I went through the same thing in July, and it's way easier than I thought. Takes a few weeks to figure it out, then you're laughing.
Buy Bromine tables (cheapest at Rona) and Chlorine shock.
Buy a floatie for the bromine tablets.
Get test strips. The ones that do Cl/Br, pH and alkalinity are good enough.
Depending on what part of the city you're in and where your water is coming from, that's all you'll need.
Clean the shell of the hot tub with Windex and rinse it well. Fill er up. Dump a bromine tablet or two into the intake basket, use the test strips to measure. Once you've got the correct levels, throw the floatie in. It'll take a bit of guess work to figure out how far to have it unscrewed.
Give it a few days and make sure you have it balanced for when people aren't in there (or at least not much).
Then, when you use it you'll notice the Br/Cl level will drop off for no reason some times. Take a tablespoon of shock and chuck it in and leave the lid off for 30 mintues. That should restore your levels. If it doesn't, put more in. If you put too much in, leave the lid off and run the jets for a while until the levels come down.
Done and done.
|