Your Hot Tub Sanitizing Options
We’ve all enjoyed a soak in traditional chlorine hot tubs, coming out smelling like the local pool. It’s a feature most people who enjoy hot tubbing rarely think about. We’re here to tell you that you have other, more beneficial options for your tubbing experience. We will cover the range of possibilities, including some that should never be done, over the next three weeks.
Your two main sanitizing options for your hot tub are chlorine/bromine or salt.
Hot Tub Bromine & Chlorine
The standard options for sanitizing and the only two recognized by Health Canada are chlorine and bromine. And, as such, they play a part in keeping traditional, salt water, and mineral water hot tubs sanitized. Before we launch into the whys and hows, we’ll quickly hit on another, makeshift method – hydrogen peroxide (aka rocket fuel!). Although this method has recently gained popularity as a hot tub treatment, this has proven to have some extremely detrimental side effects: not only is it very damaging to your unit (it will eat away any rubberized gaskets and seals) but in order for it to be effective, hydrogen peroxide would have to be constantly poured into the water as it dissipates within a matter of minutes leaving no functional sanitizer keeping your tub safe from bacteria and algae between uses.
Most people use bromine to sanitize their tub. It is by far the easiest and mildest sanitizer and is not pH dependant, so you’ll spend more time enjoying your tub instead of playing “backyard chemist”. The strongest sterilizing option, and the one most heavy tub users, or large families utilize, is chlorine. It is, however, pickier about the pH levels of the hot tub, and the smell is a bit stronger.
Check out more info on hot tub water care with chlorine and bromine here.
Hot Tub Salt Sanitizer
The other option is salt. Now, this isn’t table salt or the salt you get from the ocean. Salt systems originally gained popularity because of the soft feel of the water on your skin. Here’s how it works:
In the old salt systems, a large amount of chlorine/bromine salt is added to your tub’s water, then slowly converted into usable chlorine/bromine through the use of an electric salt generator by passing a strong electrical current through the water. The common misconception about salt sanitizers is that they are chemical free. In fact, there is far more chlorine/bromine in a salt tub than in other systems because the generators can only convert a small portion of salt into usable sanitizer at a time; all the rest is still sitting in the water even when it’s not being used! This system had quite a few other drawbacks as well.
The old salt water systems, the cons of which you may have read on the internet, tends to badly corrode the mechanical components of a hot tub (most notably heater elements, pump components and the salt generators themselves) causing increased wear and increased maintenance costs. It also had a hard time keeping the tub properly sanitized with more frequent use because of the slow conversion from salt to sanitizer, leading to scummy build-up and funky, nostril-assaulting smells. Although salt had its time in the limelight, there are now much safer and more effective methods.
Enter Mineraluxe For Hot Tubs
The new system, called Mineraluxe, gives you the same soft feeling of salt water, is easier on your tub and more beneficial for your skin. With Mineraluxe, your tub’s plumbing and acrylic are both scrubbed from the inside out, maintaining your equipment and effectively making your tub “self-cleaning”. It also gets rid of that ‘pool’ smell which clings to any bather long after they’ve left the tub. Originally, we reserved this option for people with extremely sensitive skin, but the positive feedback we have received from these initial users was so overwhelming that we have begun recommending it to everyone! The effectiveness and ease-of-use of this system has proven to be unparalleled with any of the multitude of water care options we’ve tested.
Backyard Leisure now offers a free one-month trial of the system so all those frustrated hot tub users can see first hand what their hot tub experience should feel like. To date, more than 90% of people who have tried Mineraluxe have continued using it! Contact us for more details.
For more information about your options, and how the old system compares with the new system, check out this blog article: Saltwater Pros, Cons, and the benefits of Mineraluxe.