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New Hot Tub Owner

Congratulations on your new spa! Now it’s time to decide how to sanitize your tub, and keep the water crystal clear and safe. For the new hot tub owner, or for someone who is new to hot tub maintenance, we can guide you through what is important in hot tub care. 

These simple hot tub maintenance and cleaning tasks will keep your water crystal clear, sanitary, and ready to use. Keep reading to learn how to maintain proper water chemistry and keep your spa equipment in top shape.

  • Sanitize Regularly
  • Clean Filters
  • Drain, Clean and Refill
  • Maintain The Hot Tub Cover

Sanitize Regularly

Keeping your hot tub properly sanitized will prevent unwanted contaminants. Granular chlorine or bromine are generally the best sanitizers. Which one you decide on depends largely on how you use your spa and the water chemistry in your area. Your Hot Tub Club Technician can help you decide. Maintaining the sanitizer levels in your spa is easy. Simply check 2-3 times per week to make sure levels are within the acceptable limits with a test strip. Then add sanitizer when needed. It is also recommended to oxidize your hot tub roughly weekly to help remove oils, hair sprays, and other substances. 

Clean Filters

To keep your hot tub in great condition, depending on usage, filters should be cleaned about once a month. Remove the filters and clean them by spraying them off with a hose and nozzle or other high-pressure water streams. If filters start to accumulate oils from suntan lotions or normal body oils you may want to soak the filter in warm water and an approved spa filter cleaning agent prior to spraying with clean water.

Drain, Clean and Refill Your Spa

Over time it is normal for some chemicals, oils, and residues to build up. Even with proper chemical use, hot tub water will not stay clean forever. It is best to drain your hot tub approximately every 3 months or so. To be sure your water stays fresh, you may drain a little less or more often based on how often you use your hot tub.

Maintain The Hot Tub Cover

Hot tub covers are necessary. They keep heat in and debris out. To improve the life and performance of your cover it is best to clean it regularly. Using an approved spa cover protectant will help it withstand the elements. 

Hot Tub & Spa Chemicals

Maintaining proper sanitation and chemical balance in your hot tub is of the highest priority. It keeps the water clean and bathers safe from bacteria and harmful waterborne agents. Whether you use a traditional sanitizer like bromine or chlorine or use an alternative system like Soft Soak®, Soft Soak® TRIO® or @ease, LeisureQuip has got everything you need to maintain a relaxing and sanitary hot tub environment.

SpaGuard Soft Soak

Soft Soak® by SpaGuard® is a non-chlorine spa system that is soft, gentle, and easy to use.  Because this system uses no chlorine or bromine you will not have any of the chlorine odors.  Soft Soak products are easy to use and feel soft to bathers in the spa. The sanitizer Biguanide doesn’t diminish with sunlight, temperature, or affect pH like traditional chlorine sanitizers can. It is effective over a wide pH range and is designed to be used with the Soft Soak Spa Shock. 

SpaGuard’s Soft Soak® TRIO® System recommends that you drain and refill your spa every three months. The Soft Soak® TRIO® system has packets you add to the spa no measuring just add to the water.  When you run out of packets it’s time to change the water and start over. The weekly portion of the Soft Soak TRIO system removes the common contaminants that accumulate during hot tub use so your water stays sparkling clear and odor-free, and is also compatible with chlorine and bromine.

FROG @ease Floating System combines sanitizing minerals with SmartChlor Technology to kill bacteria in two ways. The result is Fresh Mineral Water® that’s silky soft with far fewer odors and the easiest water to maintain because it’s self-regulating. It knows when more sanitizing power is needed and automatically delivers it. When you need to do something, it flips over.

Bromine is an effective sanitizer that Immediately Kills Bacteria, and when combined with contaminated material the bromamines continue to actively kill bacteria.  Bromine comes in granular or 1” tablets that you put in a floater in your spa.  Spa Shock oxidizer not only destroys built-up undesirable compounds, it gives new life to ineffective bromides by reactivating them.

Chlorine has been used the longest in the spa industry and it is popular due to its ease of use and lower cost. It is an effective means for sanitizing spa water and killing bacteria. Granular chlorine can be applied directly to spa water to protect bathers against contaminants. Chlorine is stabilized against UV degradation, so it is often the ideal choice for outdoor spas that are exposed to sunlight.  Enhanced Shock is used as the oxidizer to break up the combined chlorine (when chlorine kills an organism they become combined and not effective at sanitizing).  This process gasses off the contaminant so it is important to leave your hot tub uncovered for at least 30 minutes.  

Spa Water Balancers 

Keeping the right balance of your spa water is necessary. Balancers control scale, adjust pH and total alkalinity, and correct mineral imbalances. Regardless of which sanitizing system you choose, balancers are the same. Proper water balance ensures spa user comfort, water clarity, sanitizer efficiency, and longevity of spa surfaces and equipment.

Spa Water Testing

The chemistry of your spa water needs to be checked regularly. Use BioGuard® products to maintain the correct levels, including sanitizer residuals, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, metals, and total dissolved solids. BioGuard® 5-way Test Strips – and Soft Soak® 4-way Test Strips for Soft Soak spas – test pH, total alkalinity, and sanitizer levels with only one strip. Maintaining proper levels will make the water clear and comfortable, kill bacteria that can multiply rapidly in a spa, protect spa surfaces from stains caused by metals, and protect spa equipment from scale.

Your hot tub will last much longer if you keep a watchful eye on all aspects of your hot tub’s water chemistry balance. Aside from sanitizer, this includes pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness. LeisureQuip has the chemicals that can help correct each of these levels so that you can enjoy your water while your system is cared for. Avoiding nasty side effects of imbalanced water like foam, calcium buildup, and corroded plumbing through proper use of hot tub chemicals.

Spa and hot tub care – take a deep breath! Don’t worry, it isn’t too hard. Remember, if things get out of control, you can always drain the spa and start over!