Spa Sales Person to Spa Shopper:
"Nature's purest freshest sparkling clear water" patented water care and ultimate triple filtration system do all the work..."all you do is enjoy life"...The salesman will claim his filtration and water care system is really different from all the others. He will claim that you will use less chemicals in your water. "It's the Ozone!" or it is some other almost magical component that only they have discovered. A fancy trade marked name will describe the special filtering. The sales person is often vague as to exactly what that magical component actually is.

 Reality:
Water care is a necessity for each and every hot tub. No matter what your salesman implies. You can't escape it. The sales person and the brochures will minimize the effort involved. Calcium hardness, pH, Total alkalinity must be maintained in all water care systems. Someone will have to take on the responsibility of doing water care at least two times a week. Claims of "maintenance free" hot tubs are popular sales tools, but, such claims should raise red flags for an educated consumer.

 All water care systems fall under one of these four categories.
1. Chlorine/bromine
2. Copper Ions (sometimes called a mineral or ionizer system)
3. Biguanide/peroxide or
4. Enzyme systems.
Ozone is often mentioned in a very positive manner as it is widely used, but, it is never a stand alone sanitizer system. Ozone is very over rated and it's use is controversial among hot tub designers. There is not any scientific data that says ozone does any good in spas. We think ozone probably helps, but, there is no objective information that says you can use less chemicals or that you will save big on chemical expenses. Even the ozone device makers don't have any published data regarding its benefits.

Filtration: Many popular spas use 6 to 8 gallon/min "low flow" 24 hr circulation pumps. Reality is that you need lots and lots of filtering even for a home use spa. A home use hot tub, used by a family of four, needs at least 20,000 gallons per day filtering minimum according to the ANSI. Do the math: 8 gallons/min times 60min times 24 hours= 11,520 gallons per day. 6 gallons a minute is even worse. Plus, these low flow circ pumps don't stir up the water. Sediment stays on the bottom. Scum at the water line, from poor filtering, is a common problem in these low flow spas.

Advanced Spa Design:
 Well designed Spas provide high flow (30 to 50 gal/min) circ pumps that are programable to filter a few hours per day or up to 24 hrs. Up to 50,000+ gallons per day. Most of the spas have 100 sq/ft filters and some 200 sq/ft filters. Additionally, the higher filter flow rates provide "agitated water " filtering. That is, sediment in the water is stirred up and filtered out. Haven's excellent filtering rates allow us to use the two water treatment systems with the least amount of harsh chemicals. We recommend only Copper Ions or Eco One (enzyme). In order to avoid harsh highly chemical water treatment, we highly recommend that you stay away from biguanide/peroxide and chlorine/bromine water care. In fact, biguanide/peroxide may invalidate your hot tub's warranty. Copper Ions and EcoOne allow you to use the least amount of chemicals in your water while giving you very safe pleasant water.