Why did Clorox turn my jacuzzi tub brown?

Question

We just bought a brand spankin new house with a corner jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. My fiance's family told us to clean it by filling it with water, add a bit of Clorox, and run the jets for 1/2 an hour. The water turned brown and stained our brand new tub! YUK! I've slowly been able to clean it...but I want to know why this happened. Help please!

public water system

Answer 1

Are you on a public water system or a well?

http://www.sra.dst.tx.us/srwmp/mr_water_wizard/default.asp?page=faq&group=4#q73

Answer 2

You have a high iron content in your water, which reacts with bleach to form a rust like compound. I hate to tell you this, but it will happen in your washer too- with the white clothes, if you add bleach. You clothes will come out with dingy brown stains all over them. You will need to either install an inline filter to remove the excess iron particles or add a water softener before you do laundry or fill your tub. Even with the softener, like Calgon, your whites will still get dingy looking. Any chlorine bleach will have this reaction, anywhere you use it, including the toilets and dishwasher. To double check this, you can leave a glass of water out to sit overnight. If you have a high iron content in the water, the next morning you will see the reddish brown evidence in the bottom of the glass. My advise is to get the inline filter- it's easier than trying to add enough Calgon every time, and makes housecleaning a lot easier.

Answer 3

uh oh! i have this same problem with my pool, we have to buy water! it's something called manganese. the clorox made it turn into a metal form....rusty metal. and the brown stains are rust stains. there is something you can buy at a pool store called stain and scale. supposedly you put it in your water before putting any chemicals like bleach in it. i can't even use a bag of shock in my pool, it turns it so brown it looks black! good luck with that, it's a pain!!!

Answer 4

Sounds like it got some nasty stuff out of the tub's plumbing. It may have gotten yucky in there during installation.