I've just bought a place that came with a hot tub outside (though inside a screened porch) and I know nothing about them. It's a Nordic Jubilee LS.

I have the stuff you put in (a capful) once a week, and a spare filter. Other than that I'm clueless.

Do I have to drain it periodically and change the water, and if so, how? Is there annual maintenance I should be doing or planning for or is that unnecessary? Should I be 'shocking' it like a swimming pool or is that covered by the capful of stuff I'm throwing in every week?

Thanks!

LOL...When we bought our first house, it came with a hot tub too.

We drained ours every fall and every spring. Plus we shocked the water too. When we drained it, we scrubbed the inside, rotated and cleaned the filters.

Every once in a while we would check the PH levels in between draining the tub.

The expensive part could come into play if a part breaks and you have to have someone repair it.

I had a brand new hot tub for a year, but we just sold that house.

Basically, yes there should be a drain on the bottom somewhere, can be hooked to a hose usually. Yes you should drain the water periodically. remove the filter, take it down to your pool/spa store, and have them order a new one. Keep the part number, so you can order the filter online next time for cheaper. Toss the old filter in the garbage.

Hot tubs are sanitized with either bromine tablets or chlorine. I had a terrible time with Bromine. I tried it for a few months but never got a hang of it. I preferred the chlorine.

Get a test kit, that includes calcium. You want your calcium level to be perfect before you make any other changes.

As for the water, mine was super easy to keep clean. I would just throw in 2-4 small scoops of chlorine when done for the night. Chlorine burns off quick, so by the next night, the chlorine smell would be gone, and it would be just normal clean spa water.

If you have hard water, use metal and stain control to remove the impurities from the water.

I used the hot tub every night for about 6 months straight (loved it) and the water was pretty easy to keep clean honestly. When it started getting a little funky, just drain it, use a wet dry shop vac on the bottom to get out any sand, and then refill it.

Thank you.

Drain it before you use it. Unless you want to swim in someone else's piss.

They are fairly easy to maintain. Do a little reading or youtube watching and your be fine.

Filtration systems are everything in a hot tub. We have had several the first brand was Marquis and if I remember it had two paper filters in it. Required quite a bit of maintenance to maintain water clarity.

That one lasted about 7 years and then we bought a Hot Springs that had five filters made out of some solid pourus material that they say you can put in the dishwasher but I just clean them with a pressure washer. The Hot Springs does not require very much maintenance at all.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Filtration systems are everything in a hot tub. We have had several the first brand was Marquis and if I remember it had two paper filters in it. Required quite a bit of maintenance to maintain water clarity.

That one lasted about 7 years and then we bought a Hot Springs that had five filters made out of some solid pourus material that they say you can put in the dishwasher but I just clean them with a pressure washer. The Hot Springs does not require very much maintenance at all.

Are these separate to the filter system on the tub itself?

I had a Endless Pool swim spa installed last Oct.
I have used it since, keeping it heated to a min. of 95degrees and then turning it up to 101 when I think I will use it. It takes 1 hour to raise 1 degree(1200gal even in Winter)I have a very efficient cover on it (End to End)that does a great job of keeping the temp in and crap out.During the Summer it could take a week to get the temp down to 95 with the cover on.
The Spa itself is very well insulated with a closed cell spray foam insulation.
It has an ultra violet filter and a double screw in filter set.Every month I remove the 2 screw in filters and put them in the washer on no agitation and gentle cycle, double rinse,warm, with some oxidol detergent and vinegar. I have a second set of filters I rotate in.
I have not drained and re-filled yet but plan on it this week.
I have been using chloride crystals, about 2 oz a day and 7oz of shock once a week.I monitor the PH and don't add sanitizers till the PH is within margin. When out of wack I need to add a couple boxes of baking soda to raise the PH level.
When I drain it this week I plan to convert to a Bromide treatment instead of the chlorine.
I love it in Winter. Its sunken to the deck level. I can run out, roll the cover back and get into the 101 tub (goes to 104).
Bring a drink out and enjoy looking at the sky. I can also exercise/swim in it. One end is a Spa the other end is 50" deep with extremely powerful swim jets (7'x12')I like to just float around with a mask and snorkel.
In the winter the temp. is not the limiting factor its the wind.
My biggest concern is a prolonged power outage in the Winter.The pipes freezing up would be catastrophic.
ENJOY!

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Filtration systems are everything in a hot tub. We have had several the first brand was Marquis and if I remember it had two paper filters in it. Required quite a bit of maintenance to maintain water clarity.

That one lasted about 7 years and then we bought a Hot Springs that had five filters made out of some solid pourus material that they say you can put in the dishwasher but I just clean them with a pressure washer. The Hot Springs does not require very much maintenance at all.

Are these separate to the filter system on the tub itself?

The filters are the tubs filtration system but can be removed for cleaning if I understand you're question correctly.

They are great for parties. Be sure to tell your guests that hot water tends to leech out soap residue in bathing suits which in turn creates those dreaded suds in the water.

You want the water to be clear, not sudsy.

Hot tub in Minnesota? Isn't that more properly called a rink? Seems like a Zamboni is your goto for maintenance.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Filtration systems are everything in a hot tub. We have had several the first brand was Marquis and if I remember it had two paper filters in it. Required quite a bit of maintenance to maintain water clarity.

That one lasted about 7 years and then we bought a Hot Springs that had five filters made out of some solid pourus material that they say you can put in the dishwasher but I just clean them with a pressure washer. The Hot Springs does not require very much maintenance at all.

Are these separate to the filter system on the tub itself?

The filters are the tubs filtration system but can be removed for cleaning if I understand you're question correctly.

My tub has a built in filtration system (I think), I was a little confused by you mentioning different brands of filtration system in your post, or were you just referring to the actual filters?

Pyker, Marquis and Hot Springs are brand names of the hot tubs themselves. The number of filters and filtration systems vary between brands. My Marquis had two filters installed and the Hot Springs had five. Hope this clears it up for you. I'm not always the best at conveying my meanings via the keyboard.

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
They are great for parties. Be sure to tell your guests that hot water tends to leech out soap residue in bathing suits which in turn creates those dreaded suds in the water.

You want the water to be clear, not sudsy.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Pyker, Marquis and Hot Springs are brand names of the hot tubs themselves. The number of filters and filtration systems vary between brands. My Marquis had two filters installed and the Hot Springs had five. Hope this clears it up for you. I'm not always the best at conveying my meanings via the keyboard.

Thank you, that makes sense now

quote:

Nordic Jubilee LS

My advice would be for you to contact the manufacturer, get the manual for your specific tub, and follow those guidelines, rather than risk doing the wrong thing and/or missing some essential process unique to your model.

In addition to the maintenance requirement and specs on the types of stuff to use, the manual will also go over features and how to use them - some of which might not be obvious. For example, I have one that has a Bluetooth music system built in - but that isn't shown on the tub itself, and if one doesn't know that it has one or how to connect to it, it'd be useless.

I'm doing that for specific things pertaining to this model, but I was thinking of more general maintenance common to all tubs.