Hot Tub Blog | The Ultimate Guide on Hot Tubs & Water Care

Top Tips To Maintain Crystal Clear Water In Your Hot Tub

Written by Haley | Oct 4, 2024 3:00:00 PM

Tired of trying to learn how to clear cloudy hot tub water? In our opinion, it can be quite simple! With a Hydropool hot tub, you should only have to dedicate minutes a day to testing your water, and 20 minutes a week to properly balancing chemicals. There is plenty of wiggle room with those timings depending on how often and how many people are using your spa. 

Keeping hot tub water crystal clear is one of the most common qualms of hot tub ownership. How does one keep up with it? If you stick to the basic rules below, your hot tub water will be crystal clear.

Top Tips for Maintaining Crystal Clear Hot Tub Water

 

Keep it Covered

Keep natural impurities like dirt, leaves, bugs, and air particles carrying algae and fungi from entering your spa! It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at the state of some hot tubs we’ve seen. A consistently uncovered hot tub can easily become a mosquito pond. Not to mention the waste of energy! Keep it covered folks.

 

Shower or Rinse Before Entering

Lotions, deodorants, perfumes, detergents,  and natural body oils we have on us can get into hot tub water and keep it from staying crystal clear. Our skin is constantly shedding cells (ew, but true) and that can cause biofilm build up in your hot tub. Our 2024 Self-Cleaning Range does have a new microfilter step in our filtering system to help prevent clogs and scum lines but showering before entering can help limit these bodily contaminants! Our body’s natural state can cause cloudy hot tub water, and the products we use can cause excessive foam. Of course, proper chemical balance and items like FoamAway can help prevent this and keep your hot tub crystal clear!

 

Don’t Dunk and Keep Long Hair Up

Much like the point above, you want to limit the lotions and potions that enter the water. For a curly haired girl, getting my hair wet in a hot tub is a direct line to a knotty mess! I keep my hair up not only to prevent my leave-in conditioners and gels from leaching into the tub, but also to prevent hair fall-out and tangles. Aside from personal hair-care reasons, excessive floating hair can lead to filter clogs.

 

Test and Adjust Sanitiser Levels

Use spa test strips to check your chemical levels! Use a test strip whenever you use your hot tub to keep watch of your chemical levels. At least once a week, adjust your levels to match the correct reading on your test strip. Chlorine or bromine are commonly used to sanitise hot tubs. Always add sanitising chemicals to a running hot tub and keep it running for 15 minutes afterward with the cover off. Shocking the water can also help maintain water clarity. If your spa is cloudy but has a level of sanitiser in the water, Shock will wake up your chosen sanitising solution by way of chemical reaction. 

 

Don’t Ignore pH and Alkalinity

It's important to regularly check the pH of your hot tub water. The ideal pH range is between 7.2 and 7.8. A pH above 7.8 can cause cloudy water, while a pH outside this range can irritate your skin and cause itchy eyes if swimming in a swim spa. Testing alkalinity is also crucial for maintaining the balance of your hot tub water. Alkalinity refers to the total amount of alkaline substances in the water, such as carbonates and bicarbonates. It helps to buffer the pH, preventing it from fluctuating too rapidly. To adjust these two parameters with pH Plus,  pH Minus, and TA Plus.

We have all of the above chemicals and test strips plus several Bromine options, Chlorine options, and extras such as FoamAway, Filter Cleaners, and more at our Hydropool North West showroom. Our customers get 10% off all purchases.

 

Practise Proper Refill Protocol

Eventually your water will reach a total chemical load, to prevent residue from accumulating you will empty and refill your tub every 3-4 months. If your tub has a low bather load or gets used infrequently you may change the water less. Draining gives you a great opportunity to deep clean the hot tub, removing bio-oil build up in pipes. We provide this service as one of our hot tub cleaning packages. Are you close enough to utilise our services?


Clean and Change Your Filters as Recommended

You’ll be an old hand clearing cloudy hot tub water after following this step. Your filter works hard to provide sparkling clean hot tub water. To maintain top notch water quality, clean or replace hot tub filters regularly. You can clean them by rinsing with water or soaking them in a filter cleaner solution. After soaking, rinse thoroughly to remove the cleaning solution. We recommend changing your filter every year while cleaning every 1-2 weeks for the clearest hot tub water.

 

Don't let your hot tub become a hot mess. Quit worrying about how to keep hot tub water clean with this clear advice, you'll be soaking in crystal-clear hot tub water in no time. 

And if you need a little extra help, we're your Hydropool Heroes. Just give us a ring.  A service contract from Hydropool North West might be the best solution on how to keep your hot tub water clean.