Recommended Products for Hot Tubs

For anything to do with the garden and pool
SHF
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Recommended Products for Hot Tubs

Post by SHF »

Hi, We've been hiring our cottage successfully for 15 years. This last year we decided to "officially" offer our hot tub to guests at an elevated rental rate.

The challenge we have is that many of the guests, despite being told about water quality etc, dont shower first and the tub goes very cloudy in a day!

We use Spa Sparkle, PH Minus, Chlorine/Non-shock Chlorine, Spa pre-filer (B&Q UK), but without using half a 1 ltr bottle of SS we often cant retrieve the situation.

Does anyone have any view of some of these solutions that promise amazing results such as Aquafinesse?

The tub gets refilled weekly anyway, with filters changed regularly, and chemicals daily, but for the guests pleasure it would be amazing if there was a product that actually worked as advertised and cleaned the water too.
Experienced Cottage Owners (15 years) interested in sharing the funny experiences of being a cottage owner
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

It's not easy to answer these questions without knowing a bit more. Generally when I ask the questions and request further information people just switch off and continue looking for another miracle cure in a bottle that a shop will happily sell them.

I will try to give some insight. The number of people in the tub vs a swimming pool means the small amount of water in a tub has a hard time, so does the rest of the system. Consider the size of the filtration unit used on a tub compared to that of a swimming pool and you may begin to understand the problem.

Then we have a much higher flow rate relative to the size of the filter so there is filter breakthrough to contend with as well. Filter breakthrough is where the force of the water is strong enough to smash the dirt into smaller parts and squeeze through the filter. You aren't really filtering just straining the large stuff out. The tiny cartridge filters often fitted to domestic tubs are not large enough to cope. Consider fitting a large filter which will probably need to be external. Recent spa rules for commercial spas (which you would now fit into) have the filtration separate from the spa jets so it can do a proper job at the correct flow rates. I have been doing this for a few years and found it a very successful way to plumb the systems.

Without knowing the water chemistry levels free chlorine, total chlorine, pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, CYA stabiliser level (depending on what chlorine is being used) it is also hard to see the full picture.

Most spa/Jacuzzi/hot-tubs are plastic and therefore the alkalinity is not of a major interest but an alkalinity level of 60ppm or above will give rise to pH rising with the spa jets aeration of the tub, this can mean less effective use of the chlorine which may only be 20% of the sanitising power compared to water with a lower pH. What is the alkalinity of the water you are using to fill the tub?

Spa sparkle is really an algaecide formulation but with a bit of clarifyer in the mix. The algaecide uses up the chlorine as the chlorine tries to burn it out of the water by oxidising it. There are clarifyers without algaecide in them which would be better but as I said above the tiny filters really can't cope so that is the area that requires most improvement. Yes, the pool/spa indusrty will sell algaecide it knows won't work very well with chlorine in the water, they even go on to sell it re-badged as winteriser! It might help a little mid winter if the chlorine level has dropped but does anyone test the level of the algaecide, ans, no they don't.

Non chlorine shock, usually MPS can help with the removal of chloramines which then can boost the performance of the available chlorine but it's expensive and when you test the water chemistry MPS increases the total chlorine level so can be misleading.

Aqua finesse is mainly flocculent/clarifyers and phosphate removers. If you want to try it, or there is O-care which has metal ions and clarifyers but the real issue is the filtration and dirty people. Knowing the water chemistry might help me look closer at the situation.
Passivpool Energy "A" rated Swimming Pools, the most efficient, lowest running cost pools in the world
Martha
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Post by Martha »

Good advice from Teapot.
I'd add - advice from our local company (a lot of hot tubs round here) is that aqua finesse is great if it's light use (we use this ourselves in the off season) but isn't up to the job of heavy use as holidaymakers will be.

I've found the main issue is overexcited people who don't shower, and the most effective route is to make them understand that a hot tub does need care and why it's important that they observe the rules. So I explain to them in an initial email:

We have fresh water for each set of guests, and it's inspected, tested and balanced regularly during your stay. Please bear in mind that a hot tub is a relatively small amount of water for five people and a hot tub filter will only do so much. If you forget to shower thoroughly beforehand or rinse your feet before going in, the water will become cloudy and unhygienic. If it's found to be in this state during maintenance, it will have to be drained and refilled for safety reasons. Should this occur, it will be out of use for 24 hours while it reheats, and there will be a charge of €100 for the time, electricity and water.

Then when they arrive I run through it again, I am nice about it and emphasise that it's vital for safety reasons, and talk a bit about hygiene and general safety, especially if there are children in the group who can be prone to treating it like a pool, sitting on the edge or on the lid to jump in etc. It's one of the very very few things that I don't mind being really strict about.

I used to be more relaxed about it but then we had some guests who let their kids run riot in the tub, in and out of it all day, tracking dirt in. It was not in a nice state by the last day. They ended up with a rash from it, for which they blamed us. And in some ways they had a point, we did ask them to be careful but we should have stopped it before it got that bad. We didn't want to look like we were spoiling the kids' fun so we let it continue - a mistake! So beware. Do make sure you have a log so that you can prove it is maintained.

Many people locally have a sign on the steps with the basic rules, to remind people. I don't do this but I considered it - however since the threat of no hot tub and a financial penalty for treating it badly, all has been well.

Our current guests said they had a tub at home and would be sure to take good care. Sure enough - they've been in it every night and a lot of afternoons too, and it's been immaculate at every check. People just need to shower and be clean! Then all is well.
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
susanj
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Post by susanj »

Martha , I agree with what you say, but even though we ask guests to shower, I'm betting most don't. WE don't even do it before we go in!
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