Your hot tub should offer you a daily boost of positivity, relaxation, and comfort. However, a complicated water care routine can easily create anything but a rejuvenating spa experience. Luckily, water maintenance doesn’t have to be difficult! In this blog, we’ll outline a simple, step-by-step process to properly balance your chlorine spa. With these action items, you can finally get back to what matters most; pure relaxation.
First and foremost, it’s important to understand the necessity of proper water care. Because hot tubs operate at high temperatures while requiring various chemical additives, improper balancing can lead to bacteria growth, skin irritation, and a buildup of harsh minerals that will heavily impact your spa’s performance. Chlorine systems require repeated adjustments to ensure proper hot tub functioning, allowing you to create your perfect relaxation oasis. The following steps should be taken on a weekly basis for six months, after which it is recommended that you drain and refill your spa with fresh water.
When it comes to your hot tub, regularly recurring water care is the best way to ensure optimal chemical levels throughout your spa use. Begin by choosing one day of the week to perform testing and spa balancing. Your hot tub chemical levels will constantly be fluctuating, and daily testing can have you scrambling to perform micro-adjustments, leading to an unpleasurable spa ownership experience.
Steps:
1) Test Your Spa Water:
On your chosen water care day, simply open your spa lid and dip in your test strip or drop tester, following specific product instructions.
2) Analyze Water Results:
Once your tester has successfully registered your hot tub’s results, you will read the results in the order of alkalinity, pH, and then free chlorine.
a) Ideal levels for alkalinity are between 80ppm to 120ppm.
b) Your spa’s pH should register between 7.2 to 7.8.
c) Free chlorine should fall between one to three parts per million for proper sanitization capabilities (although it is suggested to keep your spa’s free chlorine closer to three parts per million).
3) Adjust Your Spa Water:
Balance your spa in the following order to provide the most accurate results:
a) Alkalinity
b) pH
c) Free Chlorine
Add roughly one cap at a time of the following products to raise or lower chemical values within your spa:
a) Perfect Balance: Raises water alkalinity
b) Adjust Down: Lowers water alkalinity and water pH
c) Adjust Up: Raises water pH
d) Boost: Raises free chlorine
Turn on your spa’s jets and allow freshly adjusted water to circulate through your spa, creating an even dispersal of chemicals. Once your water has been circulated, retest your spa and perform further adjustments if needed.
4) Add ‘Refresh’:
Now that your spa has been properly balanced, add two capfuls of ‘Refresh’ to oxidize your hot tub, removing used chlorine particles to create fresh, clean water. After adding ‘Refresh’, run your spa’s jets for 20 minutes before using your hot tub.
5) Refill Chlorine Tabs:
Finally, refill your chlorine dispenser with an appropriate amount of tablets to keep your hot tub clean and sanitized until your next water adjustment.
Example:
As an example, let’s say your spa readings are the following:
1) Alkalinity: 90
2) pH: 6.8
3) Free Chlorine: 1ppm
In order to successfully balance your spa, you will need to perform the following steps during your weekly water care routine.
1) Alkalinity: this alkalinity reading is in the ideal range for spa function, meaning there are no adjustments needed.
2) pH: because your hot tub’s pH is falling below the recommended 7.2 to 7.8 reading, you will need to add two capfuls of ‘Adjust Up’ (one full cap will only raise your spa’s pH by roughly 0.5).
3) Free Chlorine: Add one full cap of ‘Boost’ to raise free chlorine levels up to the recommended three parts per million (each capful will raise free chlorine by roughly two parts per million).
4) Refresh: Add two full capfuls of ‘Refresh’ to ensure proper spa functioning while creating clean and crisp water.
Although hot tub water care can often seem like a daunting and confusing task, following the above steps on a weekly basis will ensure your spa is always in the optimal condition for lounging and relaxation. Simply refer back to this guide during your next water care session, and then unwind in comfort!
