Hot tub water maintenance does not have to be difficult or time consuming, but monitoring spa water on a regular basis will assure a healthy and safe time in the hot tub for your family, friends and yourself.
Mistake 1: Not maintaining bacteria-killing sanitizer level
Failure to maintain bacteria killing sanitizer level in the water.
What to do instead: Check water with test strips 2-3 times a week and add either bromine or chlorine to a level that will show up on the test strip in the safe zone. By monitoring sanitizer level regularly with test strips or a hot tub water test kit, you will never be caught off guard with no sanitizer and you can avoid skin rashes and other health related problems.
Mistake 2: Not balancing the pH level in the spa
Failure to balance the pH can mean either excessively high or excessively low pH levels in the spa water. The recommended level is between 7.2-7.6 for the pH level. You can test pH with test strips or a water test kit. If the pH is too low, the water is acid like and can eat away at equipment and skin! If the pH is too high, the water has become basic and can cause calcium carbonate precipitation which forms a milky slime on the surface of your hot tub. This is slippery, dangerous, clogs the filter and can damage spa equipment including the heater.
What to do instead: Check water with test strips 2-3 times a week and add either pH plus or pH minus power until the water checks out between 7.2-7.6 pH level.
Need bromine test strips? Leisure Time 45005 4 way Bromine Test Strip
Need chlorine test strips? Leisure Time 45010 Chlorine Test Strips, 50 Count
Mistake 3: Not cleaning the filter regularly
Failure to clean the filter regularly means the pump has to work harder which will cost you more in electricity and also shorten the life of the pump and other spa components. The water is also not clean as particulates are not properly being filtered out of the water.
What to do instead: Remove the filter every week or two and hose it off. Soak the filter in an overnight filter cleaning solution once a month to eat away and unclog the filter paper (or media). Replace the filter every year to assure uninterupted filtration and peak performance of your spa’s filtration system.
Have a spare filter, some test strips (chlorine test strips if you use chlorine as a sanitizer or bromine test strips if you use bromine as a sanitizer), pH plus, pH minus and either chlorine or bromine sanitizer. The other thing you may want to get is some non-chlorine shock treatment such as potassium monopersulfate based renew or shock which reinvigorates bromine or chlorine.
Having these items on hand and checking spa water regularly with test strips is all you need to keep your water sparkling clean and disease free!