Spa & Hot Tub Water Maintenance: Basics

Getting Started

Let’s talk water balance. Easily the most overlooked yet essential part of owning a hot tub. Just having clear water isn’t the goal. Ever get into a pool or a hot tub and notice how red your eyes got? Blame the chloramines. How about noticing a dusty white residue around the water’s edge or worse on the pumps or heater? That’s scale buildup from hard water. Sure, the water looked clear but it wasn’t balanced. Improper chemistry balancing not only affects our eyes and skin, but it puts unnecessary wear and tear on your hot tub. In this guide we’ll show you how to get started and maintain your hot tub’s water.

Before you throw your hose into your hot tub, we recommend purchasing a pre-filter. This is a great way to start with better quality water. Metals in water, your pipes and even the hot tub itself will react with chlorine and turn your water green or brown depending on whether you have copper or iron in your water. Ready? Let’s get to it!

Filling Your Hot Tub

To avoid any airlocks, make sure you fill your hot tub from the filter compartment. Simply filling the hot tub up will trap air in the lines, best to fill the hot tub up from the filter compartment to help push those out and prevent an error code on startup. Every hot tub is different but a general rule of thumb is to fill the hot tub to just under the headrest pillows. Ensure that all jets are submerged.

 

Testing Your Water

How often you’ll check and test your water depends on how often you’ll use your hot tub. It’s a good idea to check your water twice a week for moderate use and after having more bathers than you normally have in your hot tub to account for the contaminants brought in. To test your water, you will need either a test strips (recommended for beginners) or a testing kit. The easiest method is using a test strip but there are some people who will be more familiar with the kit if they’ve had a pool. There are many options for water testing ranging from the humble testing strip to the $500 monitoring system that connects to your phone.

 

 

Testing Strips

The pads on the testing strip react to the agents in your water. Carefully open the container with the testing strips, ensuring that no moisture enters into the container. Dip the strip into your hot tub water and compare the colors to the chart on the container. Make sure to follow the directions provided by the manufacturer to get the most accurate results.

 

 

 

Testing Kit

Unlike the testing strips, a kit tests a sample of water from your hot tub. For an accurate reading make sure to follow the directions on your kit and compare your water to the key on the kit. Kits range and differ depending on the elements you’re testing your water for. Make sure you’ve purchased one that helps you measure total
alkalinity, pH, chlorine, bromine and calcium hardness.

 

 

Recommended Ranges For Balanced Water
Total Alkalinity	80-120 ppm
pH	7.2-7.6
Chlorine	1-3 ppm
Bromine	3-5 ppm
Calcium Hardness	200-400 ppm

 

These are the recommended balanced measurements that you’re aiming for in your testing results. Parts per million (ppm) is a measurement used in most pool and spa chemical readings. This would be the equivalent to one milligram of concentration per liter of water and is a standard unit of measurement in all testing kits.

 

 

Reviewing Your Water Test Results and Taking Action

It’s important to note that balancing your water may not happen right away or even in the next two or three days. Let’s delve into common chemicals, definitions, ranges and how to make adjustments. Good water balance takes patience. After an adjustment, water circulation is required for at least an hour before retesting. Always add your chemicals in one at a time and distribute evenly around your hot tub while the pumps are running. Read the manufacturer’s directions before use on every container.

But First, A Few Words…

Water balance refers to the pH, alkalinity and hardness levels in your hot tub water. They work closely with one another, so let’s first talk about what they mean and why they’re important.

• pH or potential hydrogen, is a measurement of how acidic or basic the water is. Ideally, you’ll want to keep it between 7.2 and 7.6. At this range you can be sure your hot tub won’t develop scale or become too acidic. Your goal is to have a neutral pH to avoid spa damage and have comfortable water for bathers. Low pH levels cause a good deal of damage to your hot tub from damaging your shell to harboring unsanitary conditions that affect skin and eyes. High pH levels cause scale formation, skin irritation and lower the efficiency of your chlorine or bromine.
• Alkalinity or TA(Total Alkalinity) measures your hot tub water’s ability to neutralize acids and bases. Essentially, it helps stabilize the pH balance in your spa. The ideal range is between 80-120ppm. At this range, you can be sure that your hot tub water will not be cloudy and promotes the longevity of your hot tub’s inner working as well as preventing scale. The higher in the acceptable range your TA is, the less likely your pH is to fluctuate. With lower alkalinity, your pH will fluctuate and be more difficult to return to acceptable range.
• Calcium Hardness is a measurement of the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in your hot tub water. Ideally, the range for your hot tub is between 200-400 ppm. Too much hardness leads to scale and more frequent filter purchases while too little can damage surfaces including your shell and metal components in your hot tub. A good way to combat hardness is to use a pre-filter when filling up your hot tub.

Sanitizers: Are You Team Chlorine or Team Bromine?

Water is a breeding ground for bacteria, add in body oils, makeup and beauty product residue and you’re looking at some pretty unbalanced water without the use of sanitizers. Depending on your preference, you can utilize bromine or chlorine. Either or, never both. While there are other sanitizing systems out there, for simplicity we’ll stick to the two most popular options.

• Chlorine is an excellent choice for sanitizing your hot tub. Chlorine granules dissolve faster in water than bromine resulting in the need to be re-added more frequently. It’s the more popular choice for a reason, it’s extremely effective and inexpensive. If you’re using chlorine, you will need to regularly test your levels as well as regularly shock your hot tub to kill any bacteria that may have been missed during the chlorination process. Keep your free chlorine at 1-3 ppm and shock your hot tub once a week for optimum sanitation. Shocking your hot tub is easy, just add a higher chlorine concentration or spa shock to the the water and allow the water to circulate for 45 minutes with the cover off. The recommended level for shock treatments is 10 ppm. After shocking, test your spa water levels and adjust as needed. Add 2 tsp of chlorinating concentrate per person after every hot tub use or every 4 days.
• Bromine is also a great choice for sanitizer, however, it has it’s caveats. It takes considerably longer for the bromine to disintegrate sometimes taking up to several days to show up in your testing results. This makes it very easy to overdo the bromine in your hot tub. You’ll find yourself adding less bromine than chlorine to your spa making it less work if you can keep your levels correct. The ideal range for bromine is between 3-5 ppm.

On To Taking Action…

Problem	Solution
High pH	pH decreaser
Low pH	pH increaser
High alkalinity	pH decreaser
Low alkalinity	Alkalinity decreaser
Low alkalinity, low pH	Use pH increaser
Low alkalinity, high pH	Use pH decreaser and then alkalinity increaser
High total alkalinity, high pH	Use pH decreaser
High total alkalinity, low pH	Use pH decreaser then pH increaser

 

Important Water Maintenance Tips

Now that you know the basics of maintaining your water, let’s round out your expertise by highlighting other important information you should know.

• Flush your hot tub water every 3-4 months. You can only balance the water in your hot tub so much before it’s time to get some fresh water in there.
• Clean the filter with filter cleaner monthly. Your filters work hard and filtering all the water and chemicals in your hot tub takes a toll. Keep them in shape longer by cleaning frequently.
• Add stain and scale control weekly. This helps prevent staining and scaling in your hot tub and will prolong the life of your filters and pumps.
• Rinse your spa pillows bi-weekly to prevent breakdown and buildup of spa chemicals.
• Hose off your cover on both sides to prolong its life and functionality. Sanitizer evaporates bacteria and a lot of it ends up on the inside of your cover. Give it a rinse!

Finally…Enjoy Your Hot Tub

Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed with water care. It may seem like a lot of information at first, but with practice you’ll become an expert. If you have any questions or concerns about anything hot tub or spa related, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re experts and we’re always happy to help. Reach us at 708-717-0671 or fill out our contact form here. Keep coming back for more articles and helpful charts to make you a hot tub master!