Whether you already own a hot tub or are considering purchasing one, you may wonder what maintaining a hot tub or spa involves. In order to make the most of your hot tub, you will want to keep up with certain tasks on a regular basis. Fortunately, hot tub and spa maintenance is simple when you have the right schedule to refer to.

Here is everything you need to know about regular hot tub and spa care.

The Importance of Regular Hot Tub Maintenance

Regular maintenance may not be your favorite aspect of being a hot tub owner, but it is crucial if you want to keep your tub in great shape and avoid costly repairs. Skipping your maintenance duties can result in water balance issues, clogged filters, bacteria and algae growth, and untimely breakdowns. 

You can think of these maintenance tasks as your small payment for the little piece of paradise that your spa can provide you with. And when your hot tub is well-maintained, you can enjoy consistently sparkling water and ensure your tub functions at its best for years to come.

Your Guide to Regular Hot Tub Maintenance

To keep your hot tub clean, safe, and usable, you’ll want to make sure you complete certain tasks weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. 

Weekly Maintenance

Your weekly hot tub maintenance tasks are fairly simple but vital. Once a week, you will want to make sure you do the following:

Test the Water

Check your water levels every week using a chemistry kit or test strip to ensure that the pH, alkalinity, and sanitizer levels are where they need to be. If you find that anything is imbalanced, you’ll need to add the necessary chemicals and retest the water after a few minutes to ensure the adjustments are effective.

For pH or alkalinity adjustments, it’s important to wait at least 12 hours before adding more. 

It’s important to make sure you’ve always got the right chemicals on hand, or you may wind up with murky water that’s difficult to treat. 

Shock the Water

Hot tubs are not like pools, where contaminants can get easily diluted by thousands of gallons of water. To keep things clean and clear in your hot tub or spa, you’ll need to shock it once a week with chlorine or similar chemicals, and potentially even twice if it sees particularly heavy use.

Rinse the Filters

Keep your filters working properly by removing them once a week and rinsing them off with clean water.

Monthly Maintenance

Your weekly maintenance can help keep your hot tub clean and clear, but those weekly tasks may become progressively more difficult if you don’t do the following once a month:

Deep Clean Your Filters

Rinsing your filters weekly helps, but it won’t provide the deep clean you need to keep them working properly. A dirty filter can result in clogging, dirty water, and bacteria growth. 

Once a month, use a filter-cleaning solution to remove the grime and debris that rinsing doesn’t take care of. You’ll want to soak your filters in the solution for about 12 hours before rinsing to ensure that every last bit of grime is removed. Take a look at this step-by-step guide for cleaning your hot tub filter. 

Quarterly Maintenance

There are some tasks on your hot tub maintenance checklist that are reserved for only a few times a year. You should be doing the following every three or four months:

Drain and Clean Your Tub

Both your weekly water maintenance and your filtration system will do a great job at keeping your hot tub’s water clean and usable, but there will come a time when there are simply too many contaminants in the water and a deep clean is necessary. 

You should drain your hot tub’s water completely once every three to six months, depending on how much use the spa is getting, and then use some hot tub cleaner to scrub the shell until it looks like new. At this time, you will also want to do any needed repairs, as it’s a lot easier to work when your tub has been drained. This blog post goes further in-depth on how to properly drain, clean, and refill your hot tub.

cleaned hot tub with fresh water

Annual Maintenance

Once a year, you’re going to want to replace your hot tub filters, flush out your plumbing, and check for any issues with the hardware, wiring, and the tub’s shell. It’s also a good idea to call in a hot tub maintenance professional to perform annual service.

Hot Tub Maintenance From the Pros

When you maintain your hot tub or spa, you can keep it working better for longer. You can save yourself time and effort by leaving your hot tub’s maintenance to the pros. At Great Bay Spa & Sauna, we take pride in serving as the hot tub experts for customers throughout Portsmouth, NH, and all of New England. Contact us today or stop by your nearest location to learn more!