OK what is anyone's opinion about the Spa Frog @Ease Floating Sanitizer is this chlorine or something else?
Spa Frog
- Thread starter HarryP777
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 58,664
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Minerals (copper, silver, etc) and solid chlorine are not a sustainable method of maintaining your water chemistry.
www.troublefreepool.com
Alternative sanitizers and "chemical free" pools--The Truth!
Pool owners frequently seek out "Chemical Free" alternatives to pool water sanitization. Many claims in favor of these systems and methods have been made (usually by the manufacturers of such systems) often without adequate scientific proof of their efficacy. Let's take a look at them and see...
www.troublefreepool.com
There was a member here that used @ease and did some regular testing and reported success with it. However, it's not recommended here for a couple reasons. First and foremost, TFP is all about learning how to maintain your water properly through regular testing with a high quality test kit, and only adding what's needed to maintain your pool or spa.
- The @ease system leads you to believe you only rarely have to test. This does not lend itself to safe water for you and your equipment. Regular testing is important.
- The @ease system uses a type of chlorine that shows up as combined chlorine (CC) on a test result. This means you cannot test for CC's, which is an important water "health metric".
- Frog uses a lot of what I call "marketing trash" to show how their system is the best. For example, they say "Another FROG @ease benefit – no cyanuric acid that can lead to problems." Well, cyanuric acid (CYA) can lead to problems, but not when you follow TFP advice. In fact, most of the pool industry in general doesn't really get CYA. You want some CYA, but not too much, and your free chlorine level (FC) is dependent on your CYA level.
Thanks for the info guys, SWCG is interesting as we are not big daily users, but I would like to maintain the water FC if we are out on vacation etc. Interesting that D1 does not recommend SWCG, however they do not say it will void your warranty.
I'm probably the member referred to who tried the @ease system with regular testing. It was OK, but I agree, the marketing of it is questionable. My conclusion on it from using it for a season was that it reminded me of my old SWCG system but without requiring the boost function after every soak. Once I started to trust it a bit more, I somewhat backed off from my obsessive daily testing routine. But... is that really worth the cost and limitations?
This season when I re-open the tub, I plan on going with the manual dichlor/bleach method as a comparison (been there, done that many years ago). I'm not yet convinced @ease is really a net positive compared to manual dosing, especially if one has the skills, interest, and ability to consistently keep up. Manual dosing is not rocket science, and sometimes it's kind of fun in a geeky way. SWCG can help automate some of it (but, somewhat like @ease, introduces its own fine print).
To the original question, @ease chlorine is a type of slow-dissolving solid chlorine as used in some toilet tank tablets (last I checked, the toilet tablets in question were more expensive per gram than @ease). It is actual chlorine. The silver cartridge seems to be the backup plan for when/if the chlorine levels crash at end of cartridge life. You still need to balance your water chemistry, test frequently, and adjust / replace the @ease cartridges periodically.
You can't chlorine-shock with @ease since it will lock up all your free chlorine above about .5 ppm into "the reserve." It was debated on this forum whether chorine locked up in "the @ease reserve" can become free-chlorine as FC levels fall below that .5 ppm. That seemed to be was indicated in my testing, but I don't understand the chemistry of how that could even work.
This season when I re-open the tub, I plan on going with the manual dichlor/bleach method as a comparison (been there, done that many years ago). I'm not yet convinced @ease is really a net positive compared to manual dosing, especially if one has the skills, interest, and ability to consistently keep up. Manual dosing is not rocket science, and sometimes it's kind of fun in a geeky way. SWCG can help automate some of it (but, somewhat like @ease, introduces its own fine print).
To the original question, @ease chlorine is a type of slow-dissolving solid chlorine as used in some toilet tank tablets (last I checked, the toilet tablets in question were more expensive per gram than @ease). It is actual chlorine. The silver cartridge seems to be the backup plan for when/if the chlorine levels crash at end of cartridge life. You still need to balance your water chemistry, test frequently, and adjust / replace the @ease cartridges periodically.
You can't chlorine-shock with @ease since it will lock up all your free chlorine above about .5 ppm into "the reserve." It was debated on this forum whether chorine locked up in "the @ease reserve" can become free-chlorine as FC levels fall below that .5 ppm. That seemed to be was indicated in my testing, but I don't understand the chemistry of how that could even work.
I know this thread is old, but I’m glad I found it.
This may explain why I can’t seem to get my chlorine above 1.3 even though I have been adding 10ppm 1-2x per day. I assumed I must have some kind of situation going on and was basically trying to SLAM my spa...
I guess I’ll leave the chlorine alone for a while and see what happens.
Maybe this is also why I can’t get my ph down...I know chlorine is basically pH neutral - once it has done its job - but the chlorine I’m adding (calculium hypo) maybe isn’t doing anything...just getting “trapped” and keeping my pH at 7.8.-7.9 even with daily glugs of muriatic acid alternating with an ounce at a time of dry acid....
It’s cold here and I’m lazy and it’s worth (to me) the monthly cost of Frog to not have to add chlorine to my spa daily...IF i can get the $&#% pH down.
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