Hi everyone,

I'm buying a hot tub for my parents, both with achey bones. There is a lot here in these forums that is helping me determine what to look for, but I'm wondering:

Has anyone heard of a product that uses UV light to sterilize their hot tub in its entirety? Ie, not just to make Ozone but to actually irradiate all the bad stuff?

The old "chemical bath" seems to be a hangup for my parents, who are somewhat leery of subjecting themselves to daily dunks in chlorine/bromine/etc.

If there's nothing on the market, has anyone tried putting something together that could accomplish this (rigged up their own system)?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

JP

Sounds like snake oil. Chlorine, used properly, will have less ppm while they're using the spa than city drinking water. There are a plethora of "Chlorine Free" sanitizers that are quite popular because many consumers are under the misconception that Chlorine means something akin to a "chemical bath."

Chlorine comes in many chemical compounds, each with different properties. The wrong type of chlorine in the spa will smell.
But the right type (Sodium Dichlor) and you won't even know it's there.

A UV light creates ozone, and nothing else. It's not sufficient as a stand-alone sanitizer. Anyone telling you differently is either mis-informed, or actively lying to you.

Wholeheartedly agree.

There are two types of ozonators, the most popular use UV light. The rest use a high voltage discharge type of system to do it and it'll be either 'CD' (Corona Discharge) chip style or corona discharge without the chip - a big coil of wire that generates ultra-high voltage, resulting in the conversion of o2 to o3.

Most new spas these days employ one form or the other. By using one you can reduce (or almost eliminate) your dependence on chemical sanitizers. Ozone alone will not give you the 100% be all to end all as without a residual sanitizer, contaminants will continue to exist in the spa.

My favorite combination is ozone + spa frog or nature 2, with .5 ppm of bromine or chlorine as an activator. Dichlor does the trick for this.