Hot Tubs 101

Matt Giovanisci: 00:00

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. On this episode, we're talking about the right order to add hot tub chemicals. Let's dive in. Real quick, if you want more help taking care of your hot tub, be sure to grab our free hot tub cheat sheet at swimu.com/ spa sheet.

Matt Giovanisci: 00:35

Swimu.com/spasheet. That's where you go. Now what's the right order to add hot tub chemicals? Because adding chemicals in the wrong order can cause cloudy water and prevent your chemicals from working in the first place. Now before adding any chemicals, you wanna test your water using test strips.

Matt Giovanisci: 00:52

You wanna check the following levels. Number 1 is alkalinity, which should be between a 100 and a 150 parts per million. 80 parts per million is usually okay. Number 2 is pH, which should be around 7.4 to 7.6. Number 3 is free chlorine or bromine.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:08

Your chlorine should be between 1 3 parts per million or your bromine should be between 3 5 parts per million. And if you use a mineral system, an ozonator, or a UV system, these levels only need to be at 0.5 and 1 part per million respectively. Number 4 is calcium hardness, which should be between a 175 and 250 parts per million. Now next, you'll have to have the following chemicals on hand. Alkalinity increaser, pH increaser, pH decreaser, chlorine or bromine, and I recommend chlorine granules over or or or bromine tablets.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:45

Chlorine tablets tend to be a little overpowering for most hot tubs. They come in little 1 inch tablets, but I don't recommend them. Calcium hardness increaser, oxidizer, AKA a non chlorine shock, also a chlorine shock, which works for both chlorine and bromine, by the way, and finally, a metal stain and scale preventer if you're gonna need it. Alright. So let's start adding these chemicals.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:10

Now be sure to wait 10 to 20 minutes after adding each chemical to let it circulate and dissipate. Alright? Keep your jets on low, the air blowers off, and the water heat it to at least 80 degrees or higher when you're adding your chemicals. Okay. Here's the order I recommend for adjusting your water chemistry.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:31

And this order works whether you're starting up a hot tub for the first time or you're just doing it for weekly maintenance. If you use a stain and scale preventer, you wanna add this before you do anything else. Okay. Otherwise, let's start adjusting your total alkalinity. Your alkalinity helps prevent pH from fluctuating.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:49

So you wanna balance this first. If you need to raise your alkalinity, of course, you're gonna use an alkalinity increaser. If you need to lower your alkalinity, you'll actually get this there is no such thing as alkalinity decreaser, so you'll actually use your pH Decreaser. You'll you likely won't see this fluctuate much week to week, but just make sure it's in range before adjusting any other levels. Next, you're gonna adjust your pH, because proper pH levels will help your sanitizer work more effectively.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:19

Your sanitizer being your pH or sorry, your sanitizer being your chlorine or bromine. And when your pH is off, it it can actually cause cloudy water, it can it can damage your equipment, it can cause skin and eye irritation, not not so good. So this can fluctuate very often, especially if you use your hot tub a lot. So you wanna test and adjust your pH weekly and you can lower pH with a pH Decreaser, and you can raise pH with a pH Increaser. Then, it's time to add your chlorine or your bromine.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:50

This is what kills contaminants. It kills bacteria, gets rid of algae, and it's it basically just keeps your water sanitary and safe to soak in. So refresh your sanitizer levels each week. And that means adding chlorine granules directly to the water, or you can add bromine tablets to a floating dispenser. If you're using bromine, it can take a while for these levels to build up in your water.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:12

So just be just, you know, make sure that you take your time with that. Finally, you wanna adjust your calcium hardness. Poor calcium levels do more damage in the long run, like eroding hot tub surfaces and equipment. But it's still important to keep an eye on these levels, especially if you've just refilled your hot tub with fresh water. And if you have hard water, like hard tap water, be sure to use a hose filter when you're refilling your hot tub.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:39

Lastly, you'll want to shock your water once a week because this helps to refresh the sanitizer and kill any extra contaminants. You can add either oxidizer, which is non chlorine shock, or you can use a chlorine shock to your water. Oxidizer is gonna help keep your chlorine or bromine active and working in your water, but chlorine shock is more powerful and directly kills contaminants. Now, either one is fine, like I said, even in bromine hot tubs. So, it will really depend on your hot tub usage and if you're noticing issues like cloudy water or murky water or even green water.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:15

Now remember, if you need more help with hot tub maintenance, grab our free hot tub cheat sheet at swimu.com/spasheet. And if you found this episode helpful, subscribe for more hot tub maintenance tips on your favorite podcasting app. And when you do that, please leave us a review because your support will help more hot tub owners just like you find this show. That's it. Thanks again, and happy soaking.