A guide to sanitising your spa

When it comes to treating your spa, a sanitiser will keep your water clean and healthy by destroying any bacteria that develop. Bacteria thrive in a warm moist environment, so the hot water of your spa is the perfect breeding ground. By ensuring that there’s sufficient sanitiser continually present in the water, your spa will be safe every time you use it.

Maintaining your spa’s sanitiser dosage is vital to keeping all bathers safe.

There are a variety of spa sanitisers on the market which can make choosing one confusing but to keep the water safe for you and your family, you want to ensure you’ve got the best! Chlorine and bromine are the two main chemicals that are recognised by Health Authorities as providing the necessary level of safety for bathers. That’s why the sanitisers we stock are either chlorine, bromine, or a combination of the two.

Treat it right

At the start of the season, we recommend bringing in a sample of your spa water to us for a professional state-of-the-art water test. From then on, test your water at home at least once a week, to maintain an active level of sanitiser throughout the season.

You want the sanitiser level to sit around 2-5ppm bromine or 1-3ppm chlorine. If the level drops below the recommended range, bacteria can begin to grow and multiply very quickly. If the level has dropped, add the recommended dosage of your sanitiser to the water (dosage rates differ for spa baths and outdoor spas/hot tubs).

Along with your weekly sanitiser routine, it’s also a good idea to regularly shock your spa during the season. Doing this will destroy any build-up of contaminants in your water.

So which sanitiser best suits your needs?

Indoor spa or pool with attached spa

BioGuard SPA Symmetry® is an ideal product to sanitise your indoor spa, or pool with an attached spa, due to its reduced odour. It consists of a mixture of bromine and chlorine, and when used as directed, its slow, consistent dissolving rate provides a constant and reliable sanitiser level at all times.

Outdoor spa

For an outdoor spa, we suggest BioGuard SPA Armour®. It’s fast-dissolving so you can add it straight into your spa, and its dual action acts as both a sanitiser and oxidiser. Keeping not only your water clean but also clearing cloudy water.

If you’re unsure about the sanitiser dosage rate for your spa contact us for our expert advice.

Quarterly deep clean

It’s also important to note that your spa should be drained every quarter. It will need a deep clean to cut through any stains or biofilm build-up (biofilm harbours bacteria). For this, add a dose of BioGuard SPA Swirl Away®, turn on the pump for circulation, then drain the water and refill it with fresh water.

Keeping your spa water sanitised doesn’t have to be hard, if you keep on top of your water balance you can soak trouble-free all season!

How to make the most of your spa in autumn

It’s time to pull off the cover and enjoy a revitalising and relaxing spa! However, if you’ve neglected your spa for a few weeks or maybe a few months, there are a few simple things you’ll need to do to get everything ready!

1. Your spa cover

While keeping out dirt, leaves and bugs, the cover also acts as a seal for your spa. So if you’re removing the cover for the first time in a while, it’s a good idea to give your spa a good airing.

At the same time, give the cover a clean, with a simple wipe with warm soapy water.

2. Treat the water

Many spa manufacturers have a specific start-up procedure to make sure everything is working fine. We recommend following the manufacturer’s instructions at all times.

If you’re re-filling your spa, ensure the water is circulating before balancing it with products from the BioGuard Spa balancing range.

Use BioGuard Spa Sanitiser, as per label directions and your spa manufacturer’s start-up instructions to sanitise your water and neutralise bugs and germs.

Then add BioGuard Spa Purity to oxidise the water and BioGuard Spa Crystal Clear to really get that water sparkling.

Finally, we recommend adding BioGuard Spa Defence. This will help to protect your spa, pump, and filter and prevent surface staining and build-up.

With the treatment complete, you should have a chlorine level of 2-3 ppm.

We always suggest bringing a sample of your spa water to us and we’ll help you get that balance just right.

3. Run the jets

To maintain water quality in your spa, it’s a good idea to run the jets. This not only helps to regulate the spa temperature but running the jets will pass more water through your filter quickly and help keep your spa clean, just remember to regularly check and clean/change the filter as required.

If you are not going to fully cover the spa between spa sessions, running the jets and circulating the water regularly is important to filter out the dirt, dust and debris that fall in.

4. Set the temperature

Spas are designed to heat water to the perfect temperature for you to enjoy, obviously this takes time, so planning ahead is key. Your maximum spa temperature should not exceed 38°C, and bather time in spas at this temperature should be no longer than 15 minutes.

Finding your perfect spa temperature will require some experimentation, but we suggest starting at 37°C (the average body temperature) and then altering it slightly from there.

Constantly turning your spa temperature up and down will use more power and can also wreak havoc on the heating element. Rather, turn the temperature down only slightly when your spa isn’t in use, and keep your spa cover on. This minimises energy wastage and will keep the water warm enough so when you’re ready to heat it up again, only a small amount of energy is required to reheat the already warm water, rather than the huge power surge that would be required to heat up cold water.

*This one is optional! Cold spas are incredibly refreshing at any time of year. Depending on the make and model, this may simply prevent the heating element from turning on, but in some cases, your spa can actively cool the water.

If you really want to refresh yourself… you can drop the temperature even further by adding ice, this won’t damage your spa or spa surfaces, but we still recommend adding it in small increments, so you can more easily control the chemistry of your spa.

Weekly Spa Maintenance

While it can seem like a hassle to keep your spa clean and balanced on a weekly basis. You will save money, time and potentially costly issues in the future. Read our easy weekly spa maintenance tips below.

Be Consistent:

Consistency really is the key to having a beautiful spa week in, and week out. We recommend taking the time to sketch up a quick schedule to keep you in a routine of maintaining your beautiful spa schedule and adding reminders to your phone. If you live with others, you could make a spa maintenance roster.

Consistency also helps you to measure and improve how your spa is running. By consistently maintaining your spa you can easily detect when things aren’t working perfectly.

What to Check:

Daily:

Spa Cover - Don’t allow the cover to get damaged or accumulate water and debris on the top.

Water Temp - This will help you maintain a constant temperature, but any drastic change will indicate malfunction.

Every Few Days:

Sanitiser levels - A combination of heavy use and hot water take their toll on the sanitiser used, but whatever the source, the microorganisms present in the spa must be killed in some way or another and as quickly as possible. You should have a chlorine residual of 2-3 ppm or bromine residual of 4-6 ppm.

Alkalinity level and pH balances - By maintaining a perfectly balanced spa, you’re ensuring water safety. The pH level needs to be as close as possible to our eye’s natural pH, which sits around 7.5 on a pH scale of 0-14.

To maintain a stable comfortable pH, soften spa water and protect equipment, we recommend using our BioGuard Perfect Balance.

Keep it Clean:

If you want a sparkling spa, cleaning it once a week will keep it looking brand new.

A product like BioGuard SPA Squeaky Clean removes scale, hard water deposits, and grease and dirt from along the water line so it will keep your spa surfaces looking clean and bright.

Every few days, cleaning above the water line will keep the drier areas of your spa from building up any dirt or water residue.

Filtration of your spa should be ongoing. To maintain water quality and cleanliness, your filter should run a minimum of four hours a day, even when it is not being used. Clean the filter with your garden hose to loosen dirt and debris and spray BioGuard SPA Filter Renew directly onto the filter.

By following our easy tips above, you’ll keep your spa in good condition, your water clean and healthy and everyone that uses your spa happy!