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Posted on February 1, 2024February 2, 2024 by Paul Barton — Leave a comment

Hot Tub Maintenance and Water Care 101: Balancing Total Alkalinity Calcium Hardness PH and Sanitizer

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Welcome to Backyardplus! In this post, we show you how to balance the water in your spa. After refilling your spa, you should immediately test and balance the total alkalinity, calcium hardness, PH and sanitizer level. Before we get started, let’s go over the products you may need.

Products you may need:

FreshWater 5 Way Test Strips Sku: 80090-1
FreshWater pH/Alkalinity Down Sku: 80041
FreshWater pH/Alkalinity Up Sku: 80040
FreshWater Stain and Scale Defense Sku: 80042
FreshWater Concentrated Chlorinating Granules, 2 LB Sku: 80021

Refilling Your Spa:

Step 1. Remove the gray cap, filter, and gray standpipe. Put a garden hose directly into the gray standpipe fitting. Turn the water on full blast and hold a rag around the hose to remove any air from the water lines. You should see large air bubbles coming up from the drain screen. Continue re-filling the spa through the gray standpipe fitting until the large air bubbles decrease.

Step 1. remove gray standpipe-

Step 1.1 Water hose with rag-

Step 2. Install the Freshwater Clean Screen Pre-filter. Continue filling the spa until the water level reaches above all the jets. Reinstall the standpipe, filter, and filter standpipe cap.

Step 2. Install the Clean screen filter-

Step 2.1 Continue filling the spa-

Balancing the total alkalinity:

Step 3. Immerse the test strip in the water for 2 seconds. Shake it once to remove the excess water and read it immediately. The recommended Total Alkalinity (TA) for your spa water is 125-150 ppm. Turn on the jet pump and add Freshwater Alkalinity Up or Alkalinity Down to reach the correct level. Adding 1 tablespoon per 100 gallons of water will increase or decrease total alkalinity by 20 ppm. Test the water again after 30 minutes. Once the total alkalinity is within the recommended range, proceed to the next step.

Step 3. Alkalinity down test strip-

Turn on the jet pump before adding chemicals to the filter compartment.

Step 3.1 Add Alkalinity reducer-

Step 3.2 2nd alkalinity test-

Balancing the calcium hardness:

Step 4. The recommended Calcium Hardness (CH) level for your spa is 150-200 ppm. If the calcium level is too high, use Hot Spring FreshWater® Stain and Scale Defense to bring the calcium level down. If the calcium level is too low, use FreshWater Calcium Increaser to bring the calcium level up. Once the total calcium hardness level is within the recommended range, proceed to the next step.

Step 4. scale and stain defense-

Step 4.1 Calcium test-

Balancing the PH:

Step 5. The ideal pH level for your spa water is 7.4-7.6. The pH level is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. If the pH is too low, it can be increased by adding Hot Spring FreshWater® pH/Alkalinity Up (baking soda) to the spa water. If the pH is too high, it can be decreased by adding Hot Spring FreshWater pH/Alkalinity Down (sodium bisulfate) to the spa water. When the pH is within the recommended range, proceed to the final step.

Step 5. Alkalinity up to raise pH-

Step 5.1 Alkalinity down-

Step 5.2 pH test good 1-

Maintaining the sanitizer level:

Step 6. Use HotSpring® FreshWater® Concentrated Chlorinating granules (sodium dichlor) for sanitizing the water. The Free Available Chlorine (FAC) is a measure of the amount of unused chlorine available to sanitize the spa. The recommended FAC for your spa water is 3.0-5.0 ppm. Superchlorinate the spa water by adding 1-1/2 teaspoons of chlorine (sodium dichlor) per 250 gallons (950 liters) of spa water. Use the jet button marked “CLEAN” to circulate the spa water for a ten-minute period. Never enter the spa if the FAC is above 5.0 ppm or below 3.0 ppm.

Step 6. Chlorine-

Step 6.1 adding chlorine-

Step 5. FAC over 10 ppm 1-

Good job!

Good job 3-

Watch the video here! Hot Tub Maintenance and Water Care 101: Balancing Total Alkalinity Calcium Hardness PH and Sanitizer

Questions about your spa? Contact us! We are the top Hotspring spa parts retailer on the web.

Call us at (805)541-9000

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In addition to “Hot Tub Maintenance and Water Care 101: Balancing Total Alkalinity Calcium Hardness PH and Sanitizer” we offer:

Our Parts Finder which allows you to find exact-match replacements for your hot tub
Free technical support that will allow you to maintain and repair your own spa accordingly
Information regarding your products and their usage through our blog posts.
Tutorials and assistance through our videos
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Our goal here at Backyard Plus is to help save you money by avoiding costly service calls for repairs that you can easily do yourself!

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