6 Keys to Good & Easy Spa & Hot tub Care
(it's not just chemicals)

Key 5 - Water Chemistry
You don't have to be a certified chemist to operate your home spa or hot tub!  Our programs are spa owner & consumer friendly. 

Our hot water care programs, no matter which one you choose was designed with your safety & enjoyment in mind. 

As long as you can "follow the program, " spa water care is easy & shouldn't take much more than 5 - 10 minutes (including clean up) each week to accomplish this task.

Water Chemistry & Water Testing go hand in hand & you can't do one without the other.

Spa & Hot tub water chemistry IS easy - just 4 simple steps:

1. Maintain a constant level of sanitizer in the spa. Chlorine, bromine tablets or granular; proper level of biguanide (Soft Soak); earth-friendly PristineBlue.
    
2. Shock the spa weekly (biguanides shock every 10 - 14 days).  Shocking oxidizes unfilterable wastes & breaks up chloramines or bromamines that lead to cloudy water, smelly spas & red eyes.
    
3. Maintain good water balance.  Without good water balance, the sanitizer doesn't work properly or efficiently.  The water can become cloudy (high pH) or aggressive (low pH - water is often times really clear).  You'll also protect your friends & family who use your spa.
    
4. Add Enzymes weekly or at least every 2 weeks to prevent biofilm growth & build-up.  Preventing biofilm build-up allows the chlorine or sanitizer to properly do its job without being side-tracked in case it is exhausted due to heavy bather load.

Maintain a constant level of Sanitizer in the Spa - What does that mean?  It means to constantly keep a good, solid level of chlorine, bromine, biguanide or other sanitizer level in the spa water at all times.  

Shock the spa weekly (biguanides shock every 10 to 14 days).  Shocking oxidizes unfilterable wastes & breaks up chloramines that lead to cloudy water, algae, smelly spas & red eyes.

Spa & hot tub owners who don't regularly shock (they think they're saving money) always end up with bad cloudy water & odor problems and they wonder why they use so much chlorine.  Shocking puts the sparkle back in the spa water.  Shocking breaks up the waste that attaches onto the sanitizer & prevents it from doing its job.  Shocking is a good thing to do before a party to prevent icky water from developing while the party is going on  AND after to eliminate all of the "stuff" that got left behind.  In bromine treated spas, the shock recharges the bromine to make it last longer.

Use the appropriate type of shock for your pool.  SpaGuard® Spa Shock or Enhanced Shock for chlorine & bromine pools. Soft Soak® Shock for biguanide (Soft Soak® or BaquaSpa®) spas.  Spas & hot tubs that use ionizers such as Nature2® should use the chlorine based shocks mentioned above.  Shock the spa at start-up to oxidize & neutralize contaminants that enter with the fill water.  After that follow a regular schedule.

Maintain good water balance.  Without good water balance, the sanitizer doesn't work properly or efficiently.  The water can become cloudy (high pH) or aggressive (low pH - water is often times really clear).  You'll also protect your friends & family who use your spa.  Learn more about Good Water Balance with Key 4 - Water Testing.

As an option that will save you from a variety of pool care problems (algae, cloudy water, water balancing), consider using a borate or boric acid based product such as SpaGuard® Spa Silken®, when used properly, helps allow the sanitizer to do a better job at killing bacteria, acts an additional buffer for the pH & Total Alkalinity making water balance simpler.  Spa Silken® is added at start up & is topped up as needed.  Spa Silken® is great to use in ANY spa, with any sanitizing system.

Another option is to use SpaGuard® Spa Sentry. When added at start–up with properly balanced pH & total alkalinity, Spa Sentry effectively “locks” the pH & total alkalinity in place for up to 3 months. Less work & worry to maintain good water balance

Enhance the spa water weekly or at least every 2 weeks to help control biofilm growth.  A good quality natural enzymes consume or eat up certain organic wastes.

Use enzymes such as SpaGuard® Natural Enzyme or Naturally  Pure® Spa on a weekly basis to control biofilm build-up.  A good quality natural enzyme works as a back up so that the the chlorine or sanitizer can concentrate on killing bacteria due to heavy bather load.

Borates such as SpaGuard Spa Silken or SpaBoss not only make the feel naturally softer & silkier, but they also enhance the activity of the sanitizer as well as add an additional buffer for the pH & Total Alkalinity.

When draining & refilling the spa, products such as Natural Chemistry® Spa Purge or AquaFinesse® SpaClean (not an enzyme product) tablets are good in removing this biofilm from the lines.

Regular use of AquaFinesse® will continually (and is the only spa chemical product on the market to perform this job) remove & prevent the the bio-film build-up. To learn more about bio-films click here.

Water Chemistry Tip: if things get too out of control, drain the spa & start over.

Pristine Blue users click here for more information & usage tips.

For more information on the workings of your pool, click on the 6 Keys to Spa Care

Some information contained in this article is courtesy of the BioGuard Chem PLUS 2003, 2004, Chem College 2007 & H2-Know 2011 Reference Guide. 

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Links to all of the 6 Keys: Circulation Filtration Cleaning & Maintenance Testing Water Chemistry Drain & Refill

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