Do I need to test spa as well as pool?

[sherfraz]

I'm a the owner of a new in ground pool and spa. I have read through a lot of the pool school info, have the TF-100 test kit and now have everything balanced. Yay for me! I have the Pentair Intellichlor SWG. It has separate settings for both pool and spa output. The pool company that did the initial install only set it for the pool. I changed the output amount for the pool while balancing which is when I noticed it could be set for the spa also. Currently spa output is 0. I hadn't previously considered the spa separately. I'm not sure if the pool water gets completely circulated through the spa all the time or not. I assume it must be circulating at least somewhat while the spillway is on and the normal pool run setting does turn on the spillway as well as some sheer descents we have. However it normally runs at a low speed which pushes very little water over the spillway. I do have a spillway setting that ups the pump speed so more water goes over the spillway and to the sheer descents so they look nice and full.

I did a basic total chlorine and ph test on the spa today and they are about the same as the pool currently. So I did not do the rest of the tests on the spa.

My main question is do I need to regularly test the spa separately when I test the pool. Also I would appreciate any info on the circulation of water through the spa and whether I need to make sure the pump runs at a higher speed for some amount of time to make sure that happens.

Sorry if this is a repeat question. I tried searching but when you use the words test, pool and spa you get practically every thread as a result.

 

[duraleigh]

My main question is do I need to regularly test the spa separately when I test the pool.

Actually, I don't recall that question being asked in nine years.

The answer is "no". Just test your pool. I would suggest you visually watch the spa for any signs of poor circulation (a little algae hiding in a nook) but I think you are good to go. Congrats for grasping the concepts so quickly

 

[sherfraz]

Thanks! I thought that was probably the answer but I like to cover my bases when learning something completely new like this. This site is an awesome resource which allowed me to get up to speed very quickly.

 

[Richard320]

I've never tested my spillover spa. I suspect it would be wrong. With the aeration it gets I suspect the pH would be higher than the rest of the pool.

If you can, move the valves manually or using "spa drain", and then refill it from the pool. You'll see how fast it fills. Full blast, mine is less than fifteen minutes. Then figure if I only run 25% of the water back through the spa after filtering, it will pretty much have exchanged an equal volume of water in an hour. Two turnovers in the two hours I run it in winter. Three in summer.

 

[wjr75]

I run my spa in spa mode for 15 minutes each day and also during that time run the jets and blower for 5 minutes. This gets fresh chlorine in the spa pipes. I just test the pool chemicals when it is in pool mode which has a spa spillover.