Hot Tub Maintenance

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It is not uncommon to hear horror stories of pool maintenance; in fact, it is not uncommon to hear stories of one little goof - perhaps the wrong dosage of chemicals, or chemicals added at the wrong time, or chemicals forgotten - putting a pool out of commission for weeks. Many people hear such stories and think, "Hot tubs must be so much easier to take care of than pools." After all, a hot tub is smaller, right? That must mean something. Plus, you don't have the sun shining on your hot tub all day. Hot tubs are probably a piece of cake to take care of; you can probably goof up on hot tubs all the time, and it will hardly even matter, right? No - this is completely wrong!

It is far more important that you keep up with hot tub maintenance, and hot tub maintenance is also far more tedious. It is more difficult to keep a hot tub balanced than it is to keep a pool balanced, because it is more difficult to keep a smaller amount of water balanced than a larger amount of water. If you have a hot tub, of if you plan to have a hot tub in the future, remember: Keeping a treatment schedule is the best thing you can do.

With a hot tub schedule, you will mark down things that need to be done daily, weekly, and monthly. Among your daily maintenance items is balancing the pH levels in the hot tub. This does not take long at all, and as long as the levels are still balanced, you will not need to do anything additional as far as this goes. Make sure you check it daily, though; things can swing drastically out of balance in a very short span of time if you do not stay on top of it. Also, check the waterline every day (or, at least, check it every couple days). Weekly, you need to make sure you add all the important products such as oxidizer, non-chlorine shock, and foam reducer. Pick a specific day each week on which you will do this, and that way you will not forget. Finally, as for your monthly tasks, you should plan to give your hot tub's filters a thorough cleaning.

A hot tub can be a lot of fun for yourself, your family, and your friends. And as long as you keep up with the simple, regular maintenance, a hot tub can be very easy to take care of. But if you do not keep up with the maintenance, your hot tub will not be any fun at all!