New Intex PureSpa with SWCG question

[kraftchick]

I've read through most of the previous threads on spa water care, but not finding the exact answer I'm looking for, hoping someone can comment from experience. I have a new Intex PureSpa with built in SWCG, that I'm working on developing the right water care regimen for. This model has the built in SWCG for sanitation and I have the salt level correct at 3000ppm per recommendation. I've ran the SWCG for 8 hrs overnight the last 2 nights to see what the net effect of FC was each morning. The first night/morning there was zero by 10:00am (spa is under a covered porch and covered the whole time, so zero sunlight hitting water). This morning (after another round of 8hr sanitation cycle (SWCG) I tested around 1.5 FC and .5 CC (with TF100 testkit it took 3 drops to go to clear, and testing for CC did put water back slightly pink, but cleared with 1 drop). So, what I think is going on is this......with initial setup and fill of the spa this past Sunday, the only sanitation has been the two overnight 8 hour cycles of the SWCG Tuesday night and last night. I didn't initially treat with any sort of spa shock or anything.....only thing added to the water at this point was a little bit of TA increaser to get the TA up from zero. I am working toward figuring out what cycle and frequency is needed with the built in SWCG, but what I'm looking for immediately is the best way to add chlorine manually to get FC up to safe use level, which I understand is 2-4ppm FC. I've read the thread and articles about not using CYA in spa, as it hampers the effectiveness of chlorine to do it's job, and how that's much different in spas than pools. What I don't know, is which form of chlorine is best for quick spa treatments, but still safe. Thought I had read somewhere that said not to use bleach in spas??? Suggestions? I realize I'm not providing a full set of test numbers, but I can get that if it'll help.

 

[cowboycasey]

do you have dry CYA? if so add enough to bring to 30 CYA and add enough bleach for 5 FC...

Run the spa and see if it keeps the 5 fc from there on.. You may have to add some bleach after a soak to get it back to 5 FC and then let the SWG and ozone kill everything

 

[kraftchick]

Here's numbers I just took (note FC has dropped from 1.5 at 7:30am to 1.0 at 10:00am...done with TF100 drop test).

pH 8.0
FC 1
CC .5 (don't know if . numbers are valid, but with reagent it did turn back slightly pink, 1 drop to go back to clear)
TA 50
CH 25
Water temp 100

 

[kraftchick]

do you have dry CYA? if so add enough to bring to 30 CYA and add enough bleach for 5 FC...

Run the spa and see if it keeps the 5 fc from there on.. You may have to add some bleach after a soak to get it back to 5 FC and then let the SWG and ozone kill everything

So that hits two points I'm looking for opinions on....1) should CYA be in a spa 2)Is bleach safe to use for quick FC increase in a spa (in the right quantity of course)?

 

[cowboycasey]

yes to both, I ran my hot tub that way for years, about 5 years

 

[cthruit]

I've read through most of the previous threads on spa water care, but not finding the exact answer I'm looking for, hoping someone can comment from experience. I have a new Intex PureSpa with built in SWCG, that I'm working on developing the right water care regimen for. This model has the built in SWCG for sanitation and I have the salt level correct at 3000ppm per recommendation. I've ran the SWCG for 8 hrs overnight the last 2 nights to see what the net effect of FC was each morning. The first night/morning there was zero by 10:00am (spa is under a covered porch and covered the whole time, so zero sunlight hitting water). This morning (after another round of 8hr sanitation cycle (SWCG) I tested around 1.5 FC and .5 CC (with TF100 testkit it took 3 drops to go to clear, and testing for CC did put water back slightly pink, but cleared with 1 drop). So, what I think is going on is this......with initial setup and fill of the spa this past Sunday, the only sanitation has been the two overnight 8 hour cycles of the SWCG Tuesday night and last night. I didn't initially treat with any sort of spa shock or anything.....only thing added to the water at this point was a little bit of TA increaser to get the TA up from zero. I am working toward figuring out what cycle and frequency is needed with the built in SWCG, but what I'm looking for immediately is the best way to add chlorine manually to get FC up to safe use level, which I understand is 2-4ppm FC. I've read the thread and articles about not using CYA in spa, as it hampers the effectiveness of chlorine to do it's job, and how that's much different in spas than pools. What I don't know, is which form of chlorine is best for quick spa treatments, but still safe. Thought I had read somewhere that said not to use bleach in spas??? Suggestions? I realize I'm not providing a full set of test numbers, but I can get that if it'll help.

Interesting. I just purchased an Intex PureSpa 210 gallon with SWCG. I added the recommended 4.4 lbs. of salt and ran the SWCG overnight for 8 hours, also as recommended. The salt level was verified as being exactly 2500 ppm (2000-3000 recommended in manual) by a pool store. I measured the FC at ≥ 5 ppm (limit of test) the next morning using a chemical test kit. This level persisted for two days with the spa covered and no usage and no additional usage of the SWCG as I was trying to bring down the TA and pH. The water temp was around 80ºF as I was making these adjustments. The FC only dissipated after I left the spa uncovered and partially exposed to sunlight for several hours. I have since run the SWCG unit for three hour cycles and it will bring the FC right back up to 3-4 ppm with no usage of the spa. Perhaps you have a defective unit? BTW, the included test strips were WAY off on pH, CH, and TA as compared to pool store results, Home Depot test kit, and Taylor test kit (all of which were in agreement). FC was pretty close, though.

 

[kraftchick]

Interesting. I just purchased an Intex PureSpa 210 gallon with SWCG. I added the recommended 4.4 lbs. of salt and ran the SWCG overnight for 8 hours, also as recommended. The salt level was verified as being exactly 2500 ppm (2000-3000 recommended in manual) by a pool store. I measured the FC at ≥ 5 ppm (limit of test) the next morning using a chemical test kit. This level persisted for two days with the spa covered and no usage and no additional usage of the SWCG as I was trying to bring down the TA and pH. The water temp was around 80ºF as I was making these adjustments. The FC only dissipated after I left the spa uncovered and partially exposed to sunlight for several hours. I have since run the SWCG unit for three hour cycles and it will bring the FC right back up to 3-4 ppm with no usage of the spa. Perhaps you have a defective unit? BTW, the included test strips were WAY off on pH, CH, and TA as compared to pool store results, Home Depot test kit, and Taylor test kit (all of which were in agreement). FC was pretty close, though.

That's pretty interesting to hear and good to note. I actually did mine a little differently initial operation, which may be the root cause. I actually got it setup and immediately went into heater mode to get the temp up to 102, which did take about 36 hrs. It really wasn't until then, or that evening that I actually kicked on the sanitizer (salt was added previously of course). Wondering if maybe the path I went allowed some bad little stuff to start forming and what chlorine I am producing is getting eaten up pretty quick.....which is kind of what I saw this morning in my two FC tests 2 1/2 hrs apart, with spa completely covered. I am doing the water tests with a TF100 test kit, but not for salt, I just have the salt test strips which seem hard to use to me (I also agree that the test strips Intex provides were way way off to the numbers I get with the drop test kit). Anyway, my neighbor has a drop test for salt and we're going to test that this evening to see where my salt level is. I'm going to give it a little bleach this evening to get the FC at least up so some measureable range beyond 1.

 

[kraftchick]

Looks like I'll be calling support today. Topped off the salt level yesterday from 2200ppm to 2500ppm and ran it for another 8 hours last night.....drop tested this morning at barely 1 FC.

 

[kraftchick]

Just an update...it does look like the swcg is working, but I’ve been running it at 8hrs overnight in order to reach a FC of 4 or so. Still also getting a CC of 1 each morning. pH has been high throughout this whole time at about 8.0. I brought that down to pH 7.5 yesterday with some muriatic acid (1.3oz....290 gallon tub). I still don’t have any CYA in the water as the tub is I side a screened in porch, water never sees sunlight as it’s always covered except for the 20-25 mins we use it at night. Questions....do I need CYA if tub never sees sunlight....does CYA stabilize chlorine only from sunlight or also help stabilize it all together such that I might could run the swcg fewer hrs overnight? Second question.....could my high pH up to this point have been affecting my ability to keep FC levels? Or should I be more concerned over the CC of 1 instead of 0?

 

[cowboycasey]

CYA buffers the chlorine, you want about 30 CYA