Owning a hot tub is a great way to add to a relaxing activity to your evenings from the comfort of your own home. You may be worried about taking care of your hot tub properly, but it isn’t a complex process. Besides regularly cleaning the tub to keep it hygienic, it is important to add a number of different chemicals to the water. Keep reading to find out why you shouldn’t skip this part of hot tub care.
Table of Contents
Sanitizing Your Tub
It does not matter whether you have a high-quality intex hot tub, or a generic model – the water filters are not enough to keep the water clean. You will need to add some sort of chemical sanitizer to make sure that there aren’t any unwanted microorganisms in the water. You definitely do not want to soak in water that is less than sterile.
Adjusting The pH Levels
The ideal pH (a measure of how acidic or basic water is) for your hot tub is 7 – which is neutral. You will need to keep chemicals that can increase or decrease the pH level of your water so you can adjust accordingly, because water that is either too acidic or too basic can be very irritating. Because you will be spending a significant amount of time soaking in the water, the pH level becomes all the more important.
Balancing Calcium And Hardness
Another important thing to consider is how hard (or soft) your water is. Hard water will leave deposits above the water level in your tub and can actually be very corrosive to any metal parts in the equipment. On the other hand, soft water tends to get foamy which is undesirable. Again, you need chemicals to either increase or decrease the calcium (and magnesium) levels in the water after testing it, to ensure that it is at the optimum hardness level.
Reducing Foam In Your Hot Tub
If you tend to find your hot tub water gets foamy, you may consider getting a defoaming agent to quickly (but temporarily) resolve the issue. To avoid getting foamy water very fast, try taking a shower before you get into the tub because lotions and body oils are the main cause of foamy hot tub water.
Managing Heavy Metal And Mineral Concentrations
Over time, heavy metals like calcium and other heavy metals or minerals will accumulate in your hot tub. This can turn your water to strange colours, so you may want to consider using a sequestering agent to reduce the mineral and heavy metal levels in your water. Although this is purely for aesthetic purposes, it is still a good thing to have in hand.
In the end, caring for your hot tub will require understanding the use of a variety of different chemicals, each important in its own right. Neglecting to add these chemicals to your tub water properly can cause a wide range of problems, from the aesthetic to the more serious and deadly.
