Fed up with my spa it now sits empty. I spent hundreds on chemicals and draining/refilling spa, and Doctors, and no answers. I had the water professionally tested and no problems found yet I have rashes. however the rashes continue now it's been 5 months since I drained the spa and healing slowly. Doctors only guess it's eczema. I've tried every kind of chemical system almost. The Brilliance bromine system definitely doesn't work, it irritates my skin if I use the spa more than once every two weeks. The spa people suggest I fill the spa directly from my well or bypass the water softener and to use a Peroxide system. I'm looking for anyone who has has similar problems as I am tired of guessing and trying things and want something definite before I ever put another drop of water in that thing.

JHKnight -

I can feel your frustration but cannot provide any guidance. I was having some acne problems at a certain point and thought it to be the hot tub but in the end, my Derm believes it to be unrelated. There is a type of Dermatitis that is a result from the use of hot tubs but it would be widespread, not just at the top of the shoulders. You may be experiencing that problem.

On another note, I do have chronic psoriasis (all over my body) along with the psoriatic arthritis that goes with it in 10% of the suffers -- the reason I have the hot tub. I cannot say that my simply chlorinated water (I keep it fairly low) has made my skin conditions worse. I use three things to manage my spa -- Dichlor stabilized granular chlorine, hypochlorite liquid chlorine, and dry muric acid. Every blue moon I have to use a little Baking Soda to manage my TA a bit. I use a Taylor titration test kit to manage the numbers -- not test strips. This allows me to manage within a tolerance that is both safe and with minimum cost/minimum chemical use.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.
AGE

9 months later I still have a few red scaly patches on my legs that are slowly getting smaller. The spa's pump and heater are drained in anticipation of winter and it will sit empty as a monument to wasted money as I haven't been able to sell it, not even a phone call. Now the economy has turned to $*(&@ I won't spend another watt on running it. Thanks.

Hi jhknight,

I have a similar reaction to most spa chemicals. I get small patches of an itchy rash on my legs, arms and sides. My Dermatologist also called it eczema and said there wasn't much I could do. The only chemical that I have found that doesn't cause the rash is Baqua Spa. It is peroxide based system. There are a couple drawbacks to using Baqua Spa.
- It doesn't play well with ozonaters.
- It can cause water quality issues over time
- It's expensive

It's not the best system, but I am able to use my spa without getting the rash.

Hi jhknight,

I too have eczema and was using Burt's Bees Butermilk lotion. i have found a better product.
Look at the website http://www.prokera.com/.
Started using the product this summer and all I can say it has decreased my dry red skin on my legs due to eczema.

jhknight

Have you tired a product like Proteam Supreme? It makes the water softer on the body. It acutally says right on the container "Reduces Eye and Skin Irritation". I use it in my pool and I think that they may smaller dose versions for spas. Slick stuff. Here is a site the you can find it at http://www.poolspachemicals.com also Pools Geeks and a few others sell it.