Water of Life
3 Tricks to Ensure Crystal Clean Hot Tub Water Without Opening Your Pocket Book!
3 Tricks to Ensure Crystal Clean Hot Tub Water Without Opening Your Pocket Book!I know most hot tub users are usually obsessed with clean water. Most hot tub and spa owners that I know will stop at nothing to have that perfect sparkle in their water. This usually means opening up their pocket book to buy more replacement chemicals. However clean water does not have to be expensive. In fact with clean water you will reduce your chemical cost! Here are three secretes that cost nothing and are more effective than any chemical I have come across in maintaining sparkling "fresh water". Change you filter often. I can never say this enough. All hot tub owners should have 2 filters, one being used in the tub and the other ready to go. If you are like most, you change your filter every 2-3 months on a similar cycle as you change your water. However you can double your water life if you simply increase the rate of filter changes. 2 weeks is ideal. I suggest using a filter cleaner and canister. These are inexpensive and make quick work out of cleaning your filter. A clean filter ensures proper water flow, and will ensure the finer particles get picked up. Most hot tub filters have a bypass system that opens when there is a decrease in flow rate caused by a clogged filter. When this happens your filter becomes useless as water is now by passing the system entirely. Shower before entering hot tub. You see this sign at public pools and spas everywhere. Most often this is ignored and people hop into the hot tub with out 1st showering. Have you ever taken a bath and looked at the ring of oil and dead skin that is left behind from just one bath? This is perfect breeding material for bacteria in a hot tub. By 1st showering, you will remove nearly 80% of the dead skin and oil from your body. This means that your filter and sanitizers will work a lot less as there is much less foreign matter in the water. In Japanese bathing soaking tubs called Ofuros are used. However in this tradition, one baths before entering the tub. In this way the water in the Ofuro could be used many times before draining. Don't wash your bathing suite in the laundry. Any one who owns a hot tub usually figures this one out after having lots of white sudsy bubbles. These suds originate from bathing suits that contain residue from laundry soap. Most laundry machines will leave a small amount of residual even after a thorough rinse cycle. The phosphates left on the clothes end up in the hot tub. The problem is not just bubbles which can be cured by products such as . It is that Algea loves phosphates! This means "SLIME". What I suggest is keeping one set of bathing suite for your hot tub. Clean it in warm sink water but not the washing machine. You may also want to keep a couple guest shorts available. Practice these 3 simple techniques and I guarantee you will see a big increase in water clarity as well as a savings in your pocket as you will be using less chemicals. Last Updated (Thursday, 22 October 2009 09:57) Hard Water - Discover the Top 7 Surprising Problems it Causes
Hard Water - Discover the Top 7 Surprising Problems it Causes
Hard water problems can have a big impact in and around the home. Here are some of the problems it can cause in different areas of the house. Bathroom Showerheads and spray-nozzles can become blocked; they can even clog the small holes completely and reduce their efficiency. The bathtub and sink seem to be the places where there is a visible soap scum build up. Without proper treatment his build up is very difficult to remove and may require a lot of cleaners and many applications. Scale can clog pipes and can decrease the life of toilet flushing units. Bathing Bathing with soap in hard water leaves a film of sticky soap curd on the skin. The film may prevent removal of soil and bacteria. Soap curd interferes with the return of skin to its normal, slightly acid condition, and may lead to irritation. Soap curd on hair may make it dull, lifeless and difficult to manage. Similarly, the insoluble salts that get left behind from using regular shampoo in hard water tend to leave hair rougher and harder to detangle. Laundering Clothes washed in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. The hardness minerals combine with some soils to form insoluble salts, making them difficult to remove. Soil on clothes can introduce even more hardness minerals into the wash water. Continuous laundering in hard water can damage fibers and shorten the life of clothes by up to 40 percent. Dishwashers When washing dishes, especially in a dishwasher, hard water may cause spotting and filming on your crockery. The minerals from hard water are released faster when it comes into contact with heat, causing an increase in the amount of spotting and filming that occurs. This problem is not a health risk, but it can be a nuisance to clean and reduce the quality of your crockery. Problems in Water Boiler Systems and Pipework Hard water also contributes to inefficient and costly operation of water-using appliances. Heated hard water forms a scale of calcium and magnesium minerals (limescale deposits) that can contribute to the inefficient operation or failure of water-using appliances. Pipes can become clogged with scale that reduces water flow and ultimately requires pipe replacement. Limescale has been known to increase energy bills by up to 25% Limescale in Solar Heating Systems Solar heating, often used for heating swimming pools is prone to limescale buildup, which can reduce the efficiency of the electronic pump and therefore the overall systems performance will deteriorate. There are low cost solutions to this problem which prevents limescale build up and over time will remove existing deposits completely. In Industry Hard water contributes to scaling in boilers, cooling towers and other industrial equipment. In these industrial settings, water hardness must be constantly monitored to avoid costly breakdowns. Hardness is controlled by addition of chemicals and by large-scale softening with zeolite resins and ion exchange resins. Last Updated (Thursday, 22 October 2009 10:09) |