Hot Tub Learning Videos
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This page links out to many different article, videos and resources that I have built to help hot tub and spa owners to learn about how to properly care for their hot tub. It can certainly be overwhelming if you are new to hot tub care. It is uniquely challenging to maintain a warm water environment and the chemical values in the water can change quickly and drastically. For this reason hot tub owners need to be extra diligent about how well they monitor their water chemistry and balance, as well as how strictly they adhere to the regular maintenance schedule such as filter cleanings or draining and refilling.
After many years of managing a hot tub water lab I have learned to warn spa owners about piecing together chemistry advice from multiple sources. Instead try to view chemistry maintenance of the water as a system. You need to pick one system and follow it from beginning to end. If you add in a splash of advice from your neighbor or your brother in law with a pool then you can easily find yourself with a chemistry problem that is a) unfixable without draining and filling, and b) can potentially be causing damage to integral components of your hot tub like your heater element. It will be most helpful for you to understand that water chemistry values are intended to be numerical. You should never have "good" pH or "bad" pH. You should have a numerical value such as a pH of 7.8 and this also goes for every other chemical that you test for in pool / spa water from sanitizer (commonly bromine in hot tubs) to calcium to your total alkalinity.
To review the ideal ranges for hot tub water see the 10 minute water chemistry crash course
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Hot tub learning videos
Common hot tub questions
Is a used hot tub a bad idea?
Hot tubs are quite a bit more expensive to buy than you might think with a quality brand name spa costing well more than $10,000. This means that buying a new spa can cost almost as much as buying a new car and with prices like that it is entirely likely that many people will never be able to afford a new hot tub. Fortunately hot tubs are kind of like cars in that you can buy an older used model and run it until it breaks, or buy one to fix up and use. Hot tubs do not have all that many moving parts with topside controls, spa packs, burnt out motors and plumbing leaks account for the majority of broken hot tubs out there. If you can troubleshoot and repair these items then you can definitely get yourself a used hot tub for far less than a new one.
The only word of caution I have for people who want to pick up a used spa is that many (most) hot tub owners do mot maintain the chemistry properly in them. You should make the assumption when buying a used spa, that is it very much in need of deep cleaning before you can fill and use it. Biofilms within the plumbing lines need to be stripped out with a pipe flush which means that you need to fill, heat and run the spa at least once in order to pipe flush and drain the spa as part of your initial cleaning process. You can get a pretty nasty infection from trying to use an older or second hand hot tub without cleaning it first.
How to get rid of foam in a hot tub?
In this video you see an example of "how much foam is too much foam" in a hot tub. Pretty much any spa will form foam / bubbles when the jets are running however this foam should not build or grow. Further, when you turn off the jets all of the bubbles should readily disappear within 60 seconds. Any bubbles that remain after 60 seconds represents a problem that you can attend to with more frequent filter cleanings, and especially with the use of a weekly enzyme treatment of the water.
Foam should not exist within a well balanced and clean hot tub. Foam is an indication that there is a chemical imbalance or more commonly a high level of impurities within the water. This could be like soaps or detergents that are introduced on the clothes and person of the bathers or it can also be a few different chemical conditions like having a low (too low) value for calcium hardness in the water. Without any hardness, the soft water will be highly inclined to form suds and foam even with just the normal amount of impurities within the water. If the water is old or poorly managed, or both, the effects of the foam will be even more noticeable. Avoid using "anti-foam" hot tub products as these do nothing to address the underlying issue causing the foaming and instead only change (temporarily) the surface tension of the water.
How to clean a hot tub filter?
One of the most important mistakes that hot tub owners make is how they clean their hot tub filters. Many spa owners remove the filter and then wash it down with a garden hose. The problem is that this only removes skin, hair and other surface debris. The filter already experiences water running over it at much greater rates than from your garden hose so it is logical if you think about it. The hot tub filter is made from paper. When you are in the spa you sweat and this (along with other oils, makeup, lotions etc.) gets absorbed by the paper filter. When you clean a filter it is this oil saturating the paper that you need to remove and this is why it is critical that you degrease your spa filters to clean them.
Make sure to use a degreaser that will cut through the oils saturating the paper filter but choose one that does not contain phosphates. It is also important to choose a product not inclined to foam as you might have small amounts of soap residue on the filter and this would certainly cause more foam in the spa. Automatic dishwasher detergent mixed at a ratio of one cup of detergent mixed with 5 gallons of hot water is effective. You could also use TSP, simple green cleaner or any other phosphate free, non-foaming degreaser. Be sure to rinse and dry your filter thoroughly before storing. Change your filters once per week or sooner for best results.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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