it. I have did an acid dip on the previous one when that started, and it extended it a bit. I haven't yet did one on the current cartridge, but probably will give it a try when the time comes.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I'm thinking. When it starts to indicate low, yank the cartridge, treat with Muriatic acid to clean and replace. Should extend the life considerably so long as the water is balanced correctly. All of the waste should be cleaned right off.

May even make sense to just do it monthly and stay ahead of it...
 
heathjudeh said:
This is exactly what I'm thinking. When it starts to indicate low, yank the cartridge, treat with Muriatic acid to clean and replace. Should extend the life considerably so long as the water is balanced correctly. All of the waste should be cleaned right off.

May even make sense to just do it monthly and stay ahead of it...
Click to expand...

Yeah that is an option I considered, but wasn't sure if that might be hard on the cell or not. Couple more thoughts in case they help you.

I have really soft water at my house, which also helps this system. For some reason( I'm not sure why ), they want Calcium hardness below 75, which is lower than typical. If you are in a hard water area they have water softener system to use. If your water is really hard, that could be something you have to deal with.

Last thing I can think of, in a sense i also follow the dichlor/bleach method( not quite, but sorta ). I got some powder CYA at home depot, so I just measure out enough to get my CYA to 30 and add it upon fill, and turn on the salt system when I change water. Before, I was adding CYA via dichlor until my CYA got to 30, and then turning on the salt system. That is fine too, it was just a lot more effort, as it was often around a week process. I do keep bleach on hand in case I have a party or something, or if I want to shock the system for some reason.
 
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What do the cartages do on a hot tub salt system? Salt in water, and a generation cell. What am I missing? What actually gets consumed?

I have ozone and liquid chlorine. I sometimes wish I had salt, just because my salt pool is so easy. But the liquid is really no problem (and if nobody is in the tub for a week, it holds just fine). Even if I had salt, I would still have to add acid every so often anyway.
 
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