It’s fairly common for the owner of a hot tub or swim spa to encounter an issue where the water becomes hazy or murky. This is unfortunate because it can deter you from making the best use of your hot tub. It’s also possible that family members may be shunning the hot tub because the water doesn’t look right and doesn’t seem appealing. However, it’s a fairly common issue that’s easy to prevent by taking a few simple steps that will overcome it. This article will be discussing some of the other common hot tub problems and the best approaches for fixing or overcoming them. That will ensure that your family and friends get maximum use out of your hot tub, and can continue to enjoy it all year round.
Clogged filters
If you have a filter that has become worn out or clogged with debris, it won’t be able to work effectively to trap contaminants, and that will put a strain on your pump. To avoid having some kind of an expensive repair for your hot tub, you should rinse out your filter at least once a month, and possibly every two weeks if it becomes clogged sooner. Every three or four months, you should soak your filter overnight in a cleaning compound and rinse it out so it can dry thoroughly before reinstalling it in the hot tub. Your hot tub filter should be swapped out annually, and if you notice that there is any kind of significant wear or damage, you should change it sooner than that.
Excessive contaminants
Sometimes the skin products we wear and the hair products we use on ourselves can cause hot tub water to become cloudy or murky. To prevent the buildup of contaminants in your hot tub water, you should rinse off any hair sprays or lotions that might be on your skin. If you have long hair, you may want to put your hair up to avoid having it enter the water and allowing any sprays or hair conditioners to rinse out. If your swimwear has been washed with detergent, it should be rinsed out, so that none of the residue from detergent is passed into the hot tub water. If your hot tub water has been contaminated with any of the substances described above, it will be possible to use a natural clarifier to clear up the cloudiness. Several good products on the market will accomplish this, and you can find them at your pool vendor and in many department stores as well.
Water out of balance
The easiest way to check if your hot tub water is out of balance is to use test strips that you can obtain from your pool vendor. After allowing your hot tub water to circulate for a few minutes, follow the directions on your test strip bottle, which will normally have you dip the strip in the water and test the results against a provided color chart. Then all you have to do is supply any necessary chemicals to restore the water balance, or to maintain the sanitizer at an appropriate level. When you’re adding chemicals to restore balance to your hot tub water, be sure to wait five or 10 minutes when you’re adding different chemicals. If you should inject too many chemicals into your hot tub water at the same time, it can create cloudiness instead of clearing it up.
Treating cloudy water
There are several reasons why your hot tub water might become cloudy or murky, and each one of them could likely call for some kind of different treatment. Some of the most common reasons that water in your hot tub becomes cloudy are listed above: the water may be out of balance, you could have a low level of sanitizer, there may be excessive contaminants in your hot tub water, the filter might be worn out or clogged, and you might have an abnormally high level of total dissolved solids (TDS). After you’ve determined what the cause of your murky water is, you’ll know just what to do to restore your hot tub to its normal appealing condition.
