02/12/2026
I really enjoy teaching our clients the proper way to test and balance their hot tub water! 💧
And I love seeing the **aha moment** when they realize it’s actually not as difficult as it was made out to be.
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!!The following tips and tricks are for regular hot tubs. Tubs, using salt & copper-sulfate systems, etc.... can be a bit different. If you are interested in a post, addressing these specific systems, let me know!!
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**Water Chemistry Balancing!**
The 5 base chemicals you should have to properly balance your hot tub water are:
1️⃣ Sanitizer (either chlorine or bromine)
2️⃣ Alkalinity Increaser
3️⃣ pH Up
4️⃣ pH Down
5️⃣ Shock (non-chlorinated oxidizer)
There are many additional products out there, but that’s a subject for another post 😉
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After testing your water (sanitizer, pH, and total alkalinity), utilizing test strips or a reagent kit, always balance your water chemistry in the following order:
1️⃣ Total Alkalinity
Ideal range: 80–120 ppm
2️⃣ pH
Ideal range: 7.2 – 7.6 (if you use chlorine as your sanitizer)
7.2 - 7.8 (if you use bromine as your sanitizer)
3️⃣ Sanitizer
Ideal range: 3–5 ppm
Lastly, add your weekly shock treatment.
Shock oxidizes contaminants and eliminates *combined chlorine* (used chlorine that has bound itself to contaminants).
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Helpful tips for success:
✔️ Run your jets when adding chemicals — this allows for better distribution and proper dissolving of powdered products.
✔️ Add chemicals in small amounts (tsp/tbsp) and re-test until you’re within the ideal ranges. After doing it a few times, you’ll naturally get a feel for how much of what to add.
✔️ When adding your shock treatment, restart your jet cycle and leave the cover open until the cycle is finished. This allows the off-gas to escape instead of being trapped under the cover.
!Professional-grade chemicals are very potent - so ensure safe handling practices! — a little goes a long way.
We never want to see clients dumping capfuls of (especially) chlorine into their tubs. It’s very easy to over-chlorinate hot tub water, but extremely difficult to lower high chlorine levels once they’re too high.
Over-chlorination *does* have its place in cases of contamination (f***l incidents, bacteria, etc.), but this should always be handled by a professional.
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Puck Floaters — one of my biggest pet peeves! 😅
If you use a puck floater in a hot tub:
➡️ 1–2 pucks maximum, depending on how heavily the tub is used
❌ Never fill your floater to the brim
Overloading a floater can:
• Over-chlorinate your water
• Damage your cover
• Damage internal components
• Lead to costly repairs
(And yes… that’s a topic for yet another post.)
I hope that helps to clear some of the mysteries of balancing water chemistry. If you have any questions, shoot us a DM and we will be happy to help.
Happy Hot Tubbing!
- Nina -
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