Do you use chemicals in your outdoor hot tub or just change the water periodically?

Question

I used to have a lot of trouble maintaining the water with chemicals and just gave up one day. Now, the water seems to do well on it's own; stays clear, no bad smells, minimal growth on tub walls, ...

Answer 1

I let my parents do that stuff

Answer 2

You are simply looking for trouble by not using chemicals. If it is important not to use chemicals then get an ozonator and you only have to do a little shock after you get out. We all carry bacteria, and the hot tub is a perfect incubation chamber. Like a giant petri dish. I have little trouble. I basically use two chemicals, OxyShock and Iso Chlorine. Everytime I get out, I throw in a capful of each and rarely have trouble. Of course, it is good to change your water, but, if you get a bacterial culture or growth in your pipes and plumbing, you will have a hard time getting rid of it. Also, you are begging for uninary infections or bladder infections for any or from any guests. Go to a different spa supplier, take a water sample and they will cheerfull help you on treatment. I use test strips which work quite well and are easy. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Go to your local spa dealership, or even a good hardware store, and get the hot tub maintenance kit. You definitely don't chage the water out that often! You would have a very large water bill. It is fairly easy to keep it claen and healthy. It all depends on the amount of useage as to how often you will use the chemical treatment. You do change the water, just not weekly like you do for maintaning a healthy hot tub.
Good Luck!
And have fun Hot Tubbin'!

Answer 4

I'm afraid responders to date have been too diplomatic with your situations. YOU ARE GOING TO INFECT PEOPLE WITH DANGEROUS BACTERIA, WEIRD FUNGAL INFECTIONS AND POSSIBLY KILL SOMEONE UNLESS YOU TREAT YOUR SPA PROPERLY.

You should hang a DANGER sign on your spa immediately and keep it off limits to everyone not wearing a toxic response suit until you take the emergency actions necessary not only to restore chemical treatment, but to do a high dose treatment to assure that you have killed everything that is currently breeding in that slew!

Have you ever heard of Legionaries disease?? It killed a number of American Legion members at a convention years ago and got it's name from that incident. The microorgainism that causes Legionaries disease loves hot tubs that are not properly treated. Cryptosporidium sickened over 3000 people, some severely after an outbreak at a water park in New York, and water parks are not near as bad as hot tubs.

Certain people like myself, who know too much about diseases from improperly treated pools and hot tubs will never go in a hot tub again.

YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP FOR YOUR HOT TUB! The alternative is to drastically increase your liability insurance to cover the lawsuits.

Incidentally, if you have a wicked chemical treatment smell from your spa it is because, while you are treating with chemical, YOU ARE UNDERTREATING, NOT OVERTREATING. You get a very heavy chemical smell from an undertreated spa. You are smelling degradation products.

If you want to consider a primary-secondary treatment system, instead of Ozone, I'd look into UV light. Ozone is a pretty toxic gas. It's OSHA threshold value is 2.5 times lower than the chemical that killed thousands in Bhopal. UV has gained significant stature in recent years as knowledge about it has increased, and it is non-chemical.

Both UV and Ozone need secondary treatment since neither leaves a residual to attack stuff in the tub itself. Usually the Bromine derivative is used as the secondary treatment in pool applications.

Answer 5

You do need to have chemicals in a hot tub. The needed range of chlorine / bromine levels need to be 3 to 5 ppm to be ideal. It can swing up as for as 10 ppm total free cholrine and the combined chlorine can not be over .5 ppm.
The PH range need to be with in 7.8 to 7.2 ppm but the ideal range for PH is 7.4 to 7.6 ppm.
Hot tubs / Spas are the hardest to care for due to the temp the water is at it makes it a breeding ground for bacteria.
As for draining and refilling your spa this as well is a must depending on the traffic use it sees. I run a spa that I have to drain and refill about once or twice a week.
If you do not know how to balance the chemicals in your spa please go to your spa supplier and find out what you will need.

In reply to the next post the smeel is NOT from under treating your spa It is due to the combined chlorine being high. The burning smell most people think is from high chlorine is really from another chemical called chloramines. AS I said IF YOU DO NOT KNOW FIND A CERTIFIED POOL-SPA OPERATOR

Answer 6

We use bromide in our hot-tub. It is set at 100-101. When the outside temperture drops below 50 we raise the hot tub to 103-104. We have now had the hotub for 2 years and have "topped off" the water every 3 months. we have never changed it completely.

Answer 7

The bad part with not using chemicals, is the bacteria grows. The water is unhealthy rather or not you can smell it, or if it is clear or not. Havent had much problem maintaining my water balance. During the winter with the cooler weather and with less usage, you dont require as much chlorine. I dont measure, and usually put about a large capful in once a week.

Answer 8

You could contract with a service or get a dispenser but you really do need to treat a spa regularly to keep the water from becoming a health hazard.

Answer 9

we just use a floating bromine cartridge and change the water about once a month.....the real trick is to change and clean the filter(s) often.....another great help is if the people getting in would shower off before getting in it will remove the body oil and that is the big problems with spas......

Answer 10

Well what you talking about is bacteria and algae, along with acids and things you don't want to know about.