Taking care of your hot tub isn’t strenuous or time-consuming, but there are a few essential steps to keep your hot tub clean and running smoothly. Read our top 3 tips for maintaining your hot tub from how to clean the water, to changing filters, so you can make sure you’re enjoying your hot tub for many years to come. 

Tip 1: Keeping Your Water Clean

As warm water attracts more bacterial growth than cold water, you need to ensure the water in your hot tub is sanitised on a regular basis to avoid build up of dirt and mould.

This is to avoid bacterial growth and general dirt building up in your water. It needs to be cleaned on a regular basis using bromine chemicals or tablets. If you don’t regularly sanitise your hot tub water, the quality will quickly deteriorate, including bacterial growth, cloudy water and even white mould. These problems can be time-consuming to eradicate and in some cases you will need to completely drain the hot tub and replace it with clean water.

There are two ways of using bromine to clean your water. Firstly, you can purchase bromine granules. You simply sprinkle the required amount into your hot tub until the water reaches the acceptable level. You can also use the pH testing strips to check if you need to add more granules to the water. The amount of granules you need to use will depend on the hot tub you have and the required level you need to achieve. Alternatively, you can use bromine tablets. You simply dispense a tablet via the dispenser and the tablet slowly releases the bromine to clean the water and leave it looking crystal clear.

Tip: regardless of how often you use your hot tub, test your water everyday with one of the pH strips to keep your water quality at an optimum level.

Tip 2: Cleaning Your Water Filter

When you own a hard-shelled spa, like the range we stock at Better Living Outdoors, you can purchase filters that fit into the hot tub to help keep the water clean. Dirty water is pumped through the filter and clean water is pumped out through the jets. 

An advantage to these filters is they last for roughly 12 months before they need to be completely replaced. In comparison, filters that are fitted for inflatable spas need to be replaced on a weekly basis – sometimes more often depending on how much they are used. 

You can read more about the advantages to a hard-shelled spa over an inflatable spa in our previous blog post here.

We recommend that you clean your water filter on a fortnightly basis to ensure it is pumping through clean, warm water. Depending on how much dirt and grease is trapped in the filter, you might need to soak the filter regularly, otherwise, a thorough rinse might be enough to keep it clean.

Dirty filters can cause a range of problems for your hot tub; firstly, the water becomes dirty and can lead to you using more sanitiser because of unclean water particles. A dirty filter can also put a strain on other parts of your hot tub, as debris that isn’t getting captured in the filter can get clogged in mechanisms, such as the heaters and pumps, leading to faults and potential damage. Finally, an uncleaned filter can cause less power to come through the pumps, heater and jets, so you can’t enjoy a complete hydrotherapy experience. 

Tip 3: Changing The Water In Your Hot Tub

As well as changing filters, it’s important that you change the water in your hot tub on a regular basis. As you clean and sanitise your hot tub, over time the particles will no longer fully dissolve and build up in the water – these are called Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). This is when you will need to drain your hot tub and refill it with clean water.

Depending on how often to use your hot tub ultimately depends on how often you need to change the water, as the more times you use it increases the amount of times you need to sanitise the water which leads to the built up of TSD. 

We recommend changing the water on a 3 month basis and to keep checking the water regularly. If you go through periods where you use your hot tub more frequently, such as during the summer, it is best to increase the amount that you are changing the water.

As we mentioned, maintaining a hot tub is not strenuous and doesn’t take time away from you enjoying your spa. By ensuring that you check, clean and change the water on a regular basis, you will be able to enjoy your hot tub for a long time to come.

Thinking of owning a hot tub? Browse our range of luxury hot tubs online and speak to our team who can help you find your perfect hot tub.