Q&A for How to Maintain Your Spa or Hot Tub

No. The concentrated tablet may damage the surface of your spa. It can also cause skin burns or a rash if someone touches it.

Get a shock product -- there are a ton of them out there. First, add chlorine or bromine and then add the shock (usually 2 ounces for a 400 gallon hot tub). Do this once a week. Leave the cover off for 15 minutes afterwards.

Drain out a portion of water from your spa and refill with fresh water from your garden hose. Then retest.

You should run your circulation pump at least 12 hours a day. When the pump is not running, the water is not being filtered. Keeping the water moving also helps prevent algae from forming.

Use goggles if you are handling liquids. Always use gloves, no matter the chemical type.

Test and adjust water quality and sanitizer level just before you leave. Without a bather load and the cover on, it should be okay for at least a week. You might increase your filter cycle times, to be safe. If it's 2 weeks or longer, you may have to change your water when you return.

Absolutely! A lot of people use their hot tubs as mini swimming pools in the summer.

An electrical fault such as in the heater could cause shocking.

Scrub the liner with mild soap and warm water to remove accumulated minerals, scum etc. - or you can buy a stain-control product.

The spa up or spa down product will say how much to use to raise or lower the alkalinity by a given amount for a given volume of water. For example, a pound and a half to raise it 10 points in a 10000-gallon pool. Your tub is much smaller, so requires much less. 1 ounce would be enough in about a 500-gallon tub. Do the math for your specific situation.

It's caused by soap in bathing clothes. Wash bathing clothes without detergent and try a product such as Foam Away.

Yes. If you don't, it will just keep on building up and at some point it wont help clean it anymore.

If you wish to use your hot tub in winter always make sure it is protected either on a raised platform in a sheltered or covered area and remember ambient temperature should be regularly checked so that it does not fall below 4°C (40F) as water could freeze within the pump and cause irreparable pump failure.

I'm told by geriatric specialty and heart specialist doctors that the spa temperature should not be above 104 F. It sounds like a more desired temp would be around 100 F. The docs say the issue is that in retirement places, there's an increased likelihood of heart conditions and blood circulation problems. Temperatures over 100-104 F can aggravate these conditions.

You can buy spa vacuums online or at large retailers like Walmart. I would suggest purchasing one of those to help you get the grit out of the bottom of your tub.

There are several ways, but one common way is using hot tubs/spas that are not maintained at proper chlorine levels. Damaged hair follicles can become infected and then inflamed (bacteria or fungus).

The water will never look crystal clear like a swimming pool. Try flushing it with Ahh-Some and refilling the tub. Then use a weekly clarifier such as Spa Clear from Leslie's.

Both do a good job keeping the water clean, but bromine has become the preferred product for most spa owners because it doesn’t produce that strong, acrid "pool smell" that chlorine does. Many people also claim that their skin, hair and clothing are less sensitive to bromine than chlorine. Bromine also tends to be simpler to use due to the many types of inexpensive float dispensers available on the market. Most of them just require putting 4-5 bromine tabs into the dispenser tube, set the dispensing number to the recommended, level and just toss it into the tub. Most only have to be checked and refilled once a week.