Spa Chemicals for Beginners! An Informative Guide

Owning a spa is becoming more and more popular among homeowners. A spa is both affordable and provides a great way to enjoy leisure time at home. But owning a spa means that you need to maintain it as well.

You can’t just sit back and relax, add water, and expect the spa to maintain itself. Chemicals need to be added to swimming pools in order for the balance to be maintained. The chemical balance of the water in the spa should be maintained as well.

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Spa maintenance: A Helpful Guide

Spa chemicals are important, even though many spa owners don’t consider them right at the beginning. You may have already heard about how chlorine is used in swimming pools. However, you may not know about spa maintenance as well as maintaining the water health of the water in your spa.

Maintaining your spa ensures that the water in it is safe to use whenever you want to use it.

What is the Science Behind a Spa?

Spas tend to use heaters that are installed either in the walls or the floors. The heaters are responsible for heating water until it reaches the right temperature. Jets can be used to accelerate the water as well. These jets can create a massaging effect for your arms, as well as your legs.

However, heaters can also be responsible for facilitating the growth of bacteria. You need to add chemicals to your spa in order to ensure that you kill any bacteria in it. The water in a spa can also become basic or acidic. When this happens, the water will need to be balanced so that it doesn’t hurt anyone’s skin when using the spa.

The pH level of your spa is a measure that shows how acidic the spa water is. Seven is the number that indicates that the water is neutral. Ideally, you should ensure that the pH level roughly stays around 7.5 in case the pH level of your spa water rises a lot, then the chemicals you use won’t work properly. At the same time, the water can also be responsible for spreading bacteria that is harmful. The alkalinity level of your spa should be properly maintained so that the acidity level of the water in it can be controlled.

What Are the Different Types of Spa Chemicals?

Sanitisers are used to kill any harmful bacteria that may be present in the spa water. Bromine and chlorine are the two kinds of sanitisers that are most popularly used. Using bromine can be more complicated than using chlorine. This is as bromine takes a longer period of time to dissolve in water. It’s also more expensive when compared to chlorine.

If you use bromine, however, then the number of treatments you need to do over the year decreases. This more or less acts like a return on your investment. Since chlorine needs to be used more frequently, you’ll basically be spending the same amount over the year, no matter which you choose.

You’ll also need to use clarifiers. These are chemicals that are responsible for removing elements that are cloudy from your pool. Clarifiers tend to be polymers, which means that they carry a charge that is positive. When introduced to the water, they attach themselves to particles that are negatively charged. They then neutralise these particles, allowing the water in the spa to become clear.

If you want to decrease the pH of the spa water, then you’ll need to add pH decreasers. A decreaser tends to be a combination of both muriatic acid as well as sodium bisulphate. If you want to increase the pH level of your spa water, you’ll need to add sodium carbonate.

Managing Spa Chemicals

If you want to manage the chemicals you add to the spa water, you’ll need to test the water. You can do this with the help of either test strips or test kits. These can be purchased from any swimming pool store. Test strips tend to be multi-purpose. So you can use them to check the pH level or the level of sanitiser in your pool as well.

Spa chemicals need to be stored in a location that is both cool as well as dry. If the temperature is between fifty to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, then the chemicals can be prolonged. This keeps them from hardening as well.

Remember to store all the spa chemicals in separate places. If the chemicals mix accidentally, then that can lead to them diluting. They may also end up starting a fire. So keeping them in the same location isn’t a good idea.

The water in your spa should be drained at least once every three months. This allows the system to be fresh, as well as cleans out the water and plumbing. You should also take advantage of this opportunity to clean the surface of the spa as well.

When you refill water in the hot tub, then add chemicals to it as well. It’s not a good idea to experiment with the spa chemicals. If you don’t know how much to put in, then you should get in touch with inground fibreglass pools perth. They will be able to direct you on how much spa chemicals you should add to the water.

Regularly Maintaining Your Spa

With a spa, you can enjoy leisure time, massages, as well as therapeutic healing right from the comfort of your home. But in order to maintain your spa, you’ll need to understand what chemicals you need to put in and how to manage those chemicals.

The water in the spa needs to be tested regularly as well. The water should be drained every three months, and test kits or test strips should be used to test the water. Sanitisers need to be bought in order to kill any bacteria in the water. pH decreasers and increases can be used to maintain the pH level of the water as well. The spa chemicals should also be stored in a safe location as well.