3 Things All Hot Tub Owners Should Do
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Whether you are new to owning a hot tub or you are a seasoned spa savant there is a good chance that one or more of the items in this list are outside of your normal hot tub care routine. After managing a hot tub store water lab I learned that most people do not take care of their hot tubs properly. So many spa owners fumble their way through the care of their spa, most especially when it comes to the water chemistry. Unfortunately hot tubs are essentially a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and other nasty things, not to mention the high potential for water chemistry which is totally non-congruent with people. Such is the nature of such a small, self contained system designed to hold hot water.
It would be pretty easy to end up with adverse pH levels in a hot tub, from neglect or incorrect pH chemical corrections, such that the spa is 100 times more alkaline or acidic than it should be. If you jump into this water chances are you will not enjoy your "relaxing" soak. Similarly it would be easy to have far too much chlorine, or worse, long periods of time with no sanitizer at all in the water. So perhaps the average spa owner does know all this stuff, through trial and error if no other way, because there is a direct cause and effect happening that you might notice. Unfortunately not all hot tub problems will be as easy to spot. There are some things that you just need to know. If nobody told you when you got the tub, and you never searched to find an answer to a question you did not ask, then you can spend you whole life with a hot tub that you are just not caring for properly. So let's talk about three of the most commonly overlooked critical care points for hot tubs and spas:
Pipe flushing hot tubs - Did you know that in a hot tub the majority of the bacteria is not free floating in the water or attached to the spa shell? Most of the bacteria is within the plumbing lines. This is due to the way in which spas are built. They have a birds nest of pipes for all of the jets, often with each jet having both an air and a water line. When the spa is built it will often be wet-tested to check for leaks. With so many pipe connections leaks are relatively common. Once tested the spa will be drained for shipping but it really is impossible to get all of the water out. The residual water begins the process of bacteria growing within the plumbing lines and attaching via a gray, sticky substance called bio film. This bio film acts as both a food source for continued bacteria growth but also a means of mechanical protection where the chemical sanitizer in the spa water can not physically reach the bacteria. Worst, when you run your spa jets small bits of this biofilm break away and exit into the spa body through the jets. This is how you can get bacterial infections even in spas with a measurable sanitizer level as the biofilm is jetted right into your back, and because you are in hot water your pores are all open. This is how bacteria can cause rashes in spa users who were sitting in front of the jets. A (regular) pipe flush procedure is how to prevent this problem in your hot tub.
To pipe flush your spa you would typically remove your filter and add the pipe flush / spa flush product to the old, dirty spa water that you are about to drain. Close air lines and then run all jets in your spa for anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour. Follow the instructions for the pipe flush product which you are using. Once complete, drain away dirty water, rinse and wipe the spa down, and then refill with fresh water. Repeat this process every time you drain your old hot tub water. If you have never pipe flushed your existing hot tub, of if you buy a used / unknown hot tub then I would recommend to complete two full pipe flush procedures at minimum before filling and using the spa
Cleaning hot tub filters - The next most common mistake that hot tub owners are often making is in regards to the spa filters. There are a few things to unpack here, but in short spa filters are not being cleaned properly, and also they are not being cleaned enough. A double whammy. Dirty spa filters are the number one cause for foam in your hot tub. Which is a very common problem / complaint that many spa owners have. You need to consider how small a hot tub is. When you put two or four people in there for an hour there is a ton of sweat and oil and hairspray and makeup and other contaminants that are added. Now consider how small the paper filter is that you use to clean your hot tub. It takes no time at all for that paper material to become saturated with sweat and oils. Some people change their spa filter monthly. This is crazy talk. Changing your filter weekly should be the absolute minimum that anyone does. If you use your spa a lot, or have lots of people in it when you use it, then you should be changing your filters even more often than this. It is this reason why you should own multiple filters for your spa. This way you can always have one clean one on hand and ready to go. Next, you need to realize that a paper filter that is saturated with oil can not simply be rinsed with a garden hose to clean it. The paper is saturated with oil and you need to degrease it to remove this, and then rise the heck out of it to get all of that detergent out. Let it dry completely before storing away. If you use an acid wash to descale a filter this must be done only after degreasing. Use of an acid wash on a paper filter covered in oil will bake the oil into the paper material and permanently ruin the filter.
To clean your filter remove from spa and soak in a degreaser product like granular dishwashing detergent, TSP (tri sodium phosphate) or a phosphate free degreaser like Simple Green cleaner. Ideally use hot water to soak the filter to help the degreaser remove the oils. Rinse thoroughly including individually between each pleat of the filter to remove the maximum amount of oils, detergent residue and organic debris like hair and skin. Clean your filter at minimum of once per week and more often if you use your spa nightly or have many bathers in the spa each time you use it.
Draining & refilling with fresh water - Owning a hot tub is great but it does commit you to doing regular work in order to upkeep it. One of the biggest maintenance points is the periodic draining and refilling of the spa. It would be very easy to conveniently "forget" to drain and refill your spa every three months like you are supposed to do because there is not much in the way of direct consequence. More like incremental consequences. The water smells incrementally worse. You use incrementally more sanitizer than you used to. The water is not quite as comfortable for you and bothers your eyes and lungs a little now...this are the ways in which no draining and refilling your spa will hurt you. What many hot tub owners do not really consider is that draining and refilling your spa every three months is the minimum value, and this assumes that you otherwise maintain your hot tub perfectly. If you are not all that on point with your chemical maintenance, or you occasionally have the water "turn bad" which essentially means green water or turbid (cloudy) water as these both indicate significant failure of the chemical maintenance of the water. Additionally if you use your spa a lot, or have many people use the spa (like a family as opposed to a single, or couple) then again you should almost certainly be draining and refilling more often than every three months and certainly not skipping draining and refilling altogether for six months or a year! In theory, you can use the total dissolved solids (TDS) measurement of your water to help you know when is the right time to drain and refill. Three months is just an arbitrary number since it does not factor in any variables at all about the unique chemical nature of the water in each spa. The problem with TDS is that you can have a situation where you have high TDS values from salt (like from a salt-sanitizer generator).
In general, 1500 parts per million of total dissolved solids is the point at which you should drain and refill the water in your hot tub even if this is sooner than once every three months. If you are unable to follow this protocol because your source water has higher TDS than 1500 to start with, or you add salt to your water which increases the TDS immediately upon refilling, then you can use the alternative of 1000 parts per million TDS greater than your TDS starting point is the time to drain and refill with fresh water.
Owning and caring for a hot tub is almost enough headache as to need a second hot tub to relax from the first one. At least to start with. Once you get over the learning curve you will find the actual time to care for a spa week to week is almost negligible. Part of this process usually involves un-learning some things which you picked up along the way about how to care for your spa. Good water chemistry advice is harder to find that terrible water chemistry advice so keep that in mind when your neighbor is insisting that they do not add any chemicals to their hot tub and it is always "fine". It is not fine. Follow these three tips on this page if you really want a better (and safer) hot tub experience.
There is much more to know about caring for a spa and a good resource for you to continue learning is the hot tub learning section of this website. If water chemistry is the big challenge that you deal with day to day with your hot tub then you might like to take the pool & spa 10 minute water chemistry crash course.
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