Maintaining Your Spa Ensures It Lasts a Lifetime

Adding a spa or hot tub to your backyard oasis puts you on the fast track to a life of ultimate relaxation. It provides you with an easy to access spot to unwind and relax after a long, stressful day. While having a spa will undoubtedly improve your overall quality of life, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Your spa can’t function at its best without some tender loving care from you.

To optimize your overall hot tub soaking experience, you must include regular hot tub maintenance to your household chores. If you own a swimming pool along with a spa, then you already possess some important knowledge when it comes to how to maintain a spa.

Mid City Custom Pools is here to provide some useful tips and tricks to help you maintain a spa. We strive to ensure each of you enjoys the benefits of your spa, while also making sure your hot tub remains in tiptop shape.

Maintain Chemistry

Just like in your pool, the chemistry in your hot tub should always be a priority. If you are a brand-new spa owner, then your water chemistry should be easy to maintain since the water won’t have been contaminated by countless bodies coming in and out of it.

For pool owners, maintaining your spa’s chemistry is very similar to your pool. However, its size plays a larger role. You will still be focusing on the same levels as your pool, such as the pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and more.

Before adding any chemicals to your pool, you must first test your hot tub with an at-home testing kit once your spa is full.

• pH: The water in your hot tub should have a pH level sitting around 7.4 to 7.6. Values any lower than this are too acidic and can cause water to eat at the hardware of your spa. It can even harm your skin and eyes. If the pH level is too high, the water becomes basic, which reduces sanitizer effectiveness and leads to cloudiness.
• Alkalinity: Shoot for alkalinity that ranges from 80 ppm (parts per million) to 120 ppm. The alkalinity levels directly affect your pH levels, so make sure you level out your alkalinity first.
• Calcium Hardness: This level should always stay around 100 to 250 ppm. However, if your pool has a plaster finish, it can go as high as 450 ppm. If your spa doesn’t have enough calcium, it will then begin to draw calcium from other parts of your hot tub.
• Sanitizer: Sanitizers, like chlorine and bromine, help keep your pool clean. Follow the directions of the container of your sanitizer and double-check your pH and alkalinity levels afterward. While chlorine has been the standard for so long, bromine has quickly taken its spot due to its reduced harshness and less potent smell. If you use chlorine, aim for 1.2 to 3 ppm. For bromine, shoot for 3 to 5 ppm.

Regularly test your hot tub chemistry at least once a week. You should also keep a surplus of chemicals on hand in a cool, dry area in case they are needed.

Circulate Water

Your spa water should be regularly circulated to keep it free from contaminants. Depending on the type of hot tub you have, your model may have a built-in automatic circulation schedule, which makes sure it runs at least once a day for about 15 to 20 minutes. If your spa doesn’t have an automatic system, then you should turn it on for 15 to 20 minutes at least once a day to keep your water fresh.

The purpose of this practice is to send your water through your hot tub’s cartridge filter to remove any contaminants. Even if you don’t use your spa daily, plenty of sediment builds up in its water that can affect your soaking experience. The more your spa runs, the cleaner it’ll be.

Clean Your Spa

Just because cleaning your hot tub is obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t vital. Not only does it ensure that your spa looks good, but it ensures it works to its full potential. Regardless if your hot tub is indoor or outdoor, you must regularly clean it. However, outdoor pools need a little more love and attention. They are more susceptible to debris like leaves, dirt, and even the occasional small animal.

At least once a week, take a sponge and wipe down the shell of your spa along with its jets. Scrub away at the scum line on the water’s edge, too.

Don’t forget to clean the inside of the tub, as well. There are spa vacuums, like those used in pools, that collect any dirt and sediment build-up on the seats and floor.

However, every three to four months, you should drain your pool to give it a thorough deep cleaning, more often if you frequently use it or have a lot of people in it. Once your deep cleaning is done, and your spa is filled, be sure to test its chemistry again.

Cleaning Your Filter

As we mentioned earlier, circulating your spa water helps keep it maintained. While your filter can handle quite a bit of work, you still need to keep up with it. They can typically last for some time, but for them to last long, you have to maintain them.

You can do this by:

• Rinsing it. Take your filter out and rinse it as often as possible, around every two weeks. Using warm water or even just a regular garden hose, rinse out each pleat in the cartridge to ensure there is no dirt or debris left in it. Allow it to air dry before placing it back in.
• Spray it. You should also give your filter a spray with a hot tub filter cleaner to give it a much deeper clean. Rinse it after its spray.
• Soak it. Every time you drain your pool for a deep clean, soak your filter in a chemical cleaner. This helps loosen up any particles that are left in the pleats. Rinse it after its soak.

You should replace your filter if it doesn’t function properly. This will become quite evident when it happens.

Owning a spa adds a level of sophistication and relaxation to your life that you’ve never experienced before. However, to truly reap the benefits of this wonderful amenity, you must properly maintain it. If you wish to learn more ways to properly maintain a spa, contact Mid City Custom Pools today.