Help for a hot tub newbie

[spiller1960]

Morning all

I'm a complete hot tub newbie - we just inherited a tub when we bought our house. I've never had one before and having read various guides on water care, and speaking to a couple of hot tub owners locally, they all suggest different things.

So - the spa is a Marquis Spa Mirage. Its about 10 years old.
The previous owners drained it for the winter.
I have cleaned the shell using some shell cleaner which they left (this was purchased from a local hot tub shop) and I have refilled the spa with cold water.
I have a new filter on order (never know what the previous owners were doing in there  )

What do I need to do next? Some people have mentioned running it for an hour, draining and refilling. Some have said just to add the correct amount of chlorine and get on with it.

What would you do?

Kind Regards
Mark

[Tman122]

I would get a water test kit and tell us what your water readings are. For sure add some chlorine, especially if your going to use it.

[spiller1960]

Thanks, I was doing to put chlorine in for sure. I didn't know if it needed running with anything for cleaning the pipes/jets/pump etc first?

[Vinny]

Clean it out! Use a cleaning product such as Ahh-some, Spa Purge or Swirl Away to get rid of whatever was left behind. I have just used Ahh-some and it did clean out my piping. Personally unless you know these people (and even if you did it may be worth it) assume they were pigs. 2 or 3 days of cleaning out the tub is the only defense IF they were. Assuming they were clean can get you in trouble ... but that is just my opinion. I have a pool and it is crystal clear ... many years ago we went visiting relatives and their pool was cloudy and my youngest son wanted to go swimming in their pool we didn't want to make a fuss and warned him about the water. My oldest son refused to go in because the water didn't have the clarity of our water ... not everyone up keeps their water correctly.

My tub is 9 YO and I've owed it the whole time. This past winter I didn't use it or kept up with it so I figured I would blast it with high levels of chlorine (50 PPM or more) then drain it. I read about the product and figured for under $20 it was worth checking out; I am glad I did.

I second a good test kit, the Taylor K-2005 was the one most people considered very good and the Taylor K-2006 (I think) was even better and was able to read all levels of chlorine/bromine so 10 PPM was measurable where in the K-2005 it was not (at least not easily).

As far as chlorine - unscented bleach can be used and works great. It is much easier to use dichlor especially in the winter but bleach works just as well.

I would suggest a 2nd set of filters so you can pop one set out and just replaced the other, clean them and have them ready for the next time.

Be prepared for foaming - get some defoamer and be forewarned a little goes a long way.

You may want to buy non chlorine shock after you clean your tub and are using it. Chlorine definitely is great at killing the nasties in your tub and you should chlorinate at a higher level every so often but you also might want to shock the water and be able to use it right away - non chlorine shock will allow you to do that.

[spiller1960]

Hi

Thank you so much, that post gives me exactly what I needed to know. Very much appreciated.

Kindest Regards
Mark

[aeajr]

Be sure to use spa chemicals, not pool chemicals.   I have been told they are different though I could not tell you how.  But I was told pool chemicals can cause problems.

Others may know better on this topic.