How to Take Care of Your Hot Tub in Winter So You Can Use It All Year Long

Maintaining a hot tub is very similar to maintaining a pool with one major difference: the amount of water is much less.

With proper care and cleaning at regular intervals, a hot tub will provide many years of trouble-free service. Here’s a beginner’s guide to hot tub maintenance.

Key Hot Tub Maintenance Tasks

The majority of hot tub maintenance tasks can be summed up into three categories cleaning, chemicals, and cover.

Cleaning

As a hot tub gets used, oils, sunscreen, and other contaminants will build up and quickly contaminate the water. These contaminates can also build up in the system pipes and adhere to the hot tub walls. This is why it is very important to take every opportunity to clean your hot tub.

At regular intervals, you should be:

• Scrubbing the walls
• Cleaning piping with hot tub cleaner
• Rinsing and cleaning the filter

Scrubbing the walls of the hot tub, either white vinegar or a hot tub cleaner, should happen when the hot tub is drained for maintenance or when changing out the water. This is the only way to remove the oils and contaminates that will be left over from the old water and to stop them from contaminating the new water.

Before draining the hot tub to clean it, add a hot tub pipe cleaner to keep the internal piping clean. This will ensure that all the internal contaminates are removed from areas that cannot be wiped down.

Cleaning the filter, either with a hose or filter cleaner, will not only extend the life of the filter but keep the hot tub water cleaner for longer.

Chemicals

Since a hot tub uses much less water than a pool, they are more susceptible to a chemical imbalance. This is why it is important to regularly test and adjust the chemical levels of the following:

• Sanitizer
• pH
• Alkalinity
• Shock

Sanitizer is the workhorse chemical that kills most bacteria, and it’s essential for keeping your hot tub from turning green. If the sanitizer level is low in your hot tub, it will not be able to break down contaminants and oil; your hot tub will quickly become contaminated.

PH is an important chemical level to monitor because a high pH level will cause your water to become cloudy and promote algae growth, while a low pH level will burn and irritate the skin.

Alkalinity is also important to monitor because if the level is too high, your hot tub water can become cloudy. Shock is good for rapidly raising the level of sanitizer in the hot tub, which is necessary if you haven’t used the hot tub for an extended period of time.

Cover

Keeping a hot tub covered goes a long way in ensuring the hot tub and its water stays clean and clear. A cover will protect the water from debris, insulate the water, and protect it from unwanted visitors (birds, pests, etc.). It should be kept on for safety when not in use.

Because the cover keeps the water insulated, it significantly cuts down on the amount of power that is needed to maintain the water temperature between uses, saving you money.

Hot Tub Maintenance Schedule

Ideally, hot tub maintenance should be performed weekly, monthly, and quarterly to ensure that your hot tub and water stays clean and clear.

Weekly Hot Tub Care

• Test water and adjust chemicals
• Rinse hot tub filter with water
• Wipe off spa cover

Monthly Hot Tub Care

• Chemically rinse the hot tub filter
• Wipe the hot tub down where possible
• Clean spa cover

Quarterly Hot Tub Care

• Add hot tub pipe cleaner to system
• Drain hot tub
• Wipe entire hot tub down with hot tub cleaner
• Soak filter in filter cleaner
• Refill and balance chemicals