If you own a swim spa, you should have a basic understanding of swim spa maintenance. Even if you call in a maintenance worker to check it for you, knowing these basics can help you diagnose issues or spot problems early on, before they become serious.
That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to swim spa maintenance. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of the routine tasks that make up a robust maintenance schedule. When you’re ready to learn more and find out how you can keep your swim spa in the best condition possible, read on.
Maintaining your swim spa involves some tasks that need to be completed at least once or twice per week if you want to keep it looking its best. None of these tasks should take too long, but it doesn’t mean they’re unimportant: these form the foundation that strong maintenance is built on.
Twice per week, you should check the water in your spa to ensure it has the correct levels of chlorine or bromine, as well as the water’s pH level. As necessary, you should add more chlorine/bromine and pH-balancing chemicals to ensure your swim spa stays usable and comfortable.
Over time, chlorine and bromine can both create smelly compounds called chloramines and bromamines. Adding shock to your swim spa, essentially a larger amount of chlorine or bromine, can remove these chemicals from your water as well as other impurities that can lead to issues with your spa.
You should remove the filter from your swim spa and rinse it every one to two weeks. Your filter catches various bits of particulate matter and without a clean filter, your water can quickly become dirty. You can learn more about this in our guide on changing hot tub filters.
There are a couple of other checks that you should run once per week, these include checking your spa’s water levels, refilling as necessary and looking at the skimmer basket. The latter check is vital as the state of the basket won’t be obvious from the outside – it could be full of leaves, and you might never know!
Once per month, you should give your swim spa’s filters a more thorough cleaning. To do this, you’ll need to remove them and use a filter-cleaning spray. As well as cleaning the filter, you may want to use a pool vacuum to clean the floor of your spa if you notice excessive debris that’s sunk to the bottom.
In this section, we’re going to have a look at the tasks that only need to be done a few times per year or annually.
Three or four times per year, you should give your swim spa a thorough clean. Wipe down all surfaces, the cover, and any pillows or other surfaces with a specialist spa cleaner. Around this time, you should also check your spa over for any issues: for instance, check that the heating and filter systems are working properly. You should also check that the jets are working normally and that any lighting is still functioning as it should.
You should also consider adding UV protectant to the cover of your swim spa. This will protect the vinyl from sunlight, increasing its lifespan. Once every three months, you should also change the filter on your swim spa.
At least once per year, you should completely empty your swim spa and then refill it with fresh water. You need to do this to remove very fine particles from the water that your filter won’t catch. These aren’t dangerous, but they can make the water cloudy, leading to a less enjoyable swim spa experience.
Once per year, you’ll also need to clean the plumbing. To do this, you’ll need to buy a specialist cleaning product and add it to the water. Then you’ll need to let the water circulate before draining the water from your spa.
Once a year, you’ll also need to conduct a more thorough test of your hot tub’s components such as its pumps, jets and lighting.
We hope that this guide to swim spa maintenance will help you keep your swim spa in peak condition, which will let it help you stay in peak condition too! While this list may seem daunting, remember that a lot of the tasks don’t need to be done all that often, and the weekly and monthly tasks aren’t very arduous.
Swim spas are not particularly high maintenance. While you will need to do some regular maintenance, it will not take up too much of your time.
We recommend leaving your swim spa for around three hours once you’ve added the chlorine or bromine.
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