Yes, adding chemicals to a hot tub sounds like a relatively easy task, but you can’t just add them indiscriminately like shaking salt and pepper on your fish and chips. The right chemicals have to go into the tub and just as importantly, the correct amount of chemicals. These are some handy tips for hot tub owners when it comes to adding chemicals to your water.

1-Testing the hot tub

There’s not really much point in adding chemicals to your hot tub if the water isn’t properly balanced first. To find out how the alkalinity and pH levels are you should always test the water first. This can be done with test strips or via the liquid method. You shouldn’t add chemicals such as shock and chlorine to the tub if the water isn’t balanced correctly since they won’t work as effectively as they should. If the alkalinity and pH levels are good the chemicals will do a much better job.

2-Leave the hot tub on

It’s important that the hot tub is operating when you add the chemicals to the water. When the tub is running it enables the chemicals to mix properly and quickly into the water via the tub’s jets.

3-Leave the cover off

Once you’ve added the right amount of chemicals you shouldn’t cover the hot tub back up right away. It’s a better idea to leave it uncovered as this will allow the chemicals  such as chlorine to circulate and oxidize, which is what they need to do to be effective. There will be a lot more breathing room for the water and chemicals if you keep the tub uncovered for a minimum of 15 minutes after adding the chemicals to the tub.

4-Turn the air off

While the hot tub should be left on when adding chemicals to it, the air valves should be turned off. Some hot tubs will come with air valves located around the top of them. The water mixes with the air from the valves and this results in added pressure to the jets. This may be fine when you’re relaxing in the tub since it causes the water to bubble. However, when the air mixes with the chemicals such as chlorine and shock the effectiveness of these chemicals will be reduced since they’ll gas off or oxidize too quickly for their own good.

5-Measure the amount of chemicals first

Before actually adding the chemicals to the hot tub you should measure them out in the container beforehand instead of just pouring them into the water freehand. It’s important that you read the labels on all of the chemicals to make sure you’re adding the correct amount.

If you follow all of these steps when adding chemicals to your hot tub it should result in clean and healthy water. In addition, you will likely save a considerable amount of money since you won’t be wasting any chemicals by adding too much.

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