How to shock your hot tub

How to shock your spa or hot tub to bring back that sparkle.

As a proud owner of a hot tub or spa, you’ll know the luxurious feeling of slipping into the clean, sparkling water, firing up those powerful jets and letting all your troubles melt away. You’ll know about the importance about keeping the chemistry of your hot tub finely tuned and balanced so you can enjoy a safe, clean, healthy and relaxing spa whenever you need it. But do you know about shocking or oxidising, your spa? It’s a term you may have heard so whether you are a new hot tub owner or you are struggling to maintain the quality of your water, read on for some ‘shocking’ advice. Geddit?

 Why do I need to shock my hot tub or spa?

Keeping your water sanitised properly is a vital process you need to attend to regularly in order to keep your water clean, clear and bacteria free. Whether you use bromine or chlorine, tablets or granules to fight off those nasties that can quickly accumulate, and regularly testing the pH of your water to keep it silky smooth and healthy, you still need to shock your hot tub or spa regularly, to enable those chemicals to do their job efficiently and eradicate all contaminants.

The three main reasons for shocking your hot tub are:

To clean up all the chloramines and bromamines. Your chlorine or bromine kills all the bacteria and contaminants in your tub, leaving behind bromamines and chloramines which prevent your chemicals from doing their job.
To kill bacteria. Depending on the shocking solution that you use, this process can also kill of unwanted bacteria, improving the quality of your water.
To remove other organic compounds. Organic compounds (like dirt and dead skin) build up as you use your hot tub.

In short, shocking your hot tub or spa regularly, alongside the other chemical routines that you have, will keep your water, clean, clear and more importantly, healthy.

How do I shock my hot tub or spa?

To shock your tub you need to use a shocking solution and they come in two forms, chlorine based shocking compound and non-chlorine based shocking compound. At Hot Tub DIY we suggest you only use a chlorine based shock when you are changing the water or when you need to give it a good clean. For your regular shocking routine, use a non-chlorine based compound, which doesn’t disinfect the water, it clears up the water, oxidising the contaminants. Non-chlorine shock also servs to reactive the chlorine or bromine you are already using.

Follow the simple steps below to restore or maintain the water in your hot tub.

1. Remove the cover. So your hot tub can ‘breathe’
2. Get the pH right. You need to keep the pH value of your water somewhere between 7.4 and 7.8. To do this, you may need to use a pH increaser or a pH decreaser and your trusty testing strips.
3. Turn on the circulation. But don’t turn on your jets, this will agitate the water too much.
4. Measure the shock. Check the instructions to see how much you need for the size of your hot tub first. (It’s about 17g of non-chlorine shock per 1500 litres or 35g of chlorine shock per 1500 litres but can vary depending on the manufacturer)
5. Add the shock. Carefully.
6. Leave it to do it’s work. Leave for about 20 minutes.
7. Test the levels. It is important to test the levels of bromine or chlorine in the water and also check the pH.

Check the manufacturer, but it is usually ok to use your hot tub about 20 minutes after if you have used a non-chlorine based shock. But it can take up to 24 hours with some types. Please read the instructions carefully.

How often do I need to shock my hot tub or spa?

As an important part of your chemical routine, it is advisable to shock your hot tub regularly, about once a week depending on how often it is used. Also, shock your hot tub if you haven’t used it in a  while, if it has had particularly heavy usage or if the water is cloudy.