On Wednesday, Feb 11, 2004, at 21:26 US/Pacific, Hopkins wrote:

> I currently use a spa pool chlorine with the active ingredient "sodium
> dicloroisocyanurate" 600g/kg
>
> I have been told a may be able to use another product sold as Janola
> with the active ingredient "sodium hypochlorite" 4.2% & "sodium
> hydroxide" 4%
>
> Any of you chemical wizards able to tell me if this is ok to use in a
> spa pool?
>
My spa came with specific instructions NOT to use 'pool chlorine' in it.
It's using bromine based sanitation, which seems to work OK.

"Sodium hypochlorite" is the "liquid chlorine" generally used in pools
as
"shock" treatment; it doesn't tend to be long-lasting.  Sodium
hydroxide is
Lye; I'm not sure why you'd use it in either pool or hottub. It's
probably
not very good for the plastic surfaces of a spa...  Hypochlorite
decomposes into hydroxide/chloride on its own, I think, which is why you
tend to need to add acid to your pool occasionally...  (ah.  Looks like
"janola" is normally a cleaning product of some kind?   The kiwi
equivilent
of "clorox laundry bleach", perhaps.  The added hydroxide would tend to
'stabalize' the hypochlorite to some extent, as well as being a grease
saponifier (lye is also known as 'oven cleaner')  I wouldn't put it in
my spa, although I've wondered if it were a possibility myself (I don't
know if "clorox" contains the hydroxide or not.  It's not on the label
or in the MSDS...))

Why do you want to switch?  My impression is that spas are so small
(compared to pools) that the chemical cost is dwarfed by the power
costs to heat it anyway...  (hmm.  that's true of the pool too,
probably,
but at over $100/year for chemicals it seems higher...)

BillW

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