FAQs
FAQ's
"What Spa" Buyers guide
Our customers often ask questions regarding buying, owning and maintaining their hot tubs, so we’ve compiled some of the most frequently asked questions here. Read on to learn more about hot tubs or simply contact us to let us answer any questions you may still have.
Pre-Delivery Questions
Planning permission is not normally required for items of a relocatable or temporary nature like a hot tub or swim spa, however, if you live in an area of outstanding natural beauty, a listed property or a conservation area you would do well to seek advice from the planners before installing your pool or spa.
To install your hot tub, you only need to worry about three things: a solid, level base to stand it on, a power outlet to provide the electricity, and a hose pipe to fill it up with – it really is that simple. If you plan to sink the spa into a deck, there will be the added consideration of access to the component door for servicing, so do bear that in mind when planning and preparing your base. Always get full installation instructions from your supplier, which should include specific advice on sinking the model purchased.
Unless you are thinking of buying a Softub which is very light and portable then it is safe to assume that your hot tub will be very heavy and easily damaged, so if you intend to move your hot tub then make sure you have plenty of help and good dollies/trailers to help move the spa. It is usual to put a hot tub on its side for moving, but take care not to put it on the pumps side as the door on most hot tubs is very weak (some hot tubs have to be transported flat). Note: Hire a trailer or flat bed to drive from one address to another, most hot tubs will not fit in a Luton or a transit van (again with the exception of a Softub)
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Post-Delivery Questions
Hot tub heaters can vary considerably, from 1KW up to 6KW, and the volume of water to be heated varies, as does the mains water temperature from summer to winter. As an example, let’s look at a 300 gallon hot tub with a 1.5kW heater, with summer temperature mains water. You should expect this to be hot in about 20 hours. Bigger spas, different heaters and winter mains water will all have longer or shorter heating times. A final point – hot tubs are designed to be hot 24/7. Once a hot tub is hot you are only ever topping up lost heat. A 1.5KW heater will put about 3 degrees of heat into a spa per hour, so a typical 1/2 hour use will drop the spa temperature about 1 degree, meaning it will take about 20 minutes to recover.
Hot tubs are made in many different ways using many different materials. The least expensive designs will cost about £5 a week to own, up to £30 for other designs. Why the huge difference? Does the spa come with a Thermal cover or just a thin floating cover made of bubble wrap? Most heat escapes from the top so a good quality thermal cover will save you loads of money. Is the spa insulated with foam or reflective materials? If it is not, then your expensive heat is just floating off into the garden. If the spa has an air blower, this will look nice, but have no therapeutic value and cost a fortune in waste heat. As the air travels from the bottom of the spa to the top it absorbs the water heat and takes it straight out in to the air. If you can see air vents in the cabinet then this means valuable heat is being lost to the outside, instead of being recycled back into the spa water. Hot tubs are designed to be kept hot 24/7. If they are built correctly, an average 300 gallon hot tub used 1/2 hour per day, every day, with an average 15p per kW energy cost will cost the owner about £260 a year. Larger hot tubs with more surface area and longer use periods, in colder climates like Scotland, and with higher energy costs, will cost more.i
It is always worth researching the running cost of a spa as this is going to be an ongoing cost. You might be able to save £1000 on the purchase of your hot tub, but if the product in question costs you £2000 more to run every year then it would make more sense to opt for the more expensive purchase but save money in the long run.
Provided your spa has been made with a good cover and quality insulation, it is best to keep the spa hot. This way, your heater will cut in and out as it needs to, and in summer may hardly come on at all.
Most, if not all portable hot tubs are filled with a hose pipe. The time it takes to fill it with water will depend on how much water needs to be put into the spa, what size of pipe you are using and your water pressure. If you are in the UK, have reasonable water pressure, and are using a standard 3/4 UK hose and filling a 300 gallon spa, you can expect this to take between 1.5 and 2 hours approximately.
Well, this depends on the time of year and season. If we are talking summer, then most people keep the spa at about 38C-ish, which is about body temperature – much lower than this and the water will feel cold! In the middle of winter, I think it is normal to be at 40C or even 41C. Any temperature over 37.5C will feel warm, but as in winter temperatures can drop to -5C or -6C you will need the water temperature to combat the cold. In water this hot keep drinking lots of water to stay hydrated.
Health Questions
The official advice is to limit a dip in your hot tub to around 30 minutes, however, it is up to you to decide what feels comfortable. However long, it is best to keep yourself hydrated whilst you are in the spa and drink plenty of water. You should also take care to maintain your sanitizer level, which will deplete over a few hours of bathing.
Hot tubs and babies do not generally mix, however having said that if you keep the temperature down so the hot tub is only warm and you limit the amount of time baby is in the spa then it is not any different to baby having a bath. The same goes for using a hot tub during pregnancy. It is generally not recommended, as raising the core temperature can be harmful to the unborn baby (like running a high fever) but you may find that you can enjoy a dip in your hot tub provided you do not sit in the spa for too long or at too high a temperature.
Spa Maintenance Questions
Many hot tubs have bottom drains which you connect to a hose pipe and run to a drain. However if you have not got a bottom drain then this is not a big problem as you can purchase a submersible pump and roll flat hose and can drain the spa that way just as easily.
This is not easy unless you have access to an industrial sewing machine, Marine grade vinyl and a huge shrink wrap machine to heat-seal your polystyrene inner cores. I think that when a cover fails, which is very common at about 4-5 years, you need to buy a new one from a reputable manufacturer.
Once a year you need to treat your spa to a hot tub System Cleaner. This is designed to clean out and remove Limescale and Biofilms from the insides of the pipes that you cannot scrub. Simply add system cleaner to your Hot tub water before your 3- 4 monthly refill and allow to circulate for an hour. Then drain and refill with clean water, drain and refill a second time and you are good to go. Note: remove your filter during this process and soak in cartridge cleaner, then power wash before refitting to clean water.
Spa Issues
If you have been caught out buy a cold snap and your Hot tub is now full of water and frozen then you are looking at a very expensive lollipop! When water freezes it expands and the plastic pipe work in most Hot tubs will crack. All you can do is wait until it thaws, turn the spa on and look for leaks. In order to avoid this scenario, drain down your spa in advance of cold weather or better still, keep it hot and ready to use!
Hot tub covers are made of dense polystyrene wrapped in polythene and then put into a vinyl cover. When new this is a light and strong way of keeping the heat in and the garden leaves and children out of the spa. However as the cover gets older the corrosive chlorine and ozone that is used to kill bacteria in the spa water also starts to break down the polythene wrapping around the polystyrene core. Over time, usually about 4-5 years, the polythene becomes porous and allows the steam from the Hot tub to rise up into the core until it becomes too heavy to lift. When this happens it is too late and a new cover is required.
Water Care Questions
Introducing Ozone to the spa water after the heater as part of the circulation system is quite normal. The Ozone generator creates very high levels of ozone which in turn oxidises bacteria in the circulation system. If you do not have an Ozone system then you will use more sanitizer like Chlorine.
No! As a general rule no soap or detergents should be introduced to the tub water. Best practice is to shower before use of the hot tub, to clean off any shampoo, body wash or detergents in the swimming costume. If there is a small amount of soap in the water, then a few drops of Foam Reducer will make the water nice again. The detergents which get into the spa from shampoo and body wash are not really doing any damage, but are not nice to bathe in either as foam will rise during the dip and then leave a rather unpleasant dirt mark afterwards.
If you do not want to put any chemicals into your hot tub the you will need to drain down and refill after each use and ensure that the water is never in the spa for more than 12 hours! If this seems like too much hard work and you want to keep the same water in the spa for up to 3-4 months then you have to balance Alkalinity, PH and Sanitizer or your water will become foul and dangerous.
As a rule of thumb you should change your water every 3 to 4 months. Sometimes, if the spa has had a lot of use it may be a good idea to change the water more often than this. The problem is TDS(= Total dissolved solids), just like a cup of tea if you keep putting in sugar there will come a time when it just does not dissolve. Same with a Hot tub: if you keep adding chemicals to maintain the spa then there will come a time when it will be very hard to correct imbalances and it is best to just change the water.