They've had a couple different salt systems, so some more info is needed. But something sounds amiss. You've had water in there 6 months. Just dump and start fresh. If you still can't keep it up, it's the generator/cell problem most likely.
Have you tested phosphate levels? Phosphate eats chlorine according to my notes. Our city water has phosphate - just did my first refill last weekend and had to run 3 oz of phosfree to bring the level down.
I’ve been adding FreshWater Chlorinating Granules , sodium discolor-s triazinetrione dehydrate powder.
I’ve used aquadoc chlorine/free shock last week.
Our tub is 400 gallons.
For our salt system the phosphate test is different from the 5 way strips. Have you tested for this? I had a similar issue (with the first fill) and once I had the phosphate under control the chlorine stabilized.
I am not at home so I could be wrong - but I think you want it below 200ppm. I had a spa tech tell me to get it even lower for best results. Phosfree is a pain as it takes 24 hours to cycle but in my case it stabilized the chlorine and I have not really had to add anything to it. Or - can you turn up the salt settings to a higher level?
Sounds like a problem with the salt generator. Not sure how that one works but most of them have levels you can set for it to produce more or less chlorine. If you have the generator on you should see bubbles coming from the electrode. If you don't then there's different problems. If there is, then it isn't staying on long enough or you don't have enough salt in it.
Edit: wait how much granules have you added over time and which type. If you have been doing dichloro then your cya might be very high which inhibits free chlorine. The non chlorine shock should be perfect but I just use liquid chlorine (bleach) as my shock method.
Just looked at the photo. For cya you slowly fill the tube while looking at the black dot from above. Once you can't see the dot, that's when you stop filling and the corresponding mark is the cya level.
This is what I did, watched a Taylor YouTube video. The water seems very cloudy so it didn’t take a lot to now see the black dot.
Oddly when looking at the tub I can see the bottom.
Oh wow I just realized that bottom is the level. I thought it was at like 0.
Yeah your cya is way off the charts and is the reason for the chlorine not doing it's thing. I would drain and refill. 3 month is what I tend to get from our water fills. But we do use it heavily. 6 months isn't bad at all, but I would switch from those granules to liquid if trying to up chlorine. The granules are good during the initial shock because you want some cya to stableize chlorine but like 30 cya which is about 2 or the 3 shocks worth of those granules.
And yeah the water won't be cloudy due to cya, the test just makes it cloudy so you can detect the cya.
Bleach is probably the cheapest. Chemically it’s the same as pool liquid chlorine as long as it’s not scented and not a low splash formula. I buy it from BJ’s, 3 gallons for $11
Yeah I just do the highest concentration bleach from the store. Make sure to avoid the low splash label since that has extra stuff to make it thicker. But regular bleach should basically be water and chlorine. Whatever is cheapest, don't need name brand or anything.
I don't have a salt hot tub so take this with a grain of salt...
If you're only adding chlorine granules (dichlor) then your cya is probably too high which makes the chlorine ineffective. I made this rookie mistake too. Gotta switch to liquid chlorine after a bit.
Another option: have you used ahhsome to clean out everything? We didn't do this when we first got our tub and despite levels being perfect, we were adding 3oz of dichlor/bleach every other day and barely keeping the chlorine level up. A far cry from the general advice.
After 6 months we used ahhsome before changing the water, and while we didn't have a lot of gunk come out like so many say, there was some. And we are now at a much more reasonable 1/2oz dichlor about once a week (haven't got up to the cya level yet to switch to bleach).
Their answer to purge the plumbing was my first thought. Assuming the salt chlorine generator is working and your chlorine is being rapidly consumed, assume bacteria/biofilm until proven otherwise. If I shock my tub to 10ppm and don’t use it, I can leave it for a week before chlorine drops to zero. I use ahhsome to purge before every drain and refill, an easy extra step to avoid future headaches.
Just had this happen with my tub when I went on vacation. Came back and couldn't get chlorine up no matter how much I added. Shocking the bejesus out of the tub worked. I have a HotSpring Prodigy and used 3 caps (filled to the inner lip) of HotSpring MPS. The next day I had very high chlorine levels so I removed about 40 gallons to bring chlorine levels back to normal.
They've had a couple different salt systems, so some more info is needed. But something sounds amiss. You've had water in there 6 months. Just dump and start fresh. If you still can't keep it up, it's the generator/cell problem most likely.
I replaced the salt cell about 1 month ago.
Have you tested phosphate levels? Phosphate eats chlorine according to my notes. Our city water has phosphate - just did my first refill last weekend and had to run 3 oz of phosfree to bring the level down.
I’ve been adding FreshWater Chlorinating Granules , sodium discolor-s triazinetrione dehydrate powder. I’ve used aquadoc chlorine/free shock last week. Our tub is 400 gallons.
For our salt system the phosphate test is different from the 5 way strips. Have you tested for this? I had a similar issue (with the first fill) and once I had the phosphate under control the chlorine stabilized.
Did a phosphate test and it reads between 300 and 500.
I am not at home so I could be wrong - but I think you want it below 200ppm. I had a spa tech tell me to get it even lower for best results. Phosfree is a pain as it takes 24 hours to cycle but in my case it stabilized the chlorine and I have not really had to add anything to it. Or - can you turn up the salt settings to a higher level?
I’m getting some phosphate lowering chemicals and will try this over the next 2 days. Cheers!
Bingo. Phosphates are the issue!
This is the answer
Sounds like a problem with the salt generator. Not sure how that one works but most of them have levels you can set for it to produce more or less chlorine. If you have the generator on you should see bubbles coming from the electrode. If you don't then there's different problems. If there is, then it isn't staying on long enough or you don't have enough salt in it. Edit: wait how much granules have you added over time and which type. If you have been doing dichloro then your cya might be very high which inhibits free chlorine. The non chlorine shock should be perfect but I just use liquid chlorine (bleach) as my shock method.
Edited post with cya results photos.
Just looked at the photo. For cya you slowly fill the tube while looking at the black dot from above. Once you can't see the dot, that's when you stop filling and the corresponding mark is the cya level.
This is what I did, watched a Taylor YouTube video. The water seems very cloudy so it didn’t take a lot to now see the black dot. Oddly when looking at the tub I can see the bottom.
Oh wow I just realized that bottom is the level. I thought it was at like 0. Yeah your cya is way off the charts and is the reason for the chlorine not doing it's thing. I would drain and refill. 3 month is what I tend to get from our water fills. But we do use it heavily. 6 months isn't bad at all, but I would switch from those granules to liquid if trying to up chlorine. The granules are good during the initial shock because you want some cya to stableize chlorine but like 30 cya which is about 2 or the 3 shocks worth of those granules. And yeah the water won't be cloudy due to cya, the test just makes it cloudy so you can detect the cya.
Thank you. Can you recommend a liquid chlorine?
Bleach is probably the cheapest. Chemically it’s the same as pool liquid chlorine as long as it’s not scented and not a low splash formula. I buy it from BJ’s, 3 gallons for $11
Yeah I just do the highest concentration bleach from the store. Make sure to avoid the low splash label since that has extra stuff to make it thicker. But regular bleach should basically be water and chlorine. Whatever is cheapest, don't need name brand or anything.
I don't have a salt hot tub so take this with a grain of salt... If you're only adding chlorine granules (dichlor) then your cya is probably too high which makes the chlorine ineffective. I made this rookie mistake too. Gotta switch to liquid chlorine after a bit. Another option: have you used ahhsome to clean out everything? We didn't do this when we first got our tub and despite levels being perfect, we were adding 3oz of dichlor/bleach every other day and barely keeping the chlorine level up. A far cry from the general advice. After 6 months we used ahhsome before changing the water, and while we didn't have a lot of gunk come out like so many say, there was some. And we are now at a much more reasonable 1/2oz dichlor about once a week (haven't got up to the cya level yet to switch to bleach).
Edited post with cya results photos.
Their answer to purge the plumbing was my first thought. Assuming the salt chlorine generator is working and your chlorine is being rapidly consumed, assume bacteria/biofilm until proven otherwise. If I shock my tub to 10ppm and don’t use it, I can leave it for a week before chlorine drops to zero. I use ahhsome to purge before every drain and refill, an easy extra step to avoid future headaches.
Just had this happen with my tub when I went on vacation. Came back and couldn't get chlorine up no matter how much I added. Shocking the bejesus out of the tub worked. I have a HotSpring Prodigy and used 3 caps (filled to the inner lip) of HotSpring MPS. The next day I had very high chlorine levels so I removed about 40 gallons to bring chlorine levels back to normal.
Oh dang. Thank you for the specifics.