Spa Pool Chemical Costs!!!

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stone2

119 posts

Master Geek

#201528 22-Aug-2016 16:42

Hi all,

Have had our new Hot Springs spa for a month now and am nearly out of Chlorine. Hot Springs supplied us with a startup kit with the essential water additives. The brand is FRESHWATER. I can get the same brand from Hot Springs but it seems to be a lot more expensive than comparable brands sold in NZ. Does anyone know of a quality supplier close to west auckland? Any advice on what brand of chemicals would be much appreciated. If I can get the same product under a different name then why not. Hate paying more for something that could very well be generic quality just because someone sticks their brand name on it.

Cheers

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#1615933 22-Aug-2016 16:47

Don't by cheap brands from the likes of Bunnings, Warehouse, Mitre 10 or the dodgy Trademe suppliers. They are not all made the same. Been there made that mistake will not make it with our new Spa pool.

stone2

119 posts

Master Geek

#1615935 22-Aug-2016 16:56

MikeB4:

Don't by cheap brands from the likes of Bunnings, Warehouse, Mitre 10 or the dodgy Trademe suppliers. They are not all made the same. Been there made that mistake will not make it with our new Spa pool.

Thanks for that advice Mike. Was just looking at Mitre 10 and Bunnings online and their prices are half of what Hot Springs charge. Mind telling me what mistake you made?

Cheers

Also where do you buy?

Sam91

620 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1615936 22-Aug-2016 16:56

Poolside offer free water testing. They have a pretty wide range of chemicals. Not exactly close to West Auckland, but not too bad if you're in West Harbour or Hobsonville.

MikeB4

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#1615937 22-Aug-2016 16:59

Some of the issues we experienced was...

Filter cartridge life cycle significantly shortened

Difficulty in keeping PH and Alkalinity levels correct.

Cloudy water

Excessive foaming

Pool surface had a gritty feeling.

MikeB4

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#1615940 22-Aug-2016 17:02

We are now using with our new pool a Bromine based system. The pool also has UV, Silver Iron and Ozone sanitising.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#1615945 22-Aug-2016 17:13

I use Crystal Water SpaChlor, and have never had any issues with cloudiness, foam etc. They also do calcium for water hardness issues, and pH balancing agents.

http://www.spaceindustries.co.nz/spa-chlor-671617

That's the importer/supplier's website I think.

I'm in Christchurch so not sure where your local stockist is, but you can buy it online. I've seen it as cheap as $10 for a 1kg pack but prices seem to vary a bit.

richms

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#1615952 22-Aug-2016 17:42

I found the cheap supermarket chlorine took a lot longer to settle out in the bucket before I could pour it into the pool when I was running the pool here. Also seemed much weaker despite stinking like chlorine just as much. Gave up on that and went to the liquid stuff since I would so often mix a bucket up and leave it sitting and then forget about it.

Richard rich.ms

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Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1616231 23-Aug-2016 11:02

I found the stuff from mitre10 worked well, threw it in and then turned the jets on for 10 mins, dissolved nice and quickly. Never had an issue with it.

My spa also has ozone filtering so only gets chlorine once a month.

muppet

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#1616233 23-Aug-2016 11:12

Don't by the Mitre 10 stuff.

Yes, it works, but it dissolves so, so quickly.

I used to think "What a load of waffle, it's fine" until one day I thought "I'll give the stuff at the pool place a go" and boy, I'm glad I did.

A Mitre 10 chlorine tablet lasts ~2 weeks maybe in the skimmer. A proper pool place once lasts for ~2 months and gives a good, constant level of chlorine.

Either way, the damn chemicals are expensive.

Horseychick

150 posts

Master Geek

#1616272 23-Aug-2016 12:53

We stopped using chemicals in our spa quite a few years ago and now use Simple Silver. You can buy them here

http://spastore.co.nz/simple-silver/simple-silver-non-toxic-spa-pool-treatment-500g/

It is expensive to start with, but it lasts a year so that works out at just over $1 per day. Much nicer than chlorine, better for the skin we find and has no smell. We would be onto our 4th one and are very happy with them. Other than that the spa store also seem to sell what you are looking for so check out their prices

reven

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#1616322 23-Aug-2016 13:45

Horseychick:

We stopped using chemicals in our spa quite a few years ago and now use Simple Silver. You can buy them here

http://spastore.co.nz/simple-silver/simple-silver-non-toxic-spa-pool-treatment-500g/

It is expensive to start with, but it lasts a year so that works out at just over $1 per day. Much nicer than chlorine, better for the skin we find and has no smell. We would be onto our 4th one and are very happy with them. Other than that the spa store also seem to sell what you are looking for so check out their prices

I was going to use that, but the guys who made my spa (formeleisure.co.nz), said I would have to make the system recycle water (or something, no expert, forget the exact thing they said) a lot more, meaning my power bill could triple.

So I just stuck with the spa sticks (these things, http://www.trademe.co.nz/home-living/outdoor-garden-conservatory/swimming-pools-spas/maintenance-care/auction-1145792895.htm). But I hate the maintenance of a spa pool....

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1616355 23-Aug-2016 15:11

muppet:

Don't by the Mitre 10 stuff.

Yes, it works, but it dissolves so, so quickly.

I used to think "What a load of waffle, it's fine" until one day I thought "I'll give the stuff at the pool place a go" and boy, I'm glad I did.

A Mitre 10 chlorine tablet lasts ~2 weeks maybe in the skimmer. A proper pool place once lasts for ~2 months and gives a good, constant level of chlorine.

Either way, the damn chemicals are expensive.

I by the granules not tablets. I would hate to sit in a spa that constantly smells of chlorine.

All this talk of spa's makes me want to fill mine and get it up and running!

neb

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#1616567 23-Aug-2016 23:25

Another thing you can do is get a computerised tester that tells you what needs to be added in terms of actual chemicals (so for example trichloro-S-triazinetrione at $ rather than Mega Super ChloroMagic at $$$$). The electronic matching means you also don't need to guess whether your test strip matches sample colour A, B, or C. Some have Androids apps (or work with generic apps) that do all the calculations for you, so they'll tell you to add x grams of ABC and y grams of XYZ to get from where you are to where you need to be. There was one that a friend in the US had, can't find any obvious match on Amazon at the moment but it was something along the lines of this. There were consumables for it, but just things like buffer solutions which were a fraction of the cost per use of test strips.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1617110 25-Aug-2016 00:34

Just buy Dichlor or Trichlor powder. Which are both stabilised types of chlorine. They don't change the PH. Don't bother with non stabilised types of chlorine. As they have to be pre dissolved while the stabilised types you can just chuck the powder into the spa.

When balancing the chemicals, First balance calcium hardness - will be very low if spa has been filled with rainwater. Then balance total alkalinity. When these 2 are correct they are easy to keep correct as they will only change due to evaporation / adding more water. The PH should now be close to being correct. So you probably wont need to adjust it.

Now add the chlorine. Only add enough at a time to increase the levels by 1 to 2 PPM. it helps if your test strips show available and total chlorine. Then you can easily work out how much "used up" chlorine there is as well. If you leave it too long without chlorine. When you add chlorine, the available chlorine will stay on zero. But the total chlorine will increase, which means you have "used chlorine". Keep dosing until the available chlorine starts to increase. Then you just need to keep the available chlorine at around 1 - 3 PPM. So a little bit of chlorine often is better than big amounts occasionally.

stone2

119 posts

Master Geek

#1617541 25-Aug-2016 19:16

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I think I will give crystal clear a go.

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