How Much Chlorine To Add To Hot Tub First Time?

How much chlorine to add to hot tub first time? If you don’t know the right amount of chlorine to be added to your hot tub for the first time, then this guide is exactly what you need!

Most people don’t know this, but they deal with chlorine on a regular basis. Chlorine is a substance that is used to kill germs. In fact, most people are quite dependent on its germ-killing powers, primarily because it helps keep them safe.

Chlorine is perhaps most commonly used for sanitizing the water and prevents swimmers from ingesting water that contains harmful bacteria. If you have a pool or a hot tub, you will definitely need chlorine for it.

However, do you know how much chlorine you need for your hot tub? In the following article, we will talk about the benefits of chlorine and what it is primarily used for. Let’s get into it!

What Is Chlorine?

Before we go any further, let’s talk about chlorine. Most people don’t even know what it is. Chlorine is essentially a chemical that is made by combining sodium hydroxide, hydrogen, and sodium chloride, or as most people know it, table salt.

Chlorine is an incredibly powerful disinfectant that can be used to sanitize water and various surfaces as well. Chlorine is also commonly added in a wide variety of different cleaning products.

However, most people just know about chlorine because it is added to swimming pools and hot tubs. If you do not add the right amount of chlorine, it could lead to harmful vapors as well.

How Much Chlorine To Add To Hot Tub First Time?

The levels of chlorine in the water are measured in parts per million. Ideally, your hot tub should contain chlorine between 1.5 and 3 ppm. Anything up to 5 ppm is safe for use.

More importantly, you can test the water quite easily with the kits available at your local store. You can even buy the kits online.

If you are confused about how much you should add per gallon, most manufacturers make it easy for you to choose by providing pretty easy guides for measuring.

It’s imperative that you follow the provided guidelines since each brand has a different method. Ideally, you should add a couple of teaspoons of chlorine for every 200 gallons.

Make sure you dilute it with water and let it circulate properly in your hot tub. This is going to help you raise the chlorine levels in your hot tub without overdoing the whole thing.

Shocking the tub is a great way to increase the levels up to 8 or 10 ppm. This is going to help you get rid of any substances that might still be lingering in the system.

It’s a fantastic solution that will help you keep your hot tub neat and clean and suitable for use for longer periods of time.

Why Do You Need Chlorine for Your Hot Tub?

There are several reasons why you absolutely need to add chlorine to your hot tub. For starters, you should know that the water in your hot tub is likely to contain a whole lot of other substances.

These include a mixture of skin oil and lotions, dirt and grime, hair products, and debris that is carried into the water through human skin. Needless to say, you need something potent to kill off all the bacteria.

This is one of the two primary chemical products that are used in tandem with the filtration system that you have employed to clean up the water in your hot tub. This is important because it ensures your safety when you are in the pool.

Most people are often on the fence about exposing themselves to bacteria when jumping into the pool. However, you are going to have to add bromine or chlorine in your hot tub to shock the water at the very least.

There are a few cleaning alternatives that you can use between shocks to lower the harmful germ levels while simultaneously reducing the amount of chlorine in the water.

This is an ideal choice for people who are trying to reduce the amount of chlorine without compromising on their safety.

What Type of Chlorine Should You Use in Your Hot Tub?

If you have decided to opt for chlorine instead of bromine, you have quite a few options available to you. There are several popular options, with the sodium dichlor granules being the most effective.

Many consider them to be the number one choice because they are effectively pH neutral. You don’t have to worry about the pH levels in your pool being affected if you are using these tablets.

More importantly, you can also use plug-in salt systems. They produce pure chlorine directly from mineral salts.

Another reason why so many people prefer using these systems is because you don’t have to worry about modifying your existing purification system; they fit in seamlessly and are great for sanitizing your pool.

If you have a larger swimming pool, you might want to consider using calcium hypochlorite or Trichlor pool tablets. However, they are not an effective choice for hot tubs primarily because of their increased acidity and the fact that they dissolve so slowly.

More importantly, these things can cause discoloration on the tub shell due to the fact that they are so caustic. They are only suitable if you have a relatively larger spa.

How Often Should You Add Chlorine to Your Hot Tub?

Free chlorine is when you add the chemical to the water. Once the chlorine starts to dissolve, it starts to kill the oils and bacteria and other harmful germs in the water.

At this time, it’s known as chlorine. It creates a shock in the water if you add a higher concentration to it, thus killing larger amounts of bacteria. Ideally, you should add chlorine to the water at least once a week.

If you use the tub on a daily basis or every other day, it might be a wise idea to add the chlorine on a more frequent basis. You can even add the chlorine between shocks to keep the water at healthy levels.