Not having success with BBB in my hot tub

[DerekM]

Re the bromine floater: our local spa company does not recommend them for the Softubs. I think the outgassing from the bromine tabs through the floater cover probably does the foam tub cover no good. Anyway, I switched to bleach because we eventually decided that we preferred the smell of chlorine to that of bromine. I suppose I could always float a chlorine puck from my pool supplies if I have to be away from home any length of time.

[CanuckPool]

Interesting about the bromine floater outgassing, I should look into that. The only thing I was told was not to have the air on while the cover was on and the pump running as that could cause premature wear on the cover.

On a sidenote, I have to empty my softtub soon, would it be ok to empty the 300 gallons into the pool??? The pool holds approx 14,500 gallons and is an SWG pool. The softtub is bromine, is there the potential for a chemical problem???

[chem geek]

On a sidenote, I have to empty my softtub soon, would it be ok to empty the 300 gallons into the pool??? The pool holds approx 14,500 gallons and is an SWG pool. The softtub is bromine, is there the potential for a chemical problem???

You should not empty your softtub water into your pool because you NEVER want to add bromine to a chlorine system. The reason is that hypobromous acid (analgous to hypochloric acid) will turn into bromide (analogous to chloride) when it disinfects or oxidizes items in your pool and the chlorine (hypochloric acid) will then convert the bromide back to hypobromous acid thus reactivating it, but the chlorine gets consumed (turns into chloride ion) when this occurs. Hypobromous acid is a less effective disinfectant and oxidizer than hypochloric acid so the net effect is that you replace some of your chlorine in your pool with a less effective sanitizer and you can never get rid of this bromine (except by drain and refill).

Essentially, once a bromine pool, always a bromine pool.

Richard

[CanuckPool]

Thanks Richard for not letting me turn my pool into disaster!

[CanuckPool]

Hey Derek, I was checking on the softtub canada website and they sell a bromine floater. Curious that the canadian softtub is ok for bromine but the US is not.

http://www.softubcanada.com/english/...essories6.html

[RavenNS]

@ Canukpool...

I wonder if the canadian soft tubs are okay with the use of bromine tablets because we don't have CYA in it?
( & considering that CYA is banned in two states, perhaps that is why the USA has a different guideline)

or rather, all the bromine products that I have ( powdered flakes & tablet form) don't contain cya ( or salt!)... maybe it's a Canadian thing ( or maybe it's just what is local here in NS)

I would find it interesting to know why the difference between the two countries ( & does Mexico follow the USA or Canadian guidelines for soft tubs?);
Is the actual structual materials of the tubs different?

[DerekM]

Re:
Hey Derek, I was checking on the softtub canada website and they sell a bromine floater. Curious that the canadian softtub is ok for bromine but the US is not.

I am in Canada. It may be the local dealer, not Softub Canada, who recommends using liquid bromine instead of tabs in a floater, based on problems they may have had here. In the case of my tub, the rain often seeps in around the edges (yes, I know that can be prevented by putting the vinyl cover on!), causing the foam cover to float on the water. I would think that, in that case, the floater would be pressing directly against the cover, and problems could ensue.