Maintenance

Before we look at the wide range of benefits that a hot tub can provide it is important to note some safety factors.

It is essential to maintain the cleanliness of your hot tub water, not only to keep the water looking clear and smelling fresh but also to eliminate the safety threat that unclean water can pose to you and your family.

Testing the Water: The water alkalinity, ph. and chemical levels should be checked regularly to ensure that they are at safe levels This can be done very simply using special test strips, available from your Hot Tub dealer. This should be done weekly.

Alkalinity should be checked first, because the result can affect the results of the pH testing. A correct alkalinity reading is somewhere between 80and 120ppm. Inaccurate alkalinity can cause completely dry skin or aggravated eyes, scale, cloudy water, wear away metal components and reduce the life important?

In scientific terms, pH describes how acidic or basic a solution is. Whether anaqueous solution reacts as an acid or a base depends on its hydrogen ion (H+) content – in fact, the term ‘pH’ originates from Latin and is an acronym for potential hydro genii, which means the power of hydrogen.

It’s important to check your pH levels using a testing strip before you add any sanitisers.
For your hot tub water, a pH of 7.2 is the ideal setting. Anything below 7.2 is too acidic, which may cause corrosion and eye irritation. pH levels above 7.8 are too alkaline, which puts your hot tub at risk of cloudy water, poor sanitiser efficiency and skin irritation.

To balance your pH levels, add the appropriate chemical –either pH Plus or pH minus, depending on the results of your testing strip.

Hot Tub Filtration: Movement of your hot tub water is essential to maintain its cleanliness – as with water in nature, it can become stagnant and unsafe to use without proper filtration. Your hot tub pumps will work to keep your water fresh.

Depending on the make and model your tub, water will either be filtered through an individual circulation pump or through the jet pump at low speed. There are standard factory settings on all hot tubs that ensure the water is constantly filtering, keeping the water clean, warm and ready for use. The water passes through filter elements that remove particle matter as small as five microns – that’s 14 times smaller than a human hair. Your hot tub filters should be removed and thoroughly cleaned when you are Water Testing.

They should at least be hosed of thoroughly and possibly with an aid to really clean them. Again, your hot tub dealer can give you all the advice you may need. It is quite a good idea to have a spare filter, or filters.

This will mean you can leave the used filter in a solution to clean it even more and replace it with the spare filter. Having spare filters will increase the life of the filters as well.

Depending upon the type of filtration your hot tub has the water should be emptied and the spa thoroughly cleaned, at roughly 3 monthly intervals. Your hot tub dealer can give you all the help and information you need, including providing these services for you. It is also important to ensure that the water temperature doesn’t exceed 400C. Lower temperature where young children are involved.
Give your hot regular water changes: Remember to change your hot tub water every three months, as recommended by BISHTA (the British and Irish Spa and Hot Tub Association). This is to prevent chemical build-up as, after three months, the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) can get high, resulting in reduced water clarity a greater amount of chemicals required than when your hot tub is freshly filled.

You can empty the water onto your lawn, and providing there are no unusual chemicals, the grass shouldn’t be affected.

Take the opportunity to give your hot tub’s interior a clean while it’s empty. It’s also the prefect opportunity to clean out the plumbing and the filter, which should be done regularly to ensure that your hot tub continues to function efficiently.

When refilling your tub, be sure to place the garden hose into your hot tub’s filter compartment to prevent air pockets and filter the water as you fill.

Depending upon the quality of your hot tub and the filtration system the frequency of the guidance on how frequently water changes can be increased. Please contact you hot tub supplier for specific your water needs changing. Failure to follow these basic steps can result in skin rashes, infections, diseases and water borne infections. Pregnant women should also avoid too high a temperature or too long a time in the water.

Hot tub sanitisation: It is essential to sanitise your hot tub water to eliminate any bacteria and viruses that thrive in warm water. These living organisms are so small that they’re invisible to the naked eye and are carried on your skin, so sanitisation is necessary to keep your hot tub water safe for you and your family.

Chlorine and bromine are the two most popular chemicals in the UK to treat hot tub water and kill off bacteria. Make sure that you run your chlorine at 3-5ppm or your bromine at 3 – 6ppm. Chlorine is initially
cheaper, easier to apply and works faster than bromine. However, bromine has some advantages over chlorine: although it costs slightly more, bromine works for longer and kills bacteria more effectively than chlorine, particularly at high temperatures and high pH levels. Chlorine is also more caustic than bromine and if you have sensitive skin, it is better to use bromine. If you do have sensitive skin, it is worth talking about it to your hot tub dealer because there are more sophisticated treatments available, and they can give you all the advice you need.

It’s best to sanitise when you’ve finished bathing in your hot tub so that the water is fresh and clean before your next dip.

Having said all the above, using a hot tub is a wonderful experience and can help to improve your lifestyle and general health and wellbeing.