Hard or soft water for hot tub?

[dan1333]

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can give me some insight as to using soft water or normal city (hard) water to fill the hot tub. I use potassium for the softener, not salt. Is it better to use the soft water to fill it? Will it affect the chemistry if I plan to use the smarterspa or saltron mini salt water chlorine generator?

Basically I just want to know which is best for a fill, softened water or hard water (it's city water so metals/iron are not an issue).

Thank you so much.

 

[cowboycasey]

Welcome to TFP

Both will work just fine for fill, You will add salt to the tub and after 24 hours throw the saltron in and test the water.. Speaking of that, please get a great test kit so you can take control of your hot tub and not get pool stored...

No need to add all of that "stuff" they say check out all the links in my sig below...

 

[CrystalRiver]

Note that potassium (chloride) is salt.

 

[Mdragger88]

what is the ch of your un softened water?
A ch of about 150 is just right for a spa.
Also fyi right now the controlOmatic chlormaker is the same price as the saltron mini on Amazon & discount salt pool. When i was purchasing in the past it was at least $100 more so I went w/ the saltron mini & a timer. Their replacement cells are roughly the same price as well.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I have soft water (~45) and add calcium to my hot tub as I believe it helps lessen "foaming" when the jets and bubbles get going.

Maddie