Use tons of chlorine?

[Joshii]

OK. So I just got a hot tub. Turns out its harder to keep this clean than a pool! Too little water, too many people. I got it cloudy once because I wasn't using enough bleach. That was fun.

So my question is - why not just use an absurd amount of bleach after every soak? Bring it up to 20ppm. Is there a downside?

 

[newdude]

If your CYA supports it, up to SLAM level is safe just like a pool. FC/CYA Levels I was just going over this in another thread earlier. We are dirty dirty creatures. Sweat, oils, dead skin exfoliating in the warm jets. I never had a clue how much detergent/fabric softener is in freshly clean clothes still had until I got the hot tub and it all came out in foam. The same for shampoo/conditioner in hair. If my wife or girls hopped in it was suds city.

Just myself in a 500 gallon tub was equal to *70* people in my 35k gallon pool.............SEVENTY people. Id be kicking them out every 15 minutes and SLAMIng. But I'd sit in the hot tub, sweating at 104 degrees for an hour and a half, sometimes with the fam. Then wonder why I was always low on FC. I put in *way* too much chlorine this week, somethings wrong. Nope. I was just using the tub normally for an hour a day, which equated to 70 people in my pool for an hour a day, which is considered 'unusually high usage.

The rule of thumb is 5 fl oz of 6% bleach, per person, per hour.

 

[CuckooChris]

Does your tub have an ozonator? Nothing wrong, imo, to over chlorinate AFTER use. But you still need to know what it is before you go in. If four people are going in and your FC is 1, that could be an issue.

 

[Mdragger88]

Definitely raise to slam after use - then check before next use & add if needed. Repeat.
also a swg can do some of the chlorine work for u . I only add bleach after extremely long soaks or heavy bather loads. My quick morning 30 min ones require no bleach. My saltron mini runs 4 -6 hrs a day.

 

[Roaddogmm]

Clean it out with ahhsome, and its very likely your chlorine demand will go way down( if you have biofilm in the pipes ). My new tub had a lot of biofilm in the pipes that i struggled with about 3 months before finally cleaning it with ahhsome, and its been SOOO much easier to maintain ever since.

 

[Mdragger88]

 

[jseyfert3]

So my question is - why not just use an absurd amount of bleach after every soak? Bring it up to 20ppm. Is there a downside?

I’m not sure on the specifics to your question. Obviously at some point accelerated damaged to components will result. What I do before heavy use or whenever it’s more than just my wife and I is bring it up to SLAM levels before we get in. Usually by the time we get out the chlorine is gone or near gone (for especially heavy uses I’ll add chlorine in the middle of a soak too), and I’ll bring it up to SLAM immediately after we get out. Then I make a point to check it the next morning and keep a closer eye on it over the next few days as residual waste is slowly oxidized away.

You are entirely correct it’s much harder than a pool. I was opposite you, started with a spa and when we got our 15,000 Intex I was like “wow this is so easy to take care of!”