Hot Tub Care & Maintenance
Luxury home hot tubs and spas at Affordable Prices
Maintaining a clean and sanitary hot tub is easier than you may think. Read on to discover out top hot tub cleaning tips.
Keep it Simple
Keeping a hot tub clean should neither be hard, nor time consuming. 5 minutes a day is all that’s required to keep your spa sanitary. And a more thorough clean should take no more than 15 minutes. Hot tubs don’t need to be drained more than once every three months, and cleaning a drained hot tub should take no more than an hour.
To make cleaning and sanitising as easy as possible, keep all your cleaning supplies near your hot tub in a water tight container. Supplies should include:
• PH + or PH -
• Water sanitizer (bromine or chlorine)
• Hot tub shock
• Water test strips
• Anti-foam solution
• Water clarifying solution
• Filter cleaner
• Plastic scouring sponge
• Microfiber cloth
• Dish towel
This may seem like a lot of cleaning supplies for one hot tub, however each container of solution should last up to three months for a medium sized hot tub. Furthermore, very little effort is required to actually clean the hot tub using these solutions; it’s simply a case of adding a spoonful or two once a day.
Cleaning Your Hot Tub
Once a day you will need to test the chemical levels of your hot tub. This process is made exceptionally easy by using test strips. Hot tub test strips use coloured indicators to reveal the chemical levels of the water. The strip is simply submerged into the water, taken out then compared against a colour chart. A standard test strip should include indicators for water hardness, PH, alkalinity and chlorine/bromine levels. Once you have tested the chemical levels, you can then begin to adjust them using your spa chemicals until the required chemical balance is met.
Using a bromine/chlorine Test Strip:
• Step one: take the test strip out of the bottle
Keep it Simple
Keeping a hot tub clean should neither be hard, nor time consuming. 5 minutes a day is all that’s required to keep your spa sanitary. And a more thorough clean should take no more than 15 minutes. Hot tubs don’t need to be drained more than once every three months, and cleaning a drained hot tub should take no more than an hour.
To make cleaning and sanitising as easy as possible, keep all your cleaning supplies near your hot tub in a water tight container. Supplies should include:
• PH + or PH -
• Water sanitizer (bromine or chlorine)
• Hot tub shock
• Water test strips
• Anti-foam solution
• Water clarifying solution
• Filter cleaner
• Plastic scouring sponge
• Microfiber cloth
• Dish towel
This may seem like a lot of cleaning supplies for one hot tub, however each container of solution should last up to three months for a medium sized hot tub. Furthermore, very little effort is required to actually clean the hot tub using these solutions; it’s simply a case of adding a spoonful or two once a day.
Cleaning Your Hot Tub
Once a day you will need to test the chemical levels of your hot tub. This process is made exceptionally easy by using test strips. Hot tub test strips use coloured indicators to reveal the chemical levels of the water. The strip is simply submerged into the water, taken out then compared against a colour chart. A standard test strip should include indicators for water hardness, PH, alkalinity and chlorine/bromine levels. Once you have tested the chemical levels, you can then begin to adjust them using your spa chemicals until the required chemical balance is met.
Using a bromine/chlorine Test Strip:
• Step one: take the test strip out of the bottle
• Step two: submerge the test strip (about a 1 foot deep) into the water for one second
• Step three: compare the colours on the strip to those on the bottle
Adjusting the sanitizer levels
If you enjoy using your hot tub often, it is likely you will need to add a little bit of sanitizer at least once a day. If, during your daily test strip check, you sanitizer levels are showing as low, add your chosen sanitizer to the package instructions. In this example we use chlorine, we can see from the test strip that the hot tubs chlorine levels are low. For a hot tub of this size (around 1700L) we need to add around 1tsp of chlorine granules.
If you enjoy using your hot tub often, it is likely you will need to add a little bit of sanitizer at least once a day. If, during your daily test strip check, you sanitizer levels are showing as low, add your chosen sanitizer to the package instructions. In this example we use chlorine, we can see from the test strip that the hot tubs chlorine levels are low. For a hot tub of this size (around 1700L) we need to add around 1tsp of chlorine granules.
Once we have added the chlorine, we run the jets to ensure the chlorine properly dissipates throughout the tub.
Once you have started the jets, you may notice the hot tub begins to produce an excess of bubbles. These bubbles are caused by sulphates and other pollutants in the water. Sulphates are foaming agents, present in many skin cosmetics and household detergents. Traces of these detergents are often present on our skin and clothing, and we can bring them into the hot tub on our person. An anti-foam solution will quickly work to hinder the production of foaming agents and other pollutants in the water which are causing the foam. However, anti-foaming agents should not need to be used in excess to rid your hot tub of foam. If you find your hot tub is foaming heavily, then you will need to drain and re fill your tub.
Before adding anti-foam solution
After adding anti-foam solution
After adding anti-foam solution
Tips for keeping hot tub foam at bay:
How to keep foam at bay:
Pre-wash swimwear
After washing your swim wear in a conventional washing machine, it is likely there will still be traces of detergent trapped in the fibres. Rinsing your costume in clean water will help reduce the amount of detergent you bring into the hot tub. It is also recommend you skip the fabric conditioner when washing swimwear.
Skip the fabric conditioner
Fabric conditioner is designed to penetrate the fibres of fabric to keep it soft making it difficult to rinse out. To help prevent foaming try to wash swimwear without using fabric conditioner.
Take a shower
This tip is especially helpful if you plan on inviting guests over for a hot tub party. A quick shower with plain water (no soap!) will rinse away any cosmetic lotions and other skin cosmetics that may cause foaming.
How to keep foam at bay:
Pre-wash swimwear
After washing your swim wear in a conventional washing machine, it is likely there will still be traces of detergent trapped in the fibres. Rinsing your costume in clean water will help reduce the amount of detergent you bring into the hot tub. It is also recommend you skip the fabric conditioner when washing swimwear.
Skip the fabric conditioner
Fabric conditioner is designed to penetrate the fibres of fabric to keep it soft making it difficult to rinse out. To help prevent foaming try to wash swimwear without using fabric conditioner.
Take a shower
This tip is especially helpful if you plan on inviting guests over for a hot tub party. A quick shower with plain water (no soap!) will rinse away any cosmetic lotions and other skin cosmetics that may cause foaming.