Mastering Hot Tub Maintenance: From Fill-Ups to Expert Upkeep

Ever found yourself puzzled by the science of hot tub maintenance? Worry no more! Our latest episode spills the secrets of perfecting your spa routine, from initial fill-ups to expert-level upkeep. We start with a tale of a post-Super Bowl splash and learn why filling your hot tub is more than just running a hose. Discover the best practices to get your hot tub up and bubbling without the rookie mistakes, and our special troubleshooting tips for those unexpected air locks. You'll be armed with knowledge to 'burp' your spa like a pro, ensuring a smooth start to your relaxation oasis.

Don't let spa care intimidate you; we've broken down the nitty-gritty of maintaining crystal-clear waters. Dive into our discussion on the importance of regular water changes, the nuances of sanitizing systems, and the non-negotiable attention your filters demand. Rotate through our filter strategy to achieve the pinnacle of purity in your hot tub's embrace. Plus, we're stirring excitement with a sneak peek at our upcoming guests and the 30-day hot tub soak challenge that awaits. By the end of this episode, you'll be checking your spa with the confidence of a seasoned spa technician, ready to take on the coldest of months and the hottest of soaks.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

Happy Monday. How's everybody doing today after recovering from that Super Bowl win last night from the Chiefs. I'm a Packer fan, but I was tiering for the Chiefs, so I'm pretty excited about that and it was a good game. How awesome was it that it actually went into overtime and I absolutely loved that. So today's topic is going to be filling and topping off hot tubs.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I had an interesting week. I was on the showroom floor and I went to Combine Pool and Spa this week and I was actually helping them out with spa school, which was pretty fun. I haven't done a live spa school in quite a while. And when it came to talking about filling up the hot tub or adding water to the hot tub, we just kind of skimmed over that topic a little bit and I felt it needed a lot more, a lot more attention than what we actually did. And then I was teaching a new employee how to fill a hot tub for the first time, and one of the pumps didn't get tightened up all the way, and so we had water all over the showroom floor and it was just super interesting. And so the whole filling of a hot tub has definitely been top of my priority list, or top of my mind this week, just because it has been one of those weeks.

Speaker 1: 1:46

If that has to say anything, have to say anything about it. For those of you watching, I'm not wearing blue today. I'm wearing orange and that's an awful lot of orange. I will not do that to you guys again. So I apologize for the orange on the shirt and the orange on the chair and the orange on the towels. That gets to be a lot of orange. So we won't do that again, do you guys? I'll make sure that I'm wearing blue so that it does contrast that a little bit, but that's what we have going on today. So if you guys have any questions, be sure to just pop them in the chat and I will be more than happy to answer any questions that you have. But today's topic is definitely going to be about filling a hot tub, and we're actually heading out of town for the week and so Frank's out there topping up our hot tub and making sure that everything's ready to go, because that's something that's really important that you do.

Speaker 1: 2:31

But so when people fill their hot tub for the very first time and I get this a lot with new hot tub owners they just are totally scared that they're going to mess things up. And you can't really mess things up. And if something were to happen as in it happened with me on the showroom floor and the pump wasn't hooked up tight or your drain cap wasn't on tight or something just isn't working and the hot tub is leaking, it's not the end of the world, it's just a mess that you have to clean up. But it's not going to hurt anything. If you are filling your hot tub and the water's running out faster than you are putting it in, that is, it's okay, it's a.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Hot tubs are meant to have water in them. Hot tubs are meant to be drained, so it's definitely not going to hurt anything if that happens. So don't be so scared to fill your hot tub that you don't do it. But one of the things that you need to know, especially on saltwater hot tubs this is not on chlorine hot tubs, but on saltwater hot tubs or hot tubs with a circulation pump there is definitely going to be all hot tubs. When you fill them for the very first time, you want to put the hose down the filtration stand pipe and if you don't have a stand pipe, you just want to make sure that the hose goes into the filter compartment. You want to fill your hot tub for the very first time. You want to fill the water or after you've drained and refill it. So if you're filling from an empty state, it is super important that you fill that hot tub through the filter compartment. And the reason that you do that is it's going to cause it can cause an air lock if you don't force all the air out of all the pumps and out of the lines and if you're going through the filter compartment, that's actually forcing that water through all those hoses and it's going to keep that air lock from happening. So what happens if you do get an air lock? You definitely you just want to take the hose and you're going to stick it down the air compartment or down that filter compartment and you're going to add more water and a lot of times that will force that air lock out.

Speaker 1: 4:42

If it doesn't, the couple of things that you can do is you can call, do what we call burp the hot tub. You can do that by taking a filter and forcing it up and down a couple of times forcing, you know, almost like you're plunging it. I've seen people actually do it with a plunger. If you want to buy a plunger just for the hot tub, I've seen people actually plunge their hot tub over the filter compartment. That's harder to do than you would think, but that is one way that you can actually do it. Another way that you can do it is, again, just put the hook, the hose, back up, force it down the air compartment and Down the filter compartment. That'll force more water out.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Third thing you can do is turn the power on and off a few times Sometimes. So you're gonna turn the power off. Go turn the power back on. Go hit the jet button. If nothing happens, go turn the power off. Turn the wait about 30 seconds, turn the power back on, hit that jet button again and that'll actually eventually force that out. Sometimes just waiting a day or two will force it out as well.

Speaker 1: 5:44

Not the best Decision, expect or not. The best way to do it, especially if it's super cold out. If it's the middle of summer, it's not such a big deal, but it is a way to do it. But the easiest way is to actually put the hose back down the filter compartment and so then when you're filling your hot tub, you always want to get above the highest jet or to the bottom of the pillows. This is just a really super important that went. Once you get it full, you do not want to have any power. You don't want to turn the power on to the hot tub until you're actually touching the top of the pillows. That is super important that you do that.

Speaker 1: 6:20

I get a lot of people that'll actually try to turn it on halfway just to see if it's working. That's a bad thing. A you're gonna spray water all over the hot tub and it's just not a good way to go. Be it's it can burn the pumps out. So that's something that you don't want to do. You want to make sure that you are adding the water is completely full before you actually start. Start turning power on to the hot tub Now, once it's full. Then you can fill it up and you can do all your chemicals.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Now here's the piece that I feel a lot of people miss. Or they just assume that if I put the hose down the filter compartment every single time when I fill it, that that's the way to do it. That is not. That is not correct. So when you're filling from an empty state so first time fills or a drain, clean and refill. You definitely want to fill from that filter compartment if you are adding water to your hot tub, and this time of year it's been a great, some great winter around here, so we haven't had to add a lot of water to our hot tubs this winter. But typically you usually have to add water once a month or so.

Speaker 1: 7:26

So to add water to your hot tub in the winter you want to put the hose in the foot well and not in the filter compartment. So when adding water foot well, when from an empty state filter compartment the reason there is a difference when your Water is up to temperature and is it as 102 degrees, and then you take that cold water and you force it down the filter and that goes through the heater and the pumps that Can trigger not always, but can trigger the hot tub to think that it's freezing and when it goes into freezing mode or Protection mode especially the Watkins products, the hot springs and the Calderas this is a really awesome technology that is built into those but if it thinks it goes into freezing mode, it'll actually pop the hose off the heater and will drain the hot tub to protect the hot tub. So that's nothing that we never want to happen and we really don't want that to happen in the middle of the winter. When adding water to top it off, you're going to put the hose in the foot well compartment. That is where the hose is going to go. If you're topping off the hot tub to add water from an empty state, you are going to put the hose in the filter compartment. I can't stress how important that is. So topping off foot well from an empty state filter compartment that is 100% how that you want to do that. So make sure that that's how you are adding water to your hot tub. A protecting your hot tub and saving you money and protecting your investment. So it's really important that you do that.

Speaker 1: 9:05

The next question is is a lot of you are like well, why do I need to change my water every? You know, why do I even have to drain it? So if you're on a chlorine hot tub, you need to drain that hot tub every three to four months. And the reason for that is you're adding a lot of chemicals and you're adding a lot of total dissolved solids when you're adding chemical to your hot tub all the time. So if you're adding chemical after every use or you're shocking it once a week and you're doing all those things every time you do that. There are fillers in those chemicals, so they all have it. You know some have more than others. But you're adding up your total dissolved solids and when your total dissolved solids get too many then the chlorine can't move around. What it needs to do is just bumping into other total dissolved solids and then it actually takes more chemical to make the chlorine work. So you wanna drain that water every three to four months if you're on a chlorine or a bromine system, and so that's when you're filling it back up, then you're gonna fill it back up to that filter compartment. If you are a salt water hot tub, you only need to do that once a year, and the reason for that is because you're not adding chemical all the time. You put the salt in at the beginning and then you're just converting that salt into chlorine and it's doing that process over and over again. So you're not adding those extra total dissolved solids. So a salt water hot tub only needs to be drained once a year. Chlorine hot tub every three to four months. So that's your reasoning for that.

Speaker 1: 10:32

And then again our number one service call, as you guys all know, is a dirty filter Again. Go check out the Facebook page clean your hot tub filter. That is my Facebook group. Tons of people on there. We're over a thousand people on there right now. Everybody is super helpful and does a ton of things. But our number one service call is not cleaning your filter, and I hear it all the time. Well, I just cleaned my filter. Well, how long ago did you clean your filter? Oh, it was like December. Well, that was three months ago. You need to clean your filter. I'm gonna tell you to clean your filter once a week, knowing that you're gonna clean it once a month. So that's really important that you do that.

Speaker 1: 11:16

And then what I do at home is I actually have a second set of filters. Actually, I have three sets of filters. I have one set of filters in the hot tub, I have one set of filters in the filter cleaning solution and I just leave it there for about a month. And I have a third set of filters drying in the garage. And what's good about drying A? They're ready to go. And then, just like your favorite pair of jeans, when you dry them or you throw them in the dryer they actually kind of shrink up and those fibers get tighter. Your filters do that same thing. So if you actually let them dry before you put them back in A it cuts down on the amount of foam for any residual that you didn't get rinsed out of the filter cleaner. But B it also makes that filter tighter and it works better. So that's a really good thing to know on that as well, that if you let those filters dry before you put them back in, then you'll be good.

Speaker 1: 12:10

But that's our number one service call. Our number two service call this time of year is not enough water in the hot tub. It gets cold and people don't go check it and it becomes an issue. And then when they go to check it there's not enough water in it and by the time they do check it the hot tub's already freezing. So never go more than seven days without checking your hot tub. At least go peek on it, make sure there's enough water in there and it's doing what it needs to be doing. But that's really important. If that's one of the biggest tips I can give you, especially during the winter months never go more than seven days without checking your hot tub Very, very important to make sure that that water level is touching the pillow at all times. So that's number one. Number two service calls. So kind of keep that in mind.

Speaker 1: 13:01

And then, once you get the hot tub full or the water topped off, you always want to balance it again and that's super easy to do. You want to make sure that you're. You start with your alkalinity. The alkalinity needs to be between 80 and 120 and the pH needs to be at 7.6. I have cheat sheets down in the show notes that everybody can check out. So just check out the show notes or you can definitely check out the website on there. And of course I also have those cheat sheets in the book Hot Tub Clarity. Go to Amazon, look up Hot Tub Books, it'll show right up. But Hot Tub Clarity an easy guide for new and frustrated hot tub owners. There is cheat sheets for that. So pH 7.6, alkalinity between 80 and 120.

Speaker 1: 13:48

If you are a salt water hot tub, you have to have your hardness below 75 part per million. So when it comes to filling, you're going to start with the on the go water softener. So before you actually put the hose in the filter compartment, you're going to actually hook it up to that. On the go water softener, again, links are in the show notes. But on the go water softener only for salt water hot tubs. If you're a chlorine or a bromine hot tub you don't need that, but if you're a salt water hot tub, highly recommend it. It's going to save you hundreds of dollars and hours of time. If you have that and then that that white hose that's on there, that's just going to go in that filter compartment as well. I do have a video linked in the show notes as well that talks about filling your hot tub for the first time and it's actually I go into detail on that but it's really important that you use that water softener on the salt water hot tubs. Chlorine hot tubs not so much.

Speaker 1: 14:44

And then, once you get it balanced, you're going to add your standard scale control. If you're a chlorine hot tub, do not use that on a saltwater hot tub. But you're gonna add your stain and scale control. And then you are going to start adding your sanitizer. I highly recommend not adding any chemicals till the hot tub is at least 90 degrees. You're going to dissolve better and you're going things are gonna work better.

Speaker 1: 15:12

So when adding the chemical. I'm a firm believer that you should put the chemicals in the filter compartment and the reason for this is I've actually seen this happen where people have added chemical to their hot tub, especially chlorine or shock, and didn't have the jets running and it actually landed on the shell of the hot tub and it etched or stained the shell of the hot tub it. They were both extreme cases when I've seen that happen. But if you put it in the filter compartment the worst that happens is you stain your filter, and A nobody's gonna see that, and B you have to replace those once a year anyway. So that's not such a big deal to do. That. That's a very simple, easy replaced part where if you do something to the shell of the hot tub, you are just flat out, that's, you're gonna live with that or you're gonna buy a new hot tub. One of the two things is gonna happen. So kind of keep that in mind as well. The. So once you get everything balanced, then you do your sanitizer and then you just get on the routine and then you again change it every three to four months or you change it once a year, depending on what type of system you have. The.

Speaker 1: 16:21

As far as draining goes, I've had I had this happen a lot this week. People were draining them with their gravity drain on their, on their hot tub. All hot tubs come with a drain. I personally hate them. I really wish they would just quit putting them in them because A it takes forever to drain your hot tub if you're using the gravity drain. If you're gonna do it, I would suggest hook the hose up to the drain on the bottom of the hot tub, open it up, make sure the power's off and go to work. Don't even think about watching it because it will drive you nuts. It takes for absolute ever for a hot tub to drain from a gravity drain. So I personally recommend a submersible pump.

Speaker 1: 17:02

If you get one with a two inch hose on it, I can drain my hot tub. I have a 500 gallon hot tub. I can drain it and drain it in 17 minutes. If you get one with just a garden hose, it'll probably take you 45 minutes to an hour, but it's a good way to go. But just go to the local hardware store, go to your local hot tub dealer. I have quite a few that I recommend on Amazon you. So just check out the website and go to my resources page. You can find them there. But if you get one with a two inch hose, you can drain it very, very quickly Best investment you'll ever make. For me, my time is worth probably more than anything. So if I'm draining a hot tub and I can drain it in 17 minutes versus an hour to hour and 45 minutes or all day, it makes all the difference in the world. So if you can do that, then you very quickly drain your hot tubs and you're gonna do it much quicker and much easier. So it's important that you have the right equipment. If you have the right equipment, then you're gonna enjoy that a lot more.

Speaker 1: 18:00

And if anybody who has drained their hot tub, there is nothing better than sitting in a hot tub with clean, fresh water. It's the best filling in the world. We're getting to the bath at the time of year when everybody should start thinking about draining them and refilling them again here, probably March or April Again. This winter around here hasn't been bad. You could have drained your hot tub the whole winter here in South Dakota. There was maybe a few days in January that you couldn't have, but it's been a nice winter here. I don't have any snow on the ground. Can you believe that? None, there is absolutely no snow. So then let me see what else I got on here Testing your water.

Speaker 1: 18:41

You should test your water once a week and, if I could give you any advice, don't play mad scientist when you're filling the hot tub and trying to get everything balanced. Give your chemicals at least 24 hours to work before you test. So if you test them, you adjust, wait 24 hours and then adjust again. Do not sit and test and say, oh here's my PhD creaser, I've gotta put in 18 tablespoons of that because that's what the dosing chart says, and think that you're gonna do that all that in 15 minutes or two hours. You're just wasting your money, your time and everything else. So do your dose, test your water, wait 24 hours and then test again. It's. If you try to do it within within a few hour period, you're just wasting chemicals, wasting test strips and wasting everything else that goes with that. So that's that's really important as well. Keep those filters clean. That's as you're doing that you want to make sure you're cleaning those filters.

Speaker 1: 19:41

I've kind of already nailed on that and that's the big thing. So a little shorter podcast today got a lot going on, but I just promised you guys had to be back on a weekly basis. So here I am, the big points that I can, the points that I wanted to make today. The points that I want to make today on the podcast are a when you're filling the hot tub for the first time or from an empty state, make sure you're filling that in the filter compartment. When you're topping off your hot tub, make sure you're putting that hose in the foot well or the hot tub itself so that the water is not going through the heater. So those are what I kind of have going on today.

Speaker 1: 20:20

I really enjoy you guys. I will have. I've got some really good guests coming up here next week and next week in the following weeks and we're going to talk about 30 day hot tub soak challenge. It is time to start doing that again. I've got some phenomenal guests and there are some super, super, super exciting things coming on the hot tubs that you guys will definitely want to check that out. So stay tuned. They'll be a little longer next week, but I really enjoy doing the podcast with you guys and hopefully I answered a few questions for you and I will see you again next week and thank you so much for joining me.