boy that sure rings a bell. The last thing a dealer talks about is chemicals and care, that's a surprise left for after the sale and installation. The first few weeks we had our spa I was in it for an hour each and every night the first two months. then it all turned to a nightmare! rashes and chemistry trouble. in hindsight it started cause I tried to save money with chemicals I knew nothing about. for instance going away from bromine cause I ran out of sanitzer and didn't like the smell and using the mentioned "non chlorine shock" .

This sounds like a rash from too high chlorine. Start by balencing alkalinity and hardness, then pH. The cholrine, I like to use this combo...Dichlor, Oxy-shock, and Nature 2. Once the first 3 are in line, shock once/week or more if it's used heavily and maintain a residual (1-3 ppm) free chlorine. Nature 2 is good for about 3-4 months...you'll know when you have trouble maintaining alkalinity, hardness, and pH.

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience.

First of all, I'd go see a doctor.

Two options here:

1. Too much sanitiser

If the rash is a result of too much shock/sanitiser then techincally its a chemical burn. For this I'd suggest a steroid cream, though I'm no doctor, so you should get proper medical advice.

2. Insufficient sanitiser (ie bacteria in the spa)

I'd suggest that you google "Hot Tub Folliculitis" for more info to see if your symptoms match.

Sometimes people can be allergic to chlorine or bromine, though in this case its unlikely that the whole family would be allergic.

If you are struggling with the chemistry, you can download guides to this from our website, and I've also written a very basic guide below:

1. Bacteria breed in hot water much faster than cold - a pool at 20deg.C needs 1ppm of chlorine, vs a hot tub at 40deg.C needs 6ppm.

2. So you need to kill the bacteria by adding a sanitiser - preferably bromine or chlorine.

3. However, for the sanitiser to work, the pH must be between 7.2 and 7.6

4. Dead bacteria tend to push the pH upwards, so you'll tend to use pH minus all the time. You shoudn't need to add pH plus unless you are have put too much pH minus in!

5. All the other stuff, such as TA and CH simply affect wether or not the water is corrosive or scale forming, but are more relevent to looking after your spa's heater and other components, rather than the saftey of the occupants.

6. Finally Oxidiser is used to "burn off" any unfilterable waste such as small particles that will fit through the filter's membrane, yet discoulour the water. Alternatively you can add "clarifier", "coagulant" or "flocculant" (all the same thing) which acts like a glue in the water - it makes all the small particles stick together or "coagulate" so that they do get trapped in the filter. This is much less harsh than oxidising.

NOTE: IF YOUR CHLORINE IS VERY HIGH - remeber its a bleach so it can actually bleach the PH reading on your test strips, giving you a misleadingly low pH reading. So theoreticially, your pH could be sky high, as is your chlorine, so you could well have bacteria breeding in the tub.

Hope this helps, feel free to email me if you need any more help.

Good luck!

Ed.

Been there done that.

Sounds like you are having the same reaction I had from my early days of owning/maintaining a tub.
Ie over dosing on the chemicals, back off

First off
Hydrocortisone or in a pinch good old hand lotion

Next Dump 1/2 or all of the water and refill

Keep in mind city water has it's own level of chlorine

Make sure PH and Hardness in in spec.

You don't need to shock the tub every other day, what you are winding up with is a high residual industral streight chlorine bath

It's no wonder you have a rash, don't use tub for several days and allow the nasty chemicals to disipate.

Try cutting chemical usage in half, shock after use and don't use for a few days

Use test strips and make your own adjustments.

A lot of people think is a little is good then a lot is better. it's the reverse, try to use less. If you start having cloudy water then step up the amount of chemical use, but a little at a time.