Bullfrog Spa A8 cleaning

[BPool18]

Hi - have a 500 gallon bullfrog A8. Previous home owners bought it a few years ago and I’ve owned it for about a year.

About a year ago, I replaced the two filters, drained and cleaned the tub.
Since then, water clarity has been great. PH has historically run low which I had been fixing with PH up granular.

Tonight, I was reading a separate post and discovered that the spa chlorinating granules I used to maintain FC. Didn’t realize that they raise cya. Did a quick cya test using tf-100 And sure enough, cya 100+. Felt pretty dumb.

I guess it’s time for a drain and refill but it’s just interesting that I’ve never had any issues with cloudiness, etc this past year.

Questions:
1. Assuming I do need to drain despite no water issues?

2. My two bullfrog filters are a year old. I was planning to use ahh-some to do a deep clean. Can I just throw them in or should I buy two new filters since they are a year old?

3. Most of my spa pillows are deteriorating/crumbling - assuming this is due to low ph that my spa tends to trend. The crumbling causes little pieces to break off and go in the water at times. Any other way to replace these other than $40 a pop?

Thanks

 

[mknauss]

Well - no one replied! Let's bump this to see if anyone can help.

 

[BPool18]

Thanks Marty.

 

[vertrkr]

I have a BullFrog A7, I can't answer all your questions but I'll post my experience. I throw the filters in the middle when purging with Ahhsome and they always look new to me so I keep using them. If you are going to buy new ones I found the OEM filters have more pleats/surface area than the after market ones but they cost twice as much.

Ahhsome can be a pain with the modular seat backs. The foam will get behind the seats making it difficult to wipe out. I've thrown the seat backs in the middle and purged but then you don't really get the plumbing in the seats purged out that well. Next time I'm going to try using some sort of water proof tape and just tape up the seams on the water line so the foam can't float behind the seat backs.

Not sure about the head rests, I haven't had any problem with them.

P.S. I use the SpaFrog (now Frog Serene) system because I'm lazy and it works with little maintenance for me.