3 Best Hot Tub Chemicals You Need to Keep Your Water Clean

Owning a hot tub is an enjoyable experience, allowing you untapped access to outdoor relaxation and daily deep tissue massages.

When you include the proper hot tub chemicals in your water care routine, you’ll be able to keep your water clean, ensuring it’s safe to use and avoiding unnecessary damage to your hot tub’s surface and inner systems.

But what happens if you lift your hot tub cover to discover your water is no longer crystal clear but instead is cloudy, smelly, or has foam or algae growing on its surface?

Or worse yet, what if you notice your skin is getting irritated after you’ve settled in for your daily soak?

Dirty hot tub water is not ideal, but it does happen.

Knowing how to properly care for your water to keep it clean is essential and can drastically reduce the occurrence of the above-mentioned issues. To do this, you should be including three vital chemicals in your water care routine.

Top 3 Hot Tub Chemicals To Keep Your Water Clean

Keeping your hot tub water clean is essential in ensuring it’s safe to use and protecting your system from corrosion and scale build-up over time.

To maintain the cleanliness of your water, you should include three hot tub chemicals in your regular hot tub maintenance routine.

1. Alkalinity and pH Treatments

Keeping your water’s total alkalinity and pH balanced is essential for maintaining clean water. If your alkalinity and pH levels become too high, your sanitizers won’t be able to properly clean your water.

This can lead to dangerous mineral buildup that can result in cloudy water, algae blooms or scale buildup. You can even experience skin and eye irritation if you use your spa when your alkalinity and pH levels are too high, so it’s essential you test and treat your water regularly!

To maintain your water’s alkaline and pH levels, you’ll need:

• A total alkalinity increaser
• pH increaser
• pH decreaser

2. A Sanitizer

Your sanitizing treatment is used to combat bacteria and keep your water clean, clear, and ready to use. There are many sanitizers on the market, and which one you use will depend on your hot tub’s water system.

There are four sanitizers that are most commonly used:

• Chlorine
• Bromine
• Salt Water
• Biguanide

Chlorine is by far the most common sanitizer used in hot tubs, mainly due to it being affordable, safe to use, and reliable. While many people worry using chlorine will make their water smell like chemicals, when your water is properly balanced and treated, it shouldn’t have a strong smell of chlorine.

Bromine is a chlorine alternative and is equally as effective without the heavy smell of chlorine. This sanitizer is also popular because of its ability to remain effective as pH levels fluctuate, making it a powerful treatment option for many.

Unfortunately, bromine breaks down faster than other treatment options when exposed to UV rays, so if your hot tub is exposed to the sun, your bromine will become less effective. This could leave you with expensive upkeep and a rigorous spa maintenance routine to keep your water balanced.

Salt water hot tubs are growing in popularity and provide a more gentle soaking experience with fewer chloramines, resulting in silky smooth water free of any strong scents.

Many people believe saltwater hot tubs are chlorine-free, however, this is a common misconception. As the water passes through the salt cells in your spa, it gets broken down, producing chlorine to treat your water.

If you want a chlorine-free option, biguanide is the way to go. This sanitizer has a longer lifespan in your water than chlorine and bromine, however it’s a more expensive water treatment option. If you struggle with sensitive skin and the thought of a chlorine hot tub makes you itch, ask your dealer about biguanide.

3. An Oxidizer

Over time, your water will develop a buildup of organic matter. This often results from oils entering your water during your regular spa sessions. These oils come from cosmetics, body lotions, deodorant, hair products, perfumes, and even detergents that may be lingering on your suit.

This type of matter can be difficult for your sanitizer to break up, making it less effective, often resulting in cloudy, foamy, or foul-smelling water.

Including an oxidizing shock treatment in your regular routine can help combat this.

Oxidizers work to break down these organic matters, ensuring your sanitizer can effectively clean your water. When your sanitizer is able to maintain the health of your water, you’ll use less of it, avoiding the issue of high chemical levels developing.

Other Ways To Keep Your Hot Tub Clean

Chemical treatments can only go so far, and by including a few small steps into your regular routine, you’ll be able to easily maintain your crystal-clear water.

To make caring for your water even easier and reduce the amount of chemicals needed to keep your water clean, try some of these water care tips.

Clean Your Hot Tub Filters Regularly

Your hot tub filters act as your first line of defence between your water and every contaminant that cycles through your system. As they filter out debris, they’ll develop a layer of scum and dirt that hinders the water flow and makes it harder to keep your hot tub clean.

If left to continue gathering debris, your filters can even cause your water to become dirty, as the water pushes the debris back into your spa as it moves through the filters.

Keeping your filters clean is essential in maintaining their ability to effectively clean your water. To care for your filters, you should be routinely cleaning them in three separate intervals:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly

Each week, you should be rinsing your filters under gently flowing water. This will help wash away any surface debris that’s built up on your filter over the week.

Each month, you should spray your filter with a filter cleaner. This will help remove more deeply set debris by saturating it with the chemical cleaner.

Then, every three months, you should soak your filter in a diluted filter cleaner for 12-24 hours. This will help get deep into the fabric that makes up your filter and break down more stubborn buildup, like oils and organic matter.

Drain Your Hot Tub Every Quarter

No matter how well you keep your water clean, you’ll need to completely drain your hot tub every three or four months. As you treat your water over the course of a few months, the overall chemical levels in your hot tub will rise, and your water will slowly become overloaded with treatments.

While these treatments are necessary for keeping your water clean, draining and refilling your spa with fresh water is necessary to ensure your water is always safe to use and at optimal cleanliness.

After draining your hot tub, it’s important to perform a deep clean on your shell and a line flush to push out any contaminants that may have built up on your shell’s surface or in your pipes.

This helps eliminate the risk of corrosion occurring or your fresh water from being contaminated by any buildup that may be lingering inside your system.

Skim The Surface Every Time You Use It

Even though your water will be protected by your cover when it’s not in use, skimming the surface of your water is essential in minimizing the contaminants that get into it.

After each spa session, quickly skim the surface to collect any dust particles or other debris that may have ended up in your water while the cover was off.

This will help reduce the work your filters need to do to keep your water clean and make managing the cleanliness of your water much easier.

Use Tennis Balls

After you’ve finished your spa session, throw some tennis balls into the water and leave them to float around the surface.

As you use your hot tub, oils will be stripped off your skin and end up on the surface of your water. As the tennis balls float along the surface, they’ll absorb these oils and minimize the amount of organic matter that builds up in your water.

You can also invest in hot tub sponges that will perform the same role.

Shower Before Using Your Hot Tub

To minimize the amount of oils that end up in your water, take a quick shower before you jump into your spa. This will help wash away any of the oils that are on your body, including dead skin cells, perfumes, lotions, and makeup.

This is an easy way to reduce the organic matter that naturally builds up in your hot tub and can save you from unsightly water the next time you lift your cover.

Include a Professional Service in Your Hot Tub Maintenance Routine

Make managing your hot tub’s water easy by including a professional service in your regular routine. This can help ensure your hot tub is getting properly cared for and can help you catch issues early on, reducing the risk of costly repairs in the future.

Whether you’re struggling with ongoing dirty water or simply want to take the work out of owning a hot tub, scheduling a professional hot tub service can help.

Hot Tub Chemicals in Vancouver

Using Crystalview Pool Spa & Patio’s online store, you can easily stock up on all your water treatment products, including your best hot tub water chemicals.

Easily explore all our spa accessories and backyard leisure essentials, like barbecues and smokes, and outdoor heating solutions.

Searching for the perfect hot tub to elevate your backyard before winter? We have what you need. Our showroom is stocked with industry-leading brands that are sure to bring endless enjoyment to your home.

Visit our showroom or contact us to get started.