Brand new hot tub owner and cloudy water

[TheCookieMakers]

Hi there,

We were given an old hot tub, no idea on brand, gallons of water it holds, we were just assured that it works well.  We did get it installed and up and running. For the past 6 weeks that we've had the hot tub filled we've had the little floater filled with bromine tablets and the water has been fabulous. No smell (aside from the bromine smell) and not cloudy at all. Typically we turn the hot tub off in the evening and turn it back on in the mid-morning.  It's a little older so it's a little slower to heat, but it certainly doesn't need to be on constantly (a little worried about the energy bill). We went away for 4 days and left the tub off for the 4 days. Yesterday morning I turned it back on and this afternoon I went to check the temperature and the water has gone all cloudy and is a little smelly.  I didn't think the tub would need to run every single day...am I wrong? Like I say, we're keeping the bromine tablets in the tub constantly so I was a little surprised. What have we done wrong???

[Jason2JS]

You may be shooting yourself in the foot. If your spa is well insulated and has a cover they are surprisingly economical at using very little power to keep the temperature maintained. However turning it off and back on means that the motor and heater now have to re-heat the water. Probably spending twice the amount of energy to bring that spa back up to the 100 degree or what have you setting. Others might know better. I just installed an older spa that was given to me too and I tell you I can't even tell if my Electric bill went up, if it did it only went up $20-$25 bucks a month! Is your spa the kind that plugs into an outlet (sounds like it or you would of had to have had an electrician come out and wire a 220v system) or was it wired and you are pulling out the breaker switch every night? If it is a 110v (plug in) than your power usage may be different. Typically you need to "shock" or add a bunch of chlorine/bromine to the water when you first fill it up. Correct me if I'm wrong. You also need to get a cheap water testing kid from Walmart or a pool/spa supply company. They are very easy to use and will tell you what you need to add. Simple ones have two tubes with yellow and red gradient that you match the color to in order to know your chlorine/bromine and ph levels. They also have testing strips. You can get a clarifier solution at walmart too. You will probably want to get supplies like PH up and down as well as Bromine granules etc. Supply companies are better than walmart in that they will typically educate you on proper spa maintenance. You will want to make sure you have the levels correct first. That may clear up your water issue. This is an important thing, don't skip it. Bacteria can grow in the warm water and if not maintained can be dangerous and even deadly. Horrible rashes can show up etc. Think about your spa as a bath tub... you wouldn't want to jump into tub water you and others have used two, three or seven times prior without making sure that stuff is clean and free of nasty bacteria. Good Luck!

[TheCookieMakers]

We did have an electrician come out and wire it into the fusebox, it's 120 although we were wondering if changing to 220 would provide better heat.  I really wasn't sure what the cost was going to be to run it, so until we got our electrical bill, we figured we'd just turn it on through the day.  It's spray foamed underneath, with cedar walls around the frame holding the tub and we do have a lid.  Frustratingly our suv was stolen 2 weeks ago and so my husband and I are sharing the truck and we've been meaning to take a water sample in but between our schedules and the kids and the spa place being way across town, we just can't seem to make it in there. 

The guys at the spa place told us to fill the hot tub, start with the bromine floater, and once we have been using the tub for a while or we're not happy with the feel of the water, we can bring in some water to get sampled and they'll see if we need to play around with the ph levels.  It's not necessary, but it makes the water more comfortable.

Now my husband says the water feels slimy, so I'm thinking we need to drain it, clean it and refill it...but will this happen again if we turn the tub off for a few days? If we're going away for a week, do we need to turn it off and drain it? How often should we drain it? Is there a "Hot Tub Guide for Dummies" or something that will give basic need to know instructions to get started?

[Sam]

You definitely do not want to turn the hot tub off for days at a time.  The water needs to circulate.  This is part of the reason that you have cloudy water.  Water should be circulating and filtering at least 4 hours a day, depending on usage.  You can add a large dose of chlorine to "shock" the water and kill the contaminants.  Depending on how bad the water is, it may take a few doses, or you may just want to drain and refill.  If it is really bad, you may want to do a system flush. 

Circulation is very important.  Water that just sits becomes stagnant. 

You can read about spa water care here: http://www.spacare.com/understandingspaandhottubwaterchemistry.aspx

As stated earlier, you are probably using more electricity by cooling and reheating your spa like that.  Just leave it on at all times.  If your spa is able to be converted to 220v, usually the heater will operate at a higher kilowat rating.  What I typically see is that a spa is 1kw on 110v and goes to 4kw on 220v.  Also, on 110v there is usually not enough amps to run the heater and high speed jets at the same time.  Depending on your climate, it may not be necessary.  If you leave it on all of the time it will be at your set temperature when you want to use it, regardless of voltage.  In cold climates, 220v is nice because when you use the tub on high speed, the heater can still operate and help maintain the temperature on a cold evening.