The Ultimate Guide to Hot Tub Etiquette, Maintenance, and Community

Ever wondered if there's a secret etiquette to hot tub enjoyment that no one's talking about? This episode is your exclusive invitation to uncover the often unspoken rules that can make or break your hot tub experience. We're diving headfirst into the steamy world of pre-soak showers, restroom etiquette, and the impact of lotions on water chemistry. And that's just the beginning. From the importance of water over wine to keeping things friendly in those close quarters, you'll emerge as a savvy soaker ready to make a splash in any tub you dip into.

But it's not all about the soak—there's an art to maintaining that pristine liquid paradise, and we're sharing our secrets with you. Tune in for expert tips on balancing those chemical floaters, managing temperature wars, and selecting swimwear that won't turn your hot tub into a bubble bath of suds. Plus, we've got the lowdown on creating a community of fellow hot tub aficionados, so you can keep the good vibes flowing long after the bubbles stop. Grab your swimsuit, folks—it's time to become a hot tub connoisseur.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

Today we are going to be talking about Hot Tub Etiquette, and the title of the podcast is Soaking in Style Mastering Hot Tub Etiquette and this is one that we probably shouldn't have to talk about, but we might need to talk about this today. And you guys all know, I have a hot tub in my backyard. I use it twice a day, every day. I absolutely love my hot tubs One of the greatest purchases I've ever made in my life and I love to share my hot tub with people, and people love to share their hot tub, share my hot tub with me, and. But there's just some things that maybe we should talk about, or maybe some friends of yours need to see or hear this podcast, just because it's not their hot tub. So, again, if it's your own hot tub in your own backyard and you're the only one using it, and that's what's going on, you do what you do, you boo, you do what makes you happy when it's your hot tub, but if you are a guest or you're having guests, there are some things that we should maybe talk about once in a while when it comes to sharing a hot tub with others. And so that's what we got going on today, and it's a very tight space. Most hot tubs are seven foot by seven foot and a lot of times we're putting seven people in that tight space, so it's important that you just share that space equally. So of course, I asked Google some of the things that we should be doing, and one of the first things that we talk about is before you sew, hot tub preparation, and one of the things that it talks about is discuss the importance of sharing before entering the hot tub, to remove oils, dirt, solutions and all of that. I do not do that in my own personal hot tub. I just don't. I know what I need to do to take care of the chemicals and that type of thing, but what I would tell you if you are using someone else's hot tub, or if your hot tub has an extreme heavy use, then you definitely want to start incorporating this practice. Or if you're using someone else's hot tub, shower before going over there and don't lather up in lotions and that type of things, because when other people start jumping into your hot tub, it very quickly messes up the water chemistry and it clogs the filters and it just creates a whole bunch of stuff that happens. So be a good hot tub guest and do shower before going in. Now, if it's your own personal hot tub and you don't want to shower, that's fine. It's your hot tub. You're the one that has to clean up afterwards. But if you're using someone else's, just keep that in mind. This is a really big one.

Speaker 1: 3:10

The number one hot tub etiquette thing that I can give anybody out there is use the restroom before you get in the hot tub. You shouldn't have to say that. Most people should know that. But your hot tub is not a bathroom, it's not a toilet, and it's really important that you have your guests and you yourself, and especially little ones, if they're using your hot tub. It's important that they use the bathroom before getting into the hot tub. It is a natural urge once you get into the hot tub or a swimming pool, as far as that go. It's a natural urge to do what you need to do once you that water hits your body. So it's very important that you use the bathroom before you get in the hot tub. Just make it a habit. If you've got grandkids or you've got kids coming over using the hot tub, make sure they use the bathroom before they get in the hot tub. It's just you shouldn't have to say this, but I'm saying it and to the point that I actually have a sign outside of my hot tub. This says no peeing in the hot tub. So that's just one of those things to think about. But you definitely don't want to be relieving yourself in the hot tub, so keep that in mind and see what's going on there.

Speaker 1: 4:20

The next thing that is on the outline is make sure you stay hydrated and avoid alcohol or heavy meals before soaking. Those are just common sense things. The hot tub is going to dehydrate you. While you're in there, you're going to get thirsty. It's a good idea to take some water with you. Make sure you take it in a plastic container. Don't use a glass like I'm using right here right now. I apologize, my phone is ringing and I am going to decline there and turn off my phone. My apologies, so, but you don't want to make sure you use a plastic container and you are not taking glass into a hot tub. You never, ever want to do that. That's really important. And then you don't want to eat a big, heavy meal Again.

Speaker 1: 5:11

One of the benefits of a hot tub is it gets your digestion moving. I mean it gets it's. It is a health benefit that warm water just your body relaxes and the digestion gets moving and you just don't want to have to get out and deal with all that while you're in the hot tub. So just do that. Alcohol, your blood pressure, your body heat is going to rise. You are the alcohol. You need less of it when you're in a hot tub and I'll be the first to admit that I love a glass of wine in my hot tub, but it is. If you can avoid drinking in your hot tub, be sure to do that. And please do not drink in excess in your hot tub, because it you need less of it. It's you very much need less a hot tub to get the very much need less of the alcohol to get the the I shouldn't say benefits, but the results of drinking more alcohol. It basically you get drunk faster in a hot tub. So just try to avoid drinking alcohol in a hot tub. It's just not a real good idea. So the next one I've got is Respectful behavior in a hot tub.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Like I said before, it's a tiny little space. You got a seven foot area by a seven foot area and a lot of times you're putting anywhere from two to four to seven people in that same spot. Be respectful of those around you. Try to keep your feet and your body to yourself. You don't want to be touching others. If you can avoid that. It's just recognized personal space. Everybody relaxes in a hot tub. One of the benefits of a hot tub is you get out of that fight or flight mode and so it's real easy just to get in there and just go, ah, and you relax and you let your guard down and you just start stretching out and doing your things. But just be mindful of other people's personal space and do not overcrowd them. Some people just really don't like to be touched in a hot tub, and just keep that in mind. And now, if you're in the hot tub with someone who wants to be touched, by all means share it and enjoy it together. But that's something that you can do.

Speaker 1: 7:20

I also want to keep your conversations. You don't try to yell over the jets. If the jet, if you're in a hot tub, that the jets are really loud, maybe it's best just to keep that conversation. Wait until you turn the jets off. One of my absolute favorite things to do is actually just soak in the hot tub when it's no jets are on at all, and especially if there's quite a few people in there, we'll have just one jet pump going, just a real soft trickle, not full blast where everybody has to scream over that and then just be mindful of the environment around you. But try not to yell over the jets. Just be quiet and listen. And the same thing with music. Try to keep that down. Be respectful of your neighbors, all the things that happen there. But just common sense, just do that. Try not to. Especially if you're in a public hot tub, don't go sit right next to them. Give them. I've been staying in hotels a lot lately and it's a big 12 by 12 hot tub. If somebody else is in the hot tub, I'll go to one corner, they go to another corner. So just be mindful of that. It's just. It's important to be respectful and share your hot tub use with others. And again, most of the stuff is just common sense. But there are some things that sometimes they just need to be said Hygiene and health considerations.

Speaker 1: 8:40

This is another really big one. You want to. It's really important that you obviously you're clean. A hot tub is not a bath tub. You would be shocked how many customers come into the store and say that people are using their hot tub as a bath tub, or their teenage kids aren't. Should they get home from football practice and they go straight to the hot tub, or they're hot tubbing but not showering afterwards, or that type of thing.

Speaker 1: 9:08

A hot tub is not a bath tub. It is for soaking and it's very important that you use it as such. So you should make sure that your body is clean, make sure that you do not have any open wounds or scratches or that type of thing. A it's not good for you and B it's not good for the others in other people that are using the hot tub. It takes a lot of chemicals to clean up that stuff. So just if you have any open wounds or sores or infections or colds or that type of stuff, just stay out of the hot tub until tell your heel. That's just really important that you do that.

Speaker 1: 9:42

And here it also says explain the significance of showering immediately after a hot tub to rinse off any chlorine and contaminants. Important to do. And again, if it's your own personal hot tub, these are more for all these things are for public and if you're having guess over type things. If it's your own personal hot tub and you know the water is clean and you're content just going to bed after taking a shower, again, you do you. But it's always good to rinse off any of that contaminant that's left over on a hot tub.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Again, I'm not one. I definitely don't shower before going in my own personal hot tub. Sometimes I will rinse off afterwards, especially if I think if it smells chlorine-y or chemically, which that means, if you're smelling chemicals, that means something's going on in there and you need to definitely get rid of that. So keep that in mind as well. Those are definitely things. Don't ever blow your nose or spit in the hot tub and, again, definitely don't pee in the hot tub. They're just really important things for you not to do to keep the hot tub as clean, safe, healthy environment.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Don't do something in the hot tub, and especially somebody else's hot tub, that you wouldn't want to happen in your own hot tub or something that you wouldn't want to clean up afterwards Really important just to treat it like you would treat your own Handling the accessories and the jets and that type of thing. Again, be respectful of the others in the hot tub when it comes to jets and having toys and stuff floating in the hot tub, if it's just you or just you and your kids, by all means have fun, do whatever you want, but if there's other people in the hot tub, floating things in the hot tub are annoying. It's just something that you don't want in there. I know for myself like I'll take my eye care out and I'll just flip it out and set it on the edge. Or if I've got my thermometer in there, I'll pull that out as well. Especially if you have a floater for chemicals While you're in the hot tub, you definitely want to pull that out and let that be off to the side. The last thing you want is, especially as a little kid, picking up the floater and looking right up into it and then getting a face full of bromine or that type of thing. So just if you're thinking about that ahead of time, that's important.

Speaker 1: 12:00

You want to tell your guests, or explain to your guests, how the jets operate, how to operate the diverter valves and what the big. The big valves on top that move the water. The little valves move the air If people need to rotate. Keep that in mind too, especially if you're in the hot tub for an extended period. Sometimes it's a good idea just to say everybody, move and pick up and move over one seat just to, because sometimes that's the jet pounding you in the one particular spot can get a little uncomfortable. But make sure your guests know how to turn the jets off by using the collar and that type of thing. But it's important and it's important to maybe run the jets for only 10 minutes or so and then turn them off for 10, 15 minutes and then you can turn them back on, depending on what you've got going on. For a lot of people that's long enough that you should probably get out my own hot tub at home and when I have my neighbors over we're in there for a good hour and a half sometimes and we'll watch a football game or we'll do something like that. But we all know what we're getting into and we all get along that way. But we do all share in that type of thing, which kind of takes me into hot tub temperature.

Speaker 1: 13:15

I like to keep my hot tub about 100 degrees, 101 degrees. People like it hotter. I understand that. Keep people like it at 104 degrees. If you get into someone else's hot tub and you turn up the temperature. There's nothing more annoying than letting someone use your hot tub and then you go into it the next day and it's 104, 105 degrees. If you do turn up the temperature on somebody's hot tub, make sure you turn it back down before you get out. If you're a family who you have a couple people who like it hotter and a couple people who like it cooler. My advice there would be keep it on the cooler. If you have a hot tub temperature, and especially if you have a 220 hot tub, you're going to want to keep that on the cooler temperature and then when it's time to heat it up usually the people who like it on a hotter temperature usually only talking one or two degrees you can typically turn that up and within an hour you're going to be within the degrees that you want.

Speaker 1: 14:12

It is harder to cool a hot tub down than it is to heat it up. A little hack that I have if you have a gallon of ice water, like a milk jug filled with water, keep it in the freezer. You can actually put that in the hot tub. It won't mess up the chemicals. It'll help a little bit. I haven't found it to be a huge hack for summertime cool downs, but it's something. If you're just talking one or two degrees, that's something that you can do to cool a hot tub down. I would actually suggest keeping it at the cooler temperature and then about an hour before the people who would like it at a hotter temperature. That's a couple things there. I'm hoping that's somewhat helpful.

Speaker 1: 14:51

And then towels and robes and that type of thing. You do you at our house we just supply the towels. That's just what we do, because a lot of times, especially like my kids and Frank's kids, we actually just have their suits here at the house so that they can come use the hot tub whenever they want. Lots of other people and we have lots of extra swimming suits here and I actually like to do that because then I know that they are getting cleaned the way that I want them to clean. If I let them bring in their own suits, they typically have run them through the washing machine. They have soap in them. They're going to cause bubbles. All that stuff is going to happen when it comes to that as well.

Speaker 1: 15:33

When you're thinking about getting into the hot tub, please don't wear a t-shirt into somebody's hot tub. That is one of the worst things that you can do. Don't wear straight clothes into a hot tub. That is really poor hot tub etiquette, and so I know some people are a little modest and they don't want people to see them in their swimsuits. It's really bad for the hot tub and it takes a lot to clean that up. If you wear a t-shirt into a hot tub or, on that same line, if you're trying to wipe off, wipe up some water and you accidentally knock the towel into the hot tub, that's actually worse than spilling a drink into a hot tub. It is really hard to clean up after laundry ends up in a hot tub. So keep that in mind when it comes to hot tub etiquette.

Speaker 1: 16:17

You don't want to be putting things other than swimsuits in there, and when we're talking about swimsuits and to wear a suit or not wear a suit, again you do you. If it's in your own backyard, it's private, or you got a room and you can go completely free. It's a pretty enjoyable thing to do, but you do want to make sure that you're private and you don't have to wear a suit into a hot tub, but that's again you want to. You're the one that has to deal with the backside of that. So if somebody catches you in the hot tub with nothing on, yeah, that's embarrassing. My backyard does not allow that, so that would not be the case. I would really recommend that, if you're going to do that, make sure you have complete and total privacy, because that's just nobody wants to see that. Keep that in mind.

Speaker 1: 17:02

But the towels and the robes and that type of thing, we just supply that at our house. If you're going to have a hot tub party, there is nothing wrong with having people bring in towels. The big thing that I find to be a little bit of a nuisance is water gets drug into the house, especially during the winter months, and I will put down two or three towels, or actually lay towels out from the door all the way to the bathroom where people are changing, and it's just. I just hate that. There's gets water drip, dripping all over the place. So do the best you can as far as hot tub etiquette goes to get yourself dried off as much as possible before coming into your host house. And again, the same would be true with using a robe and that type of thing. I do get it. I do live in South Dakota, and sometimes it is just too cold to stand outside and dry yourself off. So if that's the case, just make sure you're standing on a towel and get yourself dried off as quickly as you can before you go tracking through someone's house and in your wet swimsuit. So just keep that in mind as well.

Speaker 1: 18:06

The next one I got is dealing with disruptions and disagreements. There are there's not a lot that I find that goes on in a hot tub, and this is one of the things that I noticed the most about a hot tub is when you get in a hot tub, you do relax and if you're in there for five, 10 minutes and you let everybody get acclimated to the environment, the conversations will never be better than what they are in a hot tub, because you're relaxed, you're enjoying it, you're very calm and it's just a really great place to have awesome discussions. If you have a teenage child at home or if you're having conflicts with your spouse, I'm telling you, if you get in the hot tub together and it's just you and them, they will talk to you. Give them a few minutes to just get in there, get relaxed, get that, get that. Those endorphins go and get everything happening, but the conversations will be, met, be had and you will get to a solution, a good solution in a hot tub. It's just a really good place to communicate and I highly recommend Getting into a hot tub and enjoying that together. It's just. It's a place where the stress goes away and if the stress goes away, you're more willing to talk and discuss, and that's a big thing. It's. When it comes to dealing with disruptions and disagreements, just Teach each other or treat each other with respect. That's just like any environment. It's just. It's a really close knit environment and but people relax and they love their hot tub. So it does make a huge difference there. And yeah, guys, that's really what I've got for etiquette etiquette on a hot tub. I really enjoy you guys being here.

Speaker 1: 19:56

I've got a couple of really good guests coming. I'm gonna start shooting at Mondays at three. That'll be the time when you can catch the podcast. That'll be when you can catch it live on YouTube. That's when where will be and otherwise you can catch it on all your favorite places that the podcast are found.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Don't forget to pick up the book hot tub clarity. That is found on Amazon and links are in the show notes and, of course, make sure you check out the Facebook chat Facebook page. Clean your hot tub filter if you guys have any questions about hot tub how to take care of hot tubs, if you want to talk about Hot tub etiquette, that's a great place to do it. Lots of really great people on there. We all discuss a ton of stuff there and, guys, I just absolutely Love doing this podcast is so much fun and I just the shorts that come off of it and the stuff that happens. You guys have been such a huge supporter of it and I can't thank you enough. Don't forget to download your free seven page guide. The links are down in the show notes on that as well. And thank you, guys, so very much and I will see you again next week, three o'clock on the YouTube channel and about five o'clock on every other podcast. So thanks again, guys. I will talk to you soon.