Soon to be swim spa owner, am I far off with what I've absorbed so far?

[MonteLSx]

Existing user, haven’t been on the forum in years. Had a 30k IG pool at the old house which this site was a HUGE help with keeping balanced. I will need to refresh my memory on everything again.

New house, new wife and we were looking at doing an IG a couple of years ago, we just don’t think we have the room. So we’re really close to pulling the trigger on a swim spa and I’m trying to learn about them as much as possible since I’m clueless. I’ve gone thru most of the stickies on chlorine, bromine, purging with Ahh-Some (wow that really gets some nasty stuff out) and trying to digest it all.

The swim spa is an American Whirlpool RB4. I can’t find too many comments/reviews on the brand, other than they used to be Maax Spas. We’re looking for an entry level swim spa and this seemed to fit our needs (dealer is close and has a good reputation, it sits 9 people which is great since we will be using it mostly for the family as more of a pool here in NJ than spa and is in our price range. Planned on not using the heater during the summer at all. We’d probably close it for the season in early November, complete drain, blowing lines out, antifreeze, etc. I know, it is a great feel being in it when it’s really cold out, just don’t see us doing that. Perhaps that will change.

My main question is this spa has an ozone generator option which they make sound wonderful, but from what I’ve seen here and online, these generators don’t last too long and may actually make it more difficult to keep a balanced spa when using chlorine with the pH creep. I just wanted to confirm with the pros here on their opinions on them.

I’m not sure which sanitizer method we will go with, leaning towards chorine since it worked so well of my previous IG. For the pool we used basic Chlorox and Borox for most of our needs while using the TFT test kit. Looks like Chlorox is not recommended and liquid chlorine from a pool supplier should be used. Again, need to do more reading here, very overwhelming.

Sorry for rambling, looking forward to being back on this site and learning.

 

[cranbiz]

The problem with using Clorox these days are the "fresh scent" additives. Same for just about any store brand bleach. Going with pool chlorine gets you usually a higher strength concentration of chlorine as well as no additives that can cause things like foaming.

 

[MonteLSx]

Thanks Cranbiz. I used to stock up on Chorlox for the IG which worked great once I had my CYA set.

 

[phonedave]

I am far from a pro, but as somebody who has a pool and uses TFP, recently added a spa, with ozone, this is my option / findings.

- Use the Ahhsome, it does get a lot of crud out of the pipes
- Ozone will deplete your FC. @RDspaguy is of the opinion that it works great with 24 hour filtration, and with anything less is a detriment. From my experience, it is a bit of a pain how it knocks out the FC
- Even in NJ winter spas are awesome
- Heaters are nice in the summer
- A spa is just like a pool, while being nothing like a pool What I mean by that is while the concepts are the same - balancing water, what chemicals to use, how to test, etc. because of the smaller volume of water, things tend to move around a lot more, and using the spa has a much bigger impact. Taking a 30 minute swim in your 30,000 gal pool likely had little to no impact on your chemistry - in a spa it will.

Thanks Cranbiz. I used to stock up on Chorlox for the IG which worked great once I had my CYA set.

Even worse is the splashless. You can usually tell when they have added a scent, it's all over the label with pictures of lemons, or lavender, or whatever it is supposed to smell like.

Maybe times the splashess is not as obvious. You don't want that thickener in your spa either.

 

[MonteLSx]

Thanks! And you're spot on, levels hardly were impacted after a bunch of people were in the pool, I think that is what is throwing my wife and I off so much is the "concern" of making sure we stay on top of it before going in, right after getting out/when guests are over and the worry our oldest son will not forget when he has a couple of friends over after hours. We did more reading last night regarding chorine vs bromine and bromine sounded promising, will continue to research.
We're trying to find out from the manufacturer if it is possible to completely turn the heater off in the summer, and if not, what is the lowest setting it has. Understood about the stuff in Chlorox, and we watched a few You Tube videos on Ahh-Some and were amazed how much Crud it released from the piping. The one we're looking at is just over 1300 gallons, so we'd figure out the additional amount of chemicals needed.

 

[mojopool]

I would also like some info on maintaining a swim spa, we are switching over from an above ground pool, which is salt water and going with a 12ft swim spa. The dealer said just maintain your chlorine and ph. I do not plan on heating it until winter since we are in AZ. I hope it doesnt turn out to be a maintenance nightmare?