New Hot Tub Owner. Lot to Learn

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mayberry32

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Jun 24, 2019
226
Watkinsville, GA
I have a 35k gallon saltwater pool that we've had for 3 years. Chemistry in it confused me at first and, with help from here and a TFT Test Kit, it's extremely simple to keep all my chemistry in balance now. I added a gas heater when we installed the pool and I do love it, but the pool gets little usage from late September through March, other than heating a few times over the winter (in Georgia) just for fun.

I did not install a hot tub with the pool, mainly because I've never liked the comfort and effectiveness of a hot tub built into a pool. I also wanted one that was covered, under my covered deck, where it could be used when the pool wasn't.....cold weather, rainy days, etc.

So, I just bought a Hot Springs Grandee and it's being delivered tomorrow. Extremely excited. I'm 44 and a dad of 3. I'm starting to feel the aches and pains of life and I am really looking forward to having a hot tub to get in every evening to relax and work out the kinks in my back and body. Also a great place for the wife and I to spent time together and get caught up on the day after kids go to bed at night.

I opted for a large hot tub because we are a family of 5, and we have several friends over on a regular basis. I wanted room for everyone. I didn't go with the saltwater system, because I'm undecided on it in a hot tub. I've read several reviews about people having trouble with the chemistry balancing, and trouble with the tub after converting to salt. It's an upgrade charge either way, so I can add it later, if I choose to. From what I read, the chlorine and mineral hot tubs actually use 50-75% less chlorine than a chlorine pool, anyway. And most recommend sticking with chlorine in a hot tub. Any educated opinions or advice on this front is greatly appreciated.

I am also wondering, once it's filled, can we use it tomorrow night? As in use it the first night with no chemicals at all, and add the start up chemicals after we get out to work their way in overnight? Or, even put in chemicals and run the jets for an hour and then get in the same day? Or, will I need to wait? With our pool, they added about 25 bags of salt and said to give it an hour before swimming. It took several days to get the chlorine and chemistry settled in, but it was clear and fine to swim in. We just didn't open our eyes under water until we were comfortable with the chlorine levels. Same with the hot tub?

I may have extra questions I'll add to this thread as we go. Any recommendations, suggestions, etc are greatly appreciated.
 
Congrats. You need to purge first thing. Ahhsome! is your friend. You won't believe what comes out of a new SPA.

Here's my thread on my new tub. Spa delivered

The pic of the gunk is what came out for a good twenty minutes. I continually wiped up the stuff up and as soon as I got around to where I started, it was back again.
 
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I use my tub the same night after filling, purging, and opening it each season. You can add chlorine and do the initial balancing. It’s important to have some free chlorine in the new water before you get in it, otherwise bacteria will start multiplying quickly in that perfect people soup warm water.

Ahhsome is a great product to use on new tubs. Highly recommended by anyone here who has witnessed the gunk that comes out of new plumbing. Amazon has it, so you might be able to get it quickly, or you can go ahead and use the tub (chlorinated) for a few days or a week and then use that water to do a purge with Ahhsome.

Salt water chlorinator systems are no more difficult to balance than manual dosing, in my experience, although I have no experience with the proprietary Hot Springs system.
 
I've had both a hot tub and a pool. Pool is much easier by far to look after than a hot tub. When things go wrong on a hut tub, they go wrong in a hurry. For the first 5 years of owning a hot tub, I ran it on Bromine with tabs in a dosing mechanism built into the filter housing. For 5 years I had a lot of problems. Rarely did we have stretches without issue. About 2 years ago I converted the pool over to chlorine and now dose it with liquid chlorine for sanitizing - just like my pool. Since then, all issues have gone away and I save a lot of money on maintenance. I balance water and then just add a little liquid chlorine to the tub. May have to lower PH from time to time but that's it. So much easier. When we travel, I will still use some chlorine tabs to keep up the chlorine while we are away but that's not a huge deal. I can always exchange some water to reduce CYA if it gets too high. Maintaining hot tubs with LC isn't for everyone but it's worked amazingly well for us. Pool Stores don't advocate it as it may be more maintenance then some owners want to take on. Good luck with the hot tub and ahhsome is a great product for purging/cleaning your tub. You can order it on Amazon so it's easy to get hold of.
 
Hello Mayberry32: What state are you located in? Since your tub is a Hot Spring, your local dealer may have the Ahh-Some in his store. Watkins has been a huge advocate for the Ahh-Some product for many years. Their customer service people in Vista usually have some at their disposal to send out for troubled tubs. Check with your dealer First. Look at the Ahhsome.com website as well to see if there is a stocking dealer in your location. If you can't get it today I recommend that you check the pH, make adjustments and add the appropriate amount of chlorine, typically so your residual is between 2-4 ppm. Use the tub over the weekend and purge next week when the product arrives. You spent hard earned money on the tub and it is only fair that you and the family use it right away.
 
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Hot tubs are harder to keep in chemical balance than a pool, regardless of salt or not. The reason is volume.

Look at the size of your pool and look at the size of your hot tub. 5 people in your hot tub is like 50 people in your pool. Not to mention all of the sweating that goes on in a hot tub.

When you add chemicals to your pool such as bleach, if you are off by an ounce or two, no big deal. The typical dose for my hot tub IS two oz.

It is not that the chemistry is different, it is just that it is the same concentration of chemicals and number of bathers, in a much more condensed environment.

I run my tub with DiChlor (granulated) to start, and then once I get to my target CYA, I switch to bleach. I use muriatic acid to control pH.

I use Aqua Clarity weekly and I run my Calcium Hardness towards the upper end of the recommended range, because I do find the Aqua Clarity will foam if my CH is too low.
 
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So, the hot tub showed up today and the electrician had it wired up about 30 minutes later. Runs great. I received a small packet of "start up", and the instructions said to test alkalinity and pH and adjust. I added a little alkalinity Up product and pH Up product that came with the tub. pH looked to be around 7.6, alkalinity was 120 and everything looks good. Initially, the chlorine was running around 6.5, but I'm sure that will drop quite a bit after us spending an hour in the tub tonight. Will check that again tomorrow. They also included a Frog Ease Floating System with 4 refills with the tub. They told me to set it to 2 or 3 and leave it in the hot tub. It keeps going in the filter bin. Do I remove it when we are in there, or just leave it in the filter bin all the time?
 
mayberry32 said:
Also, stupid question # 1: what do I do when I'm finished at the end of the night? Do I keep the jets running on low and cover it, or just shut it down?
Click to expand...
The jets should be turned off - there should be a filtering program that will intermittently turn on the circulation pump even if you turn everything off.
 

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So, I know it’s only 3 days old, but trying to figure this out. My pool is stabilized and I know exactly what to do with anything that gets slightly out of whack. This hot tub is confusing me.

Using the frog is filing system, and set on level two setting, my chlorine of staying stable at 6.5…a bit high. My alkalinity is reading 110, my calcium is reading 25, test strip shows pH at 7.2, but the dropper test through my pool kit shows it at 8.0. Using my TFT dropper kit, I can register no CYA at all. My test tube only goes up to 30, but even filling it to the top, it is clear as a bell. There is some foam when it is running, also.

Do these numbers look okay, or is there something I need to be doing to get it balanced better? I just added a little freshwater because kids splashed some out last night, to both refill and maybe lower the chlorine level a bit.
 
Adding ch up to 150 may help with the foaming. You can just add it in 50 ppm increments until its gets better.
For fc You want to follow the FC/CYA Levels at all times using your test kit.
Fc above 4 ppm with no cya can feel quite harsh & can be a bit harsh on equipment & things like your cover & headrests etc.
the frog doesn’t Add cya. It’s dispersment of fc can be hard to gauge as well. The minerals it adds aren’t really necessary but I understand that you already have the packs & may want to use them up.
If you have some granular stabilizer from your pool you can use that in a skimmer sock/knee high to get the cya up to around 30ppm then chlorinate accordingly.
Be sparing, as a scootch off in a small spa has a much larger effect than being a little off in a big pool.
Here’s the hot tub guide 👇

How do I use Chlorine in my Spa (or pool)?

If you have a question about any information within this Sticky, please start a new thread for yourself where you will receive very quick responses to your specific questions. Thank you! Introduction There are two main things to consider when maintaining your hot tub water, Water Balance and...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
It is also pinned 📌 to the top of this subforum for convenience.
Here’s some info on mineral systems like the frog 🐸 👇

Alternative sanitizers and "chemical free" pools--The Truth!

Pool owners frequently seek out "Chemical Free" alternatives to pool water sanitization. Many claims in favor of these systems and methods have been made (usually by the manufacturers of such systems) often without adequate scientific proof of their efficacy. Let's take a look at them and see...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
mayberry32 said:
So, I know it’s only 3 days old, but trying to figure this out. My pool is stabilized and I know exactly what to do with anything that gets slightly out of whack. This hot tub is confusing me.

Using the frog is filing system, and set on level two setting, my chlorine of staying stable at 6.5…a bit high. My alkalinity is reading 110, my calcium is reading 25, test strip shows pH at 7.2, but the dropper test through my pool kit shows it at 8.0. Using my TFT dropper kit, I can register no CYA at all. My test tube only goes up to 30, but even filling it to the top, it is clear as a bell. There is some foam when it is running, also.

Do these numbers look okay, or is there something I need to be doing to get it balanced better? I just added a little freshwater because kids splashed some out last night, to both refill and maybe lower the chlorine level a bit.
Click to expand...



The frog system does not use "normal" chlorine, ie DiChlor. It uses basically what is in those pucks you can drop in your toilet tank.

This does two things.
1) It adds a continuous low dose of FC into your tub.
2) It throws your CC readings way out of whack.

I myself do not use it. I had a 3 month starter pack as well. I did not like the way it worked, and the fact that I could not measure things accurately. It was not horrible, but I felt it was a worse experience than DiChlor/Bleach, and was more expensive to boot.

90% of the time, you will not have to raise pH in a hot tub, the aeration from the jets does that. You will most of the time need acid to lower the pH that keep rising on it's own. In my opinion, a $20 pH meter is well worth the investment. I never felt the need for one with my pool, but with a tub I was measuring pH all of the time, and to try and find consistent lighting and background to view the color was a pain. Now I turn on the jets, stick the meter in the water, and 10 seconds later have a reading.

Raising your CH can help with foaming. They do sell defoamer, but I don't like it - I think it makes the water smell and feel funny.

I add chlorine to my tub after we use it. I turn the jets on (if they are off) and add the bleach. By the time I turn off the outside lights, and put away whatever needs to be put away (Amazon echo, the bleach, etc) the chlorine has been circulated enough, so I turn off the jets and lock the cover.

Your jets will come on automatically. Your tub should have a scheduling feature. I don't know what brand you have, but I can tell you what mine does.

Mine has two items I can set - filter timing, and heat.

When my tub is set to filter, Jet Pump 1 comes on, and runs for the set amount of filter time.

When my tub determines it needs heat, based on the the heating schedule (my tubs setpoint changes based on time and what day it is) the heater and Jet Pump 1 will come on

I do not have a dedicated circulation pump. If you have that, it will likely run 24/7 instead of having a filter cycle.

I have two Jet pumps, that is why when I add bleach at the end of a soak, I hit both pumps for about 5 min. Normally in my tub, Jet Pump 2 (half of my jets) does not activate during filtering or heating, so I run it just to get the new bleach dose into that plumbing.
 
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phonedave said:
The frog system does not use "normal" chlorine, ie DiChlor. It uses basically what is in those pucks you can drop in your toilet tank.

This does two things.
1) It adds a continuous low dose of FC into your tub.
2) It throws your CC readings way out of whack.

I myself do not use it. I had a 3 month starter pack as well. I did not like the way it worked, and the fact that I could not measure things accurately. It was not horrible, but I felt it was a worse experience than DiChlor/Bleach, and was more expensive to boot.

90% of the time, you will not have to raise pH in a hot tub, the aeration from the jets does that. You will most of the time need acid to lower the pH that keep rising on it's own. In my opinion, a $20 pH meter is well worth the investment. I never felt the need for one with my pool, but with a tub I was measuring pH all of the time, and to try and find consistent lighting and background to view the color was a pain. Now I turn on the jets, stick the meter in the water, and 10 seconds later have a reading.

Raising your CH can help with foaming. They do sell defoamer, but I don't like it - I think it makes the water smell and feel funny.

I add chlorine to my tub after we use it. I turn the jets on (if they are off) and add the bleach. By the time I turn off the outside lights, and put away whatever needs to be put away (Amazon echo, the bleach, etc) the chlorine has been circulated enough, so I turn off the jets and lock the cover.

Your jets will come on automatically. Your tub should have a scheduling feature. I don't know what brand you have, but I can tell you what mine does.

Mine has two items I can set - filter timing, and heat.

When my tub is set to filter, Jet Pump 1 comes on, and runs for the set amount of filter time.

When my tub determines it needs heat, based on the the heating schedule (my tubs setpoint changes based on time and what day it is) the heater and Jet Pump 1 will come on

I do not have a dedicated circulation pump. If you have that, it will likely run 24/7 instead of having a filter cycle.

I have two Jet pumps, that is why when I add bleach at the end of a soak, I hit both pumps for about 5 min. Normally in my tub, Jet Pump 2 (half of my jets) does not activate during filtering or heating, so I run it just to get the new bleach dose into that plumbing.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed answer. I'm good with my chemistry on my pool. I'm about to come to the same conclusion as you. The Frog @ease seems like it's designed for people who are fine with "my water isn't murky and won't cause disease". I want my water balanced and clean. I don't want to work my butt off, but I do want my chemistry where it's supposed to be. So, I'm taking the Frog system out tomorrow. Do I need to just monitor the chlorine drop over the next few days, or do I need to drain and re-fill? If dropping, I already bought some chlorine powder from the spa store today. I'll add it, as needed. I assume, based on the other chemicals, thta it'll probably be a few tablespoons or so to raise the chlorine back up.

Also, I bought a pH stick for my pool several years ago and it didn't waork at all. Do you have a recommendation? I'd love another one, if it works properly.
 
mayberry32 said:
Thank you for the detailed answer. I'm good with my chemistry on my pool. I'm about to come to the same conclusion as you. The Frog @ease seems like it's designed for people who are fine with "my water isn't murky and won't cause disease". I want my water balanced and clean. I don't want to work my butt off, but I do want my chemistry where it's supposed to be. So, I'm taking the Frog system out tomorrow. Do I need to just monitor the chlorine drop over the next few days, or do I need to drain and re-fill? If dropping, I already bought some chlorine powder from the spa store today. I'll add it, as needed. I assume, based on the other chemicals, thta it'll probably be a few tablespoons or so to raise the chlorine back up.

Also, I bought a pH stick for my pool several years ago and it didn't waork at all. Do you have a recommendation? I'd love another one, if it works properly.
Click to expand...


I use this pH meter - Meter and it seems to work well for me.

I don't know if the chemicals that the frog systems uses that causes the mis-reading of CC dissipate over time, or if they stay in the water.

You can buy an additional test chemical that blocks them so your readings are correct. So I don't know if that is better then re-filling for you.

If you are using dichlor (Chlorine powder), it is going to raise your CYA. It is fine to use it at first, but eventually you need to switch to liquid chlorine (bleach) once your CYA gets high enough.
 
phonedave said:
I use this pH meter - Meter and it seems to work well for me.

I don't know if the chemicals that the frog systems uses that causes the mis-reading of CC dissipate over time, or if they stay in the water.

You can buy an additional test chemical that blocks them so your readings are correct. So I don't know if that is better then re-filling for you.

If you are using dichlor (Chlorine powder), it is going to raise your CYA. It is fine to use it at first, but eventually you need to switch to liquid chlorine (bleach) once your CYA gets high enough.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Again....much more difficult than the pool chemistry maintenance. This morning, I added some alkalinity Up and some pH Down. As the pH came back up, I added a few oz's of hydrogen peroxide tonight, as I read it will lower chlorine and also lower pH. So, I used half the amount "suggested" to see what happens in the morning. Trying to figure this out. I'll get there, and it may be liquid chlorine, or it may be a saltwater system. I love the simplicity of saltwater, but I've read horror stories in hot tubs and the salt cell replacement costs are ridiculous. But, I can't keep on with 6-7 chlorine levels, either. The Frog system has to go, I think. I also cut it OFF this morning and we'll see where chlorine is tomorrow after 2 30 minute soaks tonight.
 
What was your ta? Unless it’s below 50 there’s no need for “ta up” aka - fancy baking soda or possibly washing soda
A241FB4D-0314-4110-9886-066F87465730.jpeg
The lower the ta the slower the ph rise.
So increasing ta while simultaneously trying to lower ph is a silly merry go round to get on.

Adding some cya to 30ppm will buffer the harshness of the fc. I regularly keep my fc around 6ppm with no issue.
Trying to maintain low fc like around 2ppm (as they suggest you do with the frog) to prevent harshness with no cya will lead to fc falling to zero when a bather load is introduced allowing for nasties to have a field day.
I use a drape over swg (saltron mini) for most of my chlorination & supplement heavier bather loads with liquid chlorine .
my cells last around 18 months or so. The replacement cells currently cost about $150. Not sure what the built in options are for your particular tub.
 
Mdragger88 said:
What was your ta? Unless it’s below 50 there’s no need for “ta up” aka - fancy baking soda or possibly washing soda
View attachment 456739
The lower the ta the slower the ph rise.
So increasing ta while simultaneously trying to lower ph is a silly merry go round to get on.

Adding some cya to 30ppm will buffer the harshness of the fc. I regularly keep my fc around 6ppm with no issue.
Trying to maintain low fc like around 2ppm (as they suggest you do with the frog) to prevent harshness with no cya will lead to fc falling to zero when a bather load is introduced allowing for nasties to have a field day.
I use a drape over swg (saltron mini) for most of my chlorination & supplement heavier bather loads with liquid chlorine .
my cells last around 18 months or so. The replacement cells currently cost about $150. Not sure what the built in options are for your particular tub.
Click to expand...
I will definitely check that out. Hot Springs has a proprietary swg system, I believe. It was something like $130 every 3-4 months for a new cartridge.
 
That sounds pricey 😵‍💫
Depending upon your set up you may be able to “hide” a drape over cell in your filter compartment. I can’t do that because my tub only has 1 filter & one of those floating weirs but we don’t mind the cell hanging there in the tub.
There are few different drape over’s available-
*Saltron mini - made in usa
*ControlOmatic (they make a few versions)- made in usa
*Briidea (new comer to the scene so not alot of feedback on longevity yet)- made in china
 

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