When your hot...your hot

[Bonibelle]

HOLY COW...it was over 100 degrees in the shade today.  A dip in the pool feels like swimming in spit...a dip in the tub is lethal! 

[ejf The Spa Guy]

thats good,   we are not there yet possibly by end of week, we are at 75 today by weekend we will be scorching

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Currently 64. with fog.

[Bonibelle]

It's good?..I guess it was good for my solar panels..I have 150 degree water for free 

[just ducky]

It's been scorching here as well, and this thread made me think of a question...silly as it may sound.  Over the 4th of July we were on vacation with another couple in the Caribbean.  As you can imagine, it was awfully hot there too     The pool at the resort was warm, but felt really refreshing compared to the air temp and humidity.  So one of my friends asked if we'd ever considered running our hot tub "not as hot" in the summer?  In other words, more like a heated swimming pool instead of 100 degrees.  I looked through my owners manual (Jacuzzi) and it only says you can run the tub between 65 and 104 degrees.  But if the air temp is in the 90's in the day, and even at night never gets below about 75, I'm honestly not sure how "cool" you could actually keep a tub since there is no cooling element.

So my question has multiple parts:

1) Has anyone ever run their hot tub "not so hot", like say 80 or 85 degrees, when the summer months get scorching like this, even for a temporary period?
2) If you run the tub at that kind of a temperature, does it have any affects (good or bad) on your chems? Would it require more/less sanitation maybe?

I've only owned my tub for about 1 1/2 years, but this on-going heat wave this summer has me wondering if my hot tub should be used more as a luke warm pool? 

[Bonibelle]

I turned my tub down to about 85 degrees, but with all this heat, the temperature maintained at around 95. We had one decent cool night and I thought 95 sounded great...my husband would NOT go in the tub. He insisted that it needed to be 101 or nothing.  So I had a nice soak by myself and he was really angry!! I think you can set your temperature way down and if it doesn't drop fast enough, just add some water. I see no point in 101 when the air temp is well into the 90's with heat indices in triple digits.   

[just ducky]

I agree that with the high air temps right now, 101 doesn't sound inviting at all.  We keep ours normally at 99 or 100, but I'm seriously considering trying to bring it down, maybe 85 to 90, and just try it.  But not being a chem expert, I didn't know if that cooler temp would have any affect on the chems/sanitization? 

[wmccall]

I agree that with the high air temps right now, 101 doesn't sound inviting at all.  We keep ours normally at 99 or 100, but I'm seriously considering trying to bring it down, maybe 85 to 90, and just try it.  But not being a chem expert, I didn't know if that cooler temp would have any affect on the chems/sanitization? 

It's my experience that cooler water doesn't go bad as fast as hot, if you aren't using your tub water eventually goes bad no matter what the temp is, but the hotter the faster it goes.   When I go on vacation , I turn the tub down 20 degrees and add a bid does of dichlor just before I leave.

[Bonibelle]

I think it is much easier to maintain at the lower temps and you will save money if you are not using it at 101 now ...

[just ducky]

It's only supposed to be about 80 here today, so I turned the tub down to 80.  I'll see how low I can get it.  Anyone know what temp a typical heated pool is at?  Just curious what temp I should shoot for in this cooler hot tub mode?

[BNMac]

Anything below body temp is good, but it depends on how long you plan on spending in the cool water.  When we go to our naturist swims in the winter at a local athletic club, they turn up the water and air temps a bit for our crowd because we are not there to swim laps or work ourselves into a sweat.  That pool can get a mite cool at times, and it takes a little physical exercising to keep the body temp up.  Thus - we tend to migrate between the pool and the two hot tubs.  The tubs are typically running at 102 to 104.  We have run of the entire place for two hours - men's and women's areas.

Regarding our own tub - we've kept it at about 95-97°  during down time, then turn it up to 102ish for evening soaks.  When the sun goes away for the day here in the great northwest, we lose the temperature too.  It may be 85°  or 90° here during the day, nighttime temps are almost always in the 50's.  Rarely does it stay above 60 overnight.

We lived in Austin for 2 years during the 80's... we well remember those hot muggy days and hot muggy nights.  Rain meant higher humidity but rarely a reduction in temperature, no matter what time of the day or night.

I'd say try 90, then 85... Getting wet and getting out cools you too.  Just like running through a sprinkler.  And the less clothes, the better.

[just ducky]

Anything below body temp is good, but it depends on how long you plan on spending in the cool water.  When we go to our naturist swims in the winter at a local athletic club, they turn up the water and air temps a bit for our crowd because we are not there to swim laps or work ourselves into a sweat.  That pool can get a mite cool at times, and it takes a little physical exercising to keep the body temp up.  Thus - we tend to migrate between the pool and the two hot tubs.  The tubs are typically running at 102 to 104.  We have run of the entire place for two hours - men's and women's areas.

Regarding our own tub - we've kept it at about 95-97°  during down time, then turn it up to 102ish for evening soaks.  When the sun goes away for the day here in the great northwest, we lose the temperature too.  It may be 85°  or 90° here during the day, nighttime temps are almost always in the 50's.  Rarely does it stay above 60 overnight.

We lived in Austin for 2 years during the 80's... we well remember those hot muggy days and hot muggy nights.  Rain meant higher humidity but rarely a reduction in temperature, no matter what time of the day or night.

I'd say try 90, then 85... Getting wet and getting out cools you too.  Just like running through a sprinkler.  And the less clothes, the better.

funny you should mention "naturist" swims.  Over the 4th of July, we were at a clothing optional resort in the Caribbean with friends of ours, and spent a majority of our time opting out of clothes    The hot tub at the resort was typically hot, and no one spent much time in it, but it felt so refreshing to get into the pool, or even the ocean, which was bathwater temperature.  That's kind of what got us thinking about trying this for the hot tub. 

And I agree with you...the less clothes, the better 

[rick]

well I have a pool as well and here in Fresno,  it's been around 106 the last few days.   

With that said,  I still love to soak in my tub at it's limit of 104.   Granted,  I'm not in it for long spells,  I'll jump into the pool and maybe back in the spa a couple of times,  but the hot water on a hot day is still a good feeling.

[BNMac]

It's great to have naturist friends.  We spend a fair amount of time on a CO (Clothing Optional) beach here in Oregon during the summers; it's the cleanest beach on the island.  This is an ODFW (Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife) and Columbia County sanctioned beach so we have a police presence and a wonderful group of people.  There are thousands of people out there on hot weekends - sometimes there's more bodies than beach.   It's certainly not the time to be setting in the hot tub at home...

Back to the original subject of this thread - we rarely have a warm evening here in western Oregon; the temps always fall off fairly quickly when the sun sets.  We could have a 95° day and a 55° night so it makes for the ideal "Fun in the sun, enjoy the soak afterwards!"

[Bonibelle]

We are literally cooking in the North East...We are supposed to have a heat index of 110 today. My pool is 91 degrees...I am remembering those snowy days that I complained about shoveling ... forget the hot tub..I cant even think about it