Hot Tubs 101

Matt Giovanisci: 00:00

Hey, everyone, and welcome to hot tubs 101 by Swim University, where we help you keep your hot tub clean and clear all year. My name is Matt, and I'm the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about how to balance hot tub pH. Let's dive in. Real quick.

Matt Giovanisci: 00:29

If you want more help taking care of your hot tub, be sure to grab our free hot tub cheat sheet at swim u dotcom/spa sheet. Now there are a few common problems that impact the pH in your hot tub. Number 1 is your sanitizer, like bromine or chlorine, which can lower your pH over time. Number 2 is sweat, body oils, grass, or dirt that can get into the water and lower your pH. Number 3 is adding chlorine shock to your water, which can actually raise your pH.

Matt Giovanisci: 00:57

Number 4 is your water source, which can be acidic and can also lower your pH. Number 5 is running your jets and aerating the water. That can also raise your pH. That's right. Even just filling your hot tub with water or running your jets can mess with your pH.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:13

But even though your hot tub pH seems really volatile, there are ways to keep it in check. So first, why do we need to balance the pH in the water? High pH can cause cloudy water. It can irritate your eyes and skin and prevent your chlorine or bromine from working properly. It can also cause scaling and even equipment failure.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:33

And low pH, on the opposite side, can corrode the inside of your liner and your hot tub equipment. And liner, I mean like the inside shell. It can also affect your sanitizer and cause your eyes to burn. Now your pH should be between, we recommend, 7.4 to 7.6, with 7.5 obviously being ideal. By testing your water at least once a week, you'll know exactly if your pH levels are too high or too low.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:02

And that's also when you wanna test for your total alkalinity levels as well. So here's how total alkalinity affects pH. Your total alkalinity measures your water's ability to neutralize acids. Basically, alkalinity acts as a buffer for your pH, preventing it from fluctuating wildly. Now your alkalinity should be between a 100a150 parts per million.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:27

We recommend going a little bit higher, but you can go as low as 80 parts per million up to a 120 parts per million if you wanna keep it on the lower side. Because alkalinity helps regulate your pH, adjusting it first may actually be enough to bring your pH in line. So always adjust your total alkalinity before your pH. But sometimes, it's hard to get these two levels to balance. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:53

You'll adjust your alkalinity only to find out that it's messed with your pH, or you'll balance your pH only to realize that your alkalinity is out of range. But once you understand how the chemicals work, it becomes much simpler. Now there are 3 chemicals that matter in this process. That's alkalinity increaser, pH increaser, and then pH decreaser. So alkalinity increaser only raises your alkalinity and also can increase your pH.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:23

PH increaser raises your pH and can also slightly raise your alkalinity. PH Decreaser actually lowers both, and there's no such chemical as alkalinity decreaser. There are chemicals that you can use to decrease alkalinity, but we don't recommend using them in a hot tub. Okay. So here's how to balance low pH in your hot tub.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:43

So if you have low pH and normal alkalinity, you wanna add pH increaser to the water. This may raise your total alkalinity levels slightly, but it shouldn't be too much. If you have low pH and high alkalinity, add pH decreaser to lower the alkalinity levels, and then you're gonna have to add a pH increaser. This will bring the pH up without impacting your now balanced alkalinity. If you have low pH and low alkalinity, you can add pH pH increaser and alkalinity increaser or just alkalinity increaser depending on where your your levels are.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:24

It may just raise them both at the same level. Now, here's how to balance high pH in your hot tub. If you have high pH and high alkalinity, you wanna add pH Decreaser to bring down both levels. By the way, I'm saying the words pH Decreaser, Increaser, those things. They go by many names, but you just wanna make sure that it's either called something like pH up, pH down, alkalinity up, alkalinity increase or alkalinity multiply.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:53

There's all kinds of like different words that the industry uses for the word to mean levels go up, levels go down. Alright. So just just a just a word to the wise. If you have high pH and normal alkalinity, you wanna add pH decreaser to bring down your pH. And then you're gonna have to add alkalinity increaser if that's even what you need to do.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:17

If you have high pH and low alkalinity, this one's a tough one. This one I I see a lot. All you need to do is add pH decreaser that will lower your pH. Then you may need to add a little bit of alkalinity increaser to bring up both if your pH and alkalinity drop too low. By the way, if you're running jets or you're aerating your hot tub water where you have those little air air valves, on on the side of your hot tub that make the jets feel feel more powerful because it has an air blower along with the water pump.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:48

This can actually cause your pH to rise. So if you're dealing with high pH, you may just wanna turn off your jets when adding chemicals or turn down the aerators. But if you have low pH, aerating your hot tub is actually a simple way that you can raise your pH without actually affecting any of your other levels like alkalinity and without having to add any chemicals. Finally, keeping your water sanitized is one of the best ways to prevent pH fluctuations. You wanna test your water weekly.

Matt Giovanisci: 06:16

And if your pH levels are chronically fluctuating, it could be coming from your other chemicals or the water from your hose. We recommend to always use a hose filter when refilling your hot tub and avoid using cheap or harsh chemicals like calcium hypochlorite shock or really anything for the pool. Remember, if you need more help with hot tub maintenance, grab our free hot tub cheat sheet at swimu.com/spa sheet. And if you found this episode helpful, subscribe for more hot tub maintenance tips on your favorite podcasting app. And when you do, please leave us a review.

Matt Giovanisci: 06:50

Your support will help more hot tub owners just like you find this show. That's it. Thanks again, and happy soaking.