HotSprings Freshwater Salt System for producing natural chlorine – does it work and is it worth it? As the owner of a HotSprings Sovereign Hot Tub for many years now, I can give you my full review of the system, warts and all.
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What Is The Freshewater Salt System?
To ensure your hot tub stays clean and safe to use, it needs to have a sufficient amount of chlorine in it to kill any bacteria and to keep the water safe to bathe in.
You will know from your trips to any spa or swimming pool that you always leave smelling of chlorine; this is to ensure that you do not catch any bugs from all of the other users of the facilities.
So the same must happen in your hot tub for it to be safe for you and your friends and family to use.
Most hot tub companies use some sort of hot tub chlorine dispenser to slowly allow your hot tub chlorine tablets to dissolve slowly to keep it safe to bathe in.
These work absolutely fine and are very easy to use.
However, you do have to keep topping them up with chlorine tablets and checking the water to ensure that the chlorine is at the correct level.
HotSprings designed their Freshwater Salt System to alleviate this problem.
By keeping a probe in the filter area of the hot tub full time, it turns salt in the water into natural chlorine, which it claims to be less smelly than manufactured chlorine and less harsh on the skin.
I can confirm that both of those statements are true, but not without their own different challenges.
When the HotSprings Freshwater Salt System works, it is brilliant, a game changer.
However, it doesn’t work very well in some situations at all.
HotSprings Freshwater Salt System Problems Or Challenges
When our HotSprings Sovereign Hot Tub first arrived, we were very excited.
After waiting what seemed like an age for the hot tub to heat up after installing it, we could wait not longer and dived into the tub at 35 degrees Centigrade.
“Oh no, what have we done” we thought. “This will never be hot enough.”
On waiting another day, we found 38 degrees Centigrade to be a much better temperature.
On checking the chlorine levels, we found that the little wizardry Freshwater Salt System was indeed producing its own natural chlorine, so long as the salt in the hot tub was at the right level.
At first it all worked well, but then we started having problems, and the lights kept flashing to say there was a problem.
We called for help and were told not to worry, the sensor which produces the chlorine often has problems, but with a five year guarantee, we had nothing to fear.
They came out to replace the sensor and all was good again for a while, until again, it wasn’t.
I was advised that the main issue was that I lived in a hard water area, so I needed to ensure the water was softened in the hot tub.
How was I to do this?
Buy some water softening bags at around £25 to use every time I filled the hot tub up.
These should do the trick.
Soft Water Is Essential If You Want The Freshwater Salt System To Work
We now know that soft water is essential to make the chlorine producing system work.
This isn’t really a problem, is it?
Well, if you think about how the Freshwater Salt System is used, to allow less maintenance to produce wonderful natural chlorine, it really is a problem.
To make this ‘hassle free chlorine’, you now have to buy something to make it work, which might be fine, but I discovered that one bag often wasn’t enough to get the water to the required level, so I had to buy another bag, so now it is £50 for each hot tub refill.
Not hassle free and ceetainly not free free, either.
This became a nuisance, so I was sold a water softening system, costing around £300, to use each time I refilled the hot tub.
Suddenly, my hassle free, free free chlorine production was anything but, and it didn’t stop there either.
The Freshwater Salt System continued to have problems, so I think we went through three or four in our five year warranty period.
When the warranty ended, we found that a new diode would cost around £400 to replace it.
This is when I finally gave up on the FreshWater Salt System, instead operating for this wonderfully simple Chlorine Tablet Dispenser which slowly releases Chrlorine Tablets into the system.
With the continued stress of “Will the Freshwater Salt System work or won’t it”, and largely not working due to the water being too hard, for where I live I wouldn’t buy another Freshwater Salt System hot tub.
Which Freshwater Salt System?
My Freshwater Salt System used the Ace Diode to produce chlorine. From reviewing the HotSprings website, it seems that this may have been retired in favour of a new system (not suprisingly perhaps).
I cannot comment on this system and maybe it is flawless, but I note that the cartridges need replacing every four months, and cost £99.
If you still have to keep the water soft for them to work, that is £400 per year for cartridges and another £200 or so for water softeners.
Alternatively, you can buy the £5 chlorine tablet dispenser above and Chlorine tablets (around £40 for 200 which should last around one year depending on usage), and hey presto.
I know which I am currently doing, and when I replace my current hot tub, it means I have a lot more options than just a HotSprings hot tub.
When you bear in mind that no other company can service a HotSprings Hot Tub as they will not release the parts, and each call out starts from £150 from HotSprings, it means it is very unlikely that I will buy another of their hot tubs when this one finally gives up the ghost, although I have thoroughly enjoyed our Sovereign for the many years that we have already owned it.
It is just the practicalities above that mean I will widen my search for the next hot tub (and let you know all about it when the time comes).I can give you my full review of the system, warts and all.
What Is The Freshewater Salt System?
To ensure your hot tub stays clean and safe to use, it needs to have a sufficient amount of chlorine in it to kill any bacteria and to keep the water safe to bathe in.
You will know from your trips to any spa or swimming pool that you always leave smelling of chlorine; this is to ensure that you do not catch any bugs from all of the other users of the facilities.
So the same must happen in your hot tub for it to be safe for you and your friends and family to use.
Most hot tub companies use some sort of hot tub chlorine dispenser to slowly allow your hot tub chlorine tablets to dissolve slowly to keep it safe to bathe in.
These work absolutely fine and are very easy to use.
However, you do have to keep topping them up with chlorine tablets and checking the water to ensure that the chlorine is at the correct level.
HotSprings designed their Freshwater Salt System to alleviate this problem.
By keeping a probe in the filter area of the hot tub full time, it turns salt in the water into natural chlorine, which it claims to be less smelly than manufactured chlorine and less harsh on the skin.
I can confirm that both of those statements are true, but not without their own different challenges.
When the HotSprings Freshwater Salt System works, it is brilliant, a game changer.
However, it doesn’t work very well in some situations at all.
HotSprings Freshwater Salt System Problems Or Challenges
When our HotSprings Sovereign Hot Tub first arrived, we were very excited.
After waiting what seemed like an age for the hot tub to heat up after installing it, we could wait not longer and dived into the tub at 35 degrees Centigrade.
“Oh no, what have we done” we thought. “This will never be hot enough.”
On waiting another day, we found 38 degrees Centigrade to be a much better temperature.
On checking the chlorine levels, we found that the little wizardry Freshwater Salt System was indeed producing its own natural chlorine, so long as the salt in the hot tub was at the right level.
At first it all worked well, but then we started having problems, and the lights kept flashing to say there was a problem.
We called for help and were told not to worry, the sensor which produces the chlorine often has problems, but with a five year guarantee, we had nothing to fear.
They came out to replace the sensor and all was good again for a while, until again, it wasn’t.
I was advised that the main issue was that I lived in a hard water area, so I needed to ensure the water was softened in the hot tub.
How was I to do this?
Buy some water softening bags at around £25 to use every time I filled the hot tub up.
These should do the trick.
Soft Water Is Essential If You Want The Freshwater Salt System To Work
We now know that soft water is essential to make the chlorine producing system work.
This isn’t really a problem, is it?
Well, if you think about how the Freshwater Salt System is used, to allow less maintenance to produce wonderful natural chlorine, it really is a problem.
To make this ‘hassle free chlorine’, you now have to buy something to make it work, which might be fine, but I discovered that one bag often wasn’t enough to get the water to the required level, so I had to buy another bag, so now it is £50 for each hot tub refill.
Not hassle free and ceetainly not free free, either.
This became a nuisance, so I was sold a water softening system, costing around £300, to use each time I refilled the hot tub.
Suddenly, my hassle free, free free chlorine production was anything but, and it didn’t stop there either.
The Freshwater Salt System continued to have problems, so I think we went through three or four in our five year warranty period.
When the warranty ended, we found that a new diode would cost around £400 to replace it.
This is when I finally gave up on the FreshWater Salt System, instead operating for this wonderfully simple Chlorine Tablet Dispenser which slowly releases Chrlorine Tablets into the system.
With the continued stress of “Will the Freshwater Salt System work or won’t it”, and largely not working due to the water being too hard, for where I live I wouldn’t buy another Freshwater Salt System hot tub.
Which Freshwater Salt System?
My Freshwater Salt System used the Ace Diode to produce chlorine. From reviewing the HotSprings website, it seems that this may have been retired in favour of a new system (not suprisingly perhaps).
I cannot comment on this system and maybe it is flawless, but I note that the cartridges need replacing every four months, and cost £99.
If you still have to keep the water soft for them to work, that is £400 per year for cartridges and another £200 or so for water softeners.
Alternatively, you can buy the £5 chlorine tablet dispenser above and Chlorine tablets (around £40 for 200 which should last around one year depending on usage), and hey presto.
I know which I am currently doing, and when I replace my current hot tub, it means I have a lot more options than just a HotSprings hot tub.
When you bear in mind that no other company can service a HotSprings Hot Tub as they will not release the parts, and each call out starts from £150 from HotSprings, it means it is very unlikely that I will buy another of their hot tubs when this one finally gives up the ghost, although I have thoroughly enjoyed our Sovereign for the many years that we have already owned it.
It is just the practicalities above that mean I will widen my search for the next hot tub (and let you know all about it when the time comes).