John Bokor
The global pandemic has created a plethora of new hot tub owners in the market who need to understand how to properly care for their hot tub water. With sanitizers in high demand, retailers and service professionals need to take a ‘back-to-basics’ approach with their customers to provide them with the simplest plan for hot water treatment. The goal is to educate new hot tub owners on how to minimize chlorine use while still properly maintaining their water chemistry to avoid the pitfalls that can occur should their water fall out of balance.
Back-to-basics 1: Stay balanced
It all starts with water balance. Making sure hot tub customers have the correct mineral balance (total alkalinity to calcium hardness) to support a proper and stable pH is key. Balanced hot tub water is the best way to ensure chlorine, and most other sanitizers, can keep the water sanitized. To help maintain that balance, especially for new hot tub owners, using a blended borate specifically designed for the hot water environment can help keep the chemistry in balance. Some hot tub retailers include a borate product with the initial ‘start up’ chemistry package they provide to their customers for this reason—not only does it help maintain water balance, it also makes the hot tub water feel more soothing.
Borates can, in fact, help lower chlorine consumption because they have a buffering ability allowing hot tub water to remain at a more stable pH level for a longer period. In turn, borates allow chlorine to be more efficient and effective at sanitizing the water. In addition to using borates as a water-balancing tool for pH control, new hot tub owners also like the way it makes the water look and feel. One of the reasons hot tub water treated with borates has more ‘sparkle’ is because the borate product increases the refractory index of the water so more light is reflected and ‘sparkly.’
Finally, borates help improve the overall bather experience. All borates can be considered derivatives of boric acid, the active ingredient in eye drops, and this soothing ability translates into hot tubs treated with borate. Further, as borates are a mineral salt, they help make skin feel softer and help reduce ‘red eye’ that is common from the hot water steam.
Back-to-basics 2: Keep clean filters
Simply rinsing the filter with water does not remove the contaminants that become embedded in the pleats of the cartridge. Keeping filters clean allows them to operate properly and remove contaminants from the water so chlorine is not tied up with floating debris. Water clarity is only as good as the filter will allow it to be. Chemicals can resolve many different water quality problems, but if the filter is not working properly, neither will the water treatment program. The pandemic has led to homeowners using their hot tubs more frequently, especially those who have purchased a new hot tub. As a result, filters have been working overtime, so they need even more frequent cleaning.
Although it is not a favourite topic of conversation with new customers, it is important for retailers and service pros to point out to new hot tub owners soaking is not a substitute for bathing. Not showering before getting into a hot tub is a bad habit that can severely impact water quality. As chlorine and bromine react with bather waste it causes turbid or cloudy water, and chloramines to form that give hot tubs a distinctive odour. Further, when sanitizers react with organic compounds (contaminants) that settle along the waterline it leaves a coating where bacteria can grow.
Even when bathers shower before entering a hot tub, contaminants from their bodies can cause the sanitizer to be used up quickly. The more people there are and the longer they stay in the hot tub, the faster disinfectant levels decrease. This results in a lower concentration of sanitizer levels than what needs to be present in the water to kill harmful bacteria. Further, chloramines can cause irritation to the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract.
Additionally, it is important to remember having jets in a hot tub increases the need to sanitize and clean filters regularly—as the jets pound contaminants off the skin’s surface. For example, one must remember although body wash feels great on the skin, it leaves a film on the body that is removed by the jets, which quickly mixes into the hot tub water and clogs up the filters.
