Five Hazards of Hot Tubs
Hot tubs are a great way to relax at the end of a long day and provide a place to retreat in your own backyard. Whether you have a hot tub or are looking to add one to your home, here are five hazards you should know about hot tubs (and how you can avoid them!).
Bacteria Breeding Ground
Heat accelerates chemical reactions in water and creates a breeding ground for bacteria. Just because the water is good when you first get in, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes for most hot tub water to turn unsanitary if no automated water treatment system is installed to feed some type of sanitizer on an as needed basis. This is especially true if there are multiple soakers.
Even with an automated treatment system, things can go wrong, and if an alarm is not triggered to your phone or your service professional’s phone, no one will know. Every year we read about someone getting sick from hot tub water. There are some nasty bugs that get into the water and if they are go untreated, they can make you really sick.
Learn more about our solutions for hot tubs, including chemical free treatment options and smart pool technology!
Crazy Chemical Soup
As mentioned above, chemical reactions are exponentially accelerated, especially compared to a swimming pool. This is due to both the heat and small number of gallons in a typical hot tub. A standard hot tub is between 300-500 gallons and it takes a very small dosage error of any chemical to make the things go completely haywire. This is true for hot tubs and spas that are attached to swimming pools. Not only can the water quickly lose any sanitizing ability, but other chemical parameters can quickly get out of whack. pH is a notable example and with both high and low pH producing eye and skin irritation, this can get uncomfortable.
Hotel Hot Tub Nightmare
Commercial hot tubs (hotels/gyms/HOA) are particularly troublesome because they are often treated without any system that automatically adjusts for quickly changing conditions. The easy solution is for the service company to treat the water with unsafe high levels of chlorine or bromine. This will keep the water clear, but is that good for our bodies to soak in that much chemical? With the skin being the largest organ which can absorb chemicals into the body, is that a risk we should be taking?
Conditioner Calamity
Conditioner or cyanuric acid is used in almost every backyard pool in the United States and often in hot tubs as well. It is a little-known chemical that professional service companies rely on to make the chlorine stay in the water long enough until they return for their next weekly service call. It bonds with the chlorine and prevents the ultra violet rays in the sun from destroying the chlorine in a matter of a few hours on a hot sunny day. The drawback is that it greatly reduces the sanitizing or killing power of the chlorine so if a harmful bug is in the water, it has a better chance of surviving for much longer and increasing the likelihood of getting someone sick.
Air Accident
People tend to worry less about the air they breathe in a hot tub than the water they are soaking in. However, research tells us that the air gassing off the surface of an improperly treated hot tub can be very harmful for your health. When chlorine can not overcome the organic material in the water it ‘gives up’ and combines with it instead forming a new molecule named a chloramine. Chloramine gives off that nasty chlorine odor, and causes eye and skin irritation even at low levels. Studies have shown these disinfection by-products (DBPs) can also contain trihalomethanes which are known to be carcinogenic.
I offer customized water solutions for your hot tub based on your budget and depending on whether you prefer a minimal amount of chemical treatment or none at all! Discover the restorative and rejuvenating properties of naturally oxygenated, chemical-free water and contact me today!