hot tub water cloudy and dirty
Can I have cloudy water in the hot tub with an Ego3 filter?
Hot tub water cloudy and dirty?
Basically absolutely not, because the Ego3 has been tested tens of thousands of times and always works 100% and filters 100%! With Ego3 hot tub filters, there is no cloudy hot tub water during operation!
There are, however, three reasons that are mistakenly seen as filter errors out of ignorance, which can lead to cloudy hot tub water:
- the pH value is too high or the alkalinity too low. The water becomes milky. Unfortunately, this is a discoloration of the water and not a cloudiness caused by suspended particles. Therefore, it cannot be filtered by either the Ego3 filter or the cartridge filter. Remedy: Adjust pH value/TA value. Then the milky appearance will disappear on its own. It is a discoloration of the water. This cannot be filtered.
- the disinfection is insufficient and/or the biofilm load is too high. Pay closer attention to disinfection! In this case, the filter filters continuously, but new dirt also constantly forms. The water is greenish / brownish.
- the water was clear so far but clouds at the beginning of using the Ego3 filter. This is due to a positive side effect of the Ego3 filter - the pipe cleaning effect. The Ego3 filter has about 2-3 times the flow rate of the cartridge filter (when new, otherwise even more). Due to the poor flow of the cartridge filter and because it cannot filter below 40 microns, these finest suspended particles settle in the pipes. The Ego3 hot tub filter now ensures that this dirt is "scrubbed" out of the pipes. As a result, the hot tub water clouds until all the dirt is finally out of the pipes. This can take hours, days, or in cases of very strong pipe contamination, 3-4 weeks. New dirt constantly comes out of the pipes and is immediately filtered again. Turning pumps on and off, as well as operating the distribution valves and air valves, accelerates the cleaning because it causes rapid flow changes. But after that, your pipes are finally clean, as they should be.
We guarantee that the Ego3 filter always filters 100%.
How do I test the pipe cleaning effect?
Simply reinstall the old filter briefly. The water will become clear again temporarily because the dirt no longer immediately comes out of the pipes. But that should not be the case. The dirt belongs out of the pipes! Once that is accomplished, you will also notice that you need less chemicals in the water care of the hot tub because a bacterial source has been reduced.
Summary "hot tub water cloudy" despite Ego3:
- with milky discoloration only adjust the pH/TA value
- with greenish or brownish discoloration disinfection is insufficient
- with initial cloudiness just let it run. Our filter cleans your pipes. And that is a good thing!
As always, you can always contact us as EGo3 customers by writing or calling if you have further questions.
Hot tub water cloudy - what to do?
If the disinfection system is in order, the pH and TA values are correct, and the filters work, a hot tub must have clear water!
Hot tub water must never be cloudy!
Therefore, I will explain each point one by one here in order, which can be checked and improved to ensure that everything works.
AGAINST CLOUDY HOT TUB WATER
pH value setting done correctly against milky cloudiness of the hot tub water
The pH value in a hot tub should always be between 6.8-7.2, otherwise every disinfectant is severely limited in its function. Hot tub water becomes cloudy at pH values that deviate 0.5 from 7.0. The hot tub water becomes milky cloudy. At 1.0 deviation completely milky. Warning: Many pH meters measure incorrectly if the TA value is not correct. This is the most common error in hot tub water care.
Disinfection against greenish, brownish cloudy hot tub water
Color with insufficient disinfection - green, brown cloudy
Chemical disinfectants for hot tubs:
Chlorine, bromine, active oxygen
It is important not to mix ozone and chlorine/bromine permanently! Both chlorine/bromine and ozone form free atoms that seek a bond (preferably with carbon = bacteria, algae, etc.), and if both are used simultaneously, chlorine can bind with oxygen instead of the atoms attacking the "bad, living" substances in the water made of carbon.
Automatic hot tub disinfection:
- UVC - UV system: make sure that the glass tube through which the water is irradiated is not fogged or dirty. This would reduce the radiation and massively decrease the disinfection effect.
-
Ozone system: The probably simplest, most efficient, and healthiest way to disinfect hot tub water if a few simple things are considered.
- Check if the installation direction of the ozonator is correct (this is important for hot tubs with ozonators with membrane pumps!) and if it is working (usually indicated green by a control lamp).
- Check if the intake side of the ozonator fits. Often the intake holes are designed too small or covered with fibers to reduce humidity, which quickly clog. Drill the intake hole to at least 3mm and remove the fabric piece on the intake side.
- Prevent alternative backflow options so that as much water as possible must pass the injector from the circulation pump. Often waterfalls or warm water return lines are also connected to this circuit. Turn off the waterfall when not in use! If possible, turn the warm water return nozzle as far off as possible (this is often done using a hemisphere at the tip that is turned against the flow)!
- Ensure flow in the ozone line: some hot tubs have mixing chambers installed that get dirty or clogged with biofilm over time. Remove these mixing chambers. Ozone acts for 20 seconds. That means whether with or without a mixing chamber, the return flow should last at least 20 seconds. This is easy to test by blocking the ozone intake and measuring how long it takes after reopening the intake for ozone bubbles to appear in the pool again.
- Check that the check valve in the Mazzei injector is not clogged or glued shut by dirt and thus does not open sufficiently.
- Connection line ozonator - injector: These two components are connected with a hose line with a check valve.
- Check whether the hose line is fully permeable (not kinked, not clogged with dirt or nitric acid compounds (which form a sticky film in the hose during ozone generation))
- Check whether the check valve in the line is fully permeable. Remove, rinse, and blow through.
- To avoid accidental suction of air instead of ozone at connection points in the pipeline, all connection points can also be sealed with insulating tape.
- Disinfection times: Always set to 24h circulation and ozone runtime at the beginning. When the water is perfect or with infrequent hot tub use, the times can be reduced.
- Ozonator: Different ozonators have different ozone production rates. Choose the right ozonator.
- Ozone mixing: This is done using Mazzei injectors, which operate with the Venturi vacuum system and are connected to the ozonator via a hose line with a check valve.
- Mazzei injector: Important here is the choice of the right injector and the correct water flow rate at the injector. This can be influenced as follows:
And the most important point against cloudy hot tub water:
the right hot tub filter against cloudy hot tub water due to unfiltered suspended solids
EGO3 Filter (+++): They can hardly clog because they do not act like a filter net of paper filters (cartridge filters), but according to the vortex principle along free flow channels. They filter out everything down to 1 micrometer and in enormous quantities, since the entire 3-dimensional space of the filter balls is available as filter space. Furthermore, these filter balls are much easier to clean and you can see if they are clean.
Paper filter (-): When these filters become clogged, the flow rate naturally decreases and the suction at the injector also diminishes, thus reducing the ozone feed. Filters are difficult to clean because sticky substances cannot be removed mechanically, only chemically. It is better to replace filters more often rather than too rarely. The filtering effect is limited by the fiber mesh size. The absorption capacity is limited by the relatively small filter surface area. It is almost impossible to visually determine whether the filter has really been cleaned. Just because the filter looks lighter again does not mean that the pores of the filter fabric are free again.
