Top Tips on Good Maintenance for Hot Tubs and Spas
It’s important to be aware that hot tubs and spas are set at a temperature that is very friendly to bacteria and other contaminants, so it’s essential to sanitise and care for them on a regular basis.
While Part 1 of this guide series dealt with balancing pH and TA levels, the following guide will explore the different type of sanitizer options to keep your hot tub or spa sparkling and bacteria-free.
The Two Most Common Sanitizers
Sanitizers are an absolute essential to keep your hot tub or spa water safe from bacteria. The most common sanitising agents for this purpose are chlorine and bromine, both of which belong to the halogen chemical family.
Bromine
Bromine is a more stable chemical for performance in heat and turbulence, plus it comes in convenient tablets which you simply add to a feeder. The downside however is that bromine can have a strong smell as well as other issues – it has a very low pH, which tends to erode the pH balance of the water, so any hot tub treated with bromine needs the constant addition of bicarbonate of soda to maintain its pH and total alkalinity levels.
Using bromine also means your hot tub will need regular shock treatment to eliminate the “bromamines” that form when the chemical comes into contact with ammonia (a common waste product from the human body). A non-chlorine shock such as potassium monpersufate will do the trick to rectify this.
While the common belief is that you can’t mix bromine and chlorine, this is not actually true when it comes to hot tubs. Dichlor is a form of chlorine which can also be used for an effective shock treatment to remove bromamines.
Chlorine
Many hot tub suppliers recommend chlorine over bromine, particularly sodium dichlor which is a stabilised type of chlorine that is completely soluble in water. It also has a neutral pH, so it will not destroy the pH balance of the water. This type of sanitizer must be added regularly – a couple of tablespoons at a time. To determine when your hot tub’s chlorine levels are falling below 1 ppm, simply use test strips.
The downside of chlorine however is that it combines with ammonia and nitrogen as well as forming chloramines, all of which tend to give a false reading indicating that your water has high chlorine levels. Nevertheless, a shock treatment using a third of a cup of dichlor will sort out the situation.
In addition to dichlor, there are other types of chlorine products which are suitable as sanitizers, although their Ph values can vary widely. For example, liquid chlorine has a pH of 13 which is very high.
Trichlor is another chlorine product and it comes in both granular and tablet form. The problem is that trichlor has a very low pH of 2 – this can bring the water pH down very quickly which could cause damage to your heater and other metal parts if you’re not careful, so it’s not the most advisable agent to use.
Lithium hypochlorite is another option – it is perfectly usable as a granular chlorine since it has a neutral pH, but it is harder to find and a little more expensive than dichlor.
Top Tip: Do be careful though when removing your hot tub cover not to inhale the chemical steam build-up and never let bathers into the hot tub right after a shock treatment.
Also be aware that both chlorine and bromine are oxidisers – this means they react to organic materials so you should always use a clean dry scoop when handling them so that they never come into direct contact with your skin. Furthermore, keep these sanitizers away from fertilizers or other organic items like motor oil, since they can cause fires when reacting to organics. Finally, never mix two chemicals together in the same container.
An Alternative to Chemical Sanitizers – Ozone Generators
Ozone acts to effectively destroy bacteria when it comes into direct contact with water. If you have an ozone generator, you will need very little additional chemical sanitizer to keep your hot tub in top condition. Some additional sanitizer will be needed however, not because ozone isn’t effective, but because it has little residual effect which means it will not continue working over time as with chlorine.
Dichlor is a highly suitable backup sanitizer for an ozone treated hot tub, however using it with ozone will make it harder to maintain your hot tub’s ideal pH and alkalinity levels because you won’t be adding products that increase or decrease the water balance.
Top Tip: ozone is also an oxidiser, so do be careful about getting too close when initially removing your hot tub cover.
Conclusion
The above guide explains the main recommendations that you would get from a hot tub supplier to keep your water both safe for bathing and looking beautiful.
About the Author: Andrew Astonville: independent advisor on choosing the right hot tub supplier.
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