Garden Structures – hot tub maintenance

Regular hot tub maintenance can help prevent large repair costs. Here are a few maintenance tips to keep in mind: Consider an ozonator.

An ozonator is a device that sprays ozone gas into spa water, an extremely effective way to kill off bacteria in the water, keep the water clearer longer than bromide or chlorine and not give off that chemical smell. The downside is that the ozonator has to be in operation a couple of hours every day and that you must use other chemicals as well.

Be sure to winterize

Unless you live in California, your hot tub needs to be either fully insulated (most aren’t) or shut down for winter, many unnecessary hot tub problems are caused by ineffective preparations for winter, so be very careful if you close down your hot tub because any water left inside the hot tub shell, pipes or equipment, will freeze, expand and crack your unit. A winter cover over your regular cover will help keep your unit in shape during colder temperatures too.

Check the filter

The filter, which keeps your system clear of everything from hair to bacteria, is often an abused (or forgotten) part of the maintenance routine. Given how expensive a hot tub is, if you’re the kind of person who forgets to buy milk or feed the cat, consider investing in one of the new programmable filtering functions for busy (or forgetful) people who don't have the time to keep up with their system.

Calcium hardness

This will vary depending on where you live and where your water supply comes from and it is very important that the correct level is established. As a guide soft water tends to be low in calcium and hard water more obviously is high. The level should be checked each time you top-up or refill the hot tub with fresh water. The ideal level for hot tubs is between 100 - 200mg/l.

Garden hot tub maintenance photograph by Matt Arnold, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

 

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