How To Lower Or Raise pH in Hot Tub Naturally (Home Remedy)

Knowing how to lower or raise pH in hot tub naturally is important if you want to get the most out of your hot tub. However, not many people know how to balance the pH in their hot tubs and that’s why we created this helpful guide.

Buying a hot tub is one of the best purchases that you can make. If you have the money, getting a hot tub for your house is an excellent idea.

People buy hot tubs so that they can just kick back and relax after a tiring day at work. However, most people often underestimate the amount of maintenance that hot tubs require.

If the pH levels are unstable in your hot tub, it could ultimately affect the total alkalinity. When that happens, your skin will start to itch and this could lead to a myriad of other problems.

You will find yourself trying to balance the chemical levels every now and then, and will eventually get frustrated because finding the right balance is just so difficult.

In some cases, the pH value might be lower than you expect, so you will have to look for different ways to raise the pH value of your hot tub.

However, what if the pH value rises to a higher level? It can get confusing at times, and you will end up getting frustrated if you don’t know what you are doing wrong.

However, balancing the water chemistry is not as difficult – it just requires a careful understanding of what’s going on at the molecular level.

In the following article, we’ll talk about how to lower or raise the pH value in your hot tub by appropriate margins and how to keep it under control.

How To Raise pH in Hot Tub Naturally (Home Remedy)

Sodium carbonate is the primary ingredient added in most pH increasers. It is also commonly known as soda ash. Both soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, are quite similar, to the point where you can also use baking soda to raise the pH value.

However, soda ash is more effective, and will also be useful for raising the total alkalinity in your hot tub, without having too much of an impact on the pH value.

You need to understand that soda ash will increase the total alkalinity by a considerable margin. Therefore, if the pH value in your hot tub is lower but the total alkalinity is higher, sodium carbonate may take it above the recommended threshold.

There’s also a natural way to raise your hot tub’s pH value and is one that anyone can use as a natural home remedy. If you didn’t know, water from your hose is usually slightly higher in alkalinity than the water in your hot tub and therefore adding fresh water can raise your hot tub’s PH value.

How To Lower pH in Hot Tub Naturally

The active ingredient found in most pH decreasers is sodium bisulfate. However, when you add this substance into the water, it’s also going to reduce the total alkalinity.

You will have to increase it back again afterward. Sodium bisulfate can help stabilize the pH value, so you have to change the total alkalinity, it’s much easier to do.

For instance, if you want to decrease the alkalinity as well as the pH value, you should consider using muriatic acid. There are replacement products available if you don’t want to use muriatic acid, and they aren’t as caustic either.

Either way, it’s best to put on some safety gear before you decide to pour the acid into your spa. Again, it’s best not to pour the acid directly into the spa; it’s always recommended that you dilute it first before you add it in.

To ensure that the muriatic acid mixes properly, you might want to turn on the jets for a while. Leave the spa to circulate overnight before you test the water to determine whether it worked or not.

What’s So Important About the pH Value in Your Hot Tub?

You might have a vague memory of studying about bases and acids in your high school chemistry class. When you mix a solution that contains additional hydrogen ions, that solution is considered acidic in nature.

Conversely, if a solution has less hydrogen ions, it’s considered basic. On the pH scale, neutrality is achieved at pH value 7. Anything below 7 is considered acidic, whereas anything above that figure is considered basic.

If you want to test the pH value of your water, you just have to check it with the test strips. Or, you can even invest in a liquid test kit.

This will give you a better idea about how acidic or basic the water in your hot tub really is. Ideally, you will want to keep it between 7.4 and 7.6.

If the pH value from your hot tub is out of this range, you need to take steps to balance this right away. It could lead to a series of problems that could damage the spa. Let’s talk about this.

What Does Low pH Do to Your Hot Tub?

If the pH value of your water in the hot tub falls below 7.4, it could cause problems. As the pH value falls, the water becomes more and more acidic.

The lower it falls, the higher the acidity. Whichever sanitizer you use (bromine or chlorine), you should know that it will become considerably less effective in acidic water.

Ultimately, your water could have bacteria or harmful contaminants in it by the time you get in it. This is not the end, however. Apart from the bacterial threat, you need to understand that acidic water also contains corrosive properties.

This means that the water could cause corrosion in the pipes, the jets, and the filters. Needless to say, corrosive water is a serious problem, and you need to increase the pH value as soon as possible.

What About High pH Values in the Hot Tub?

On the other hand, excessively high pH value in your hot tub is also not a good thing. If the pH value goes above 7.8, your spa water can be described as basic. Basically, what this means is that the water won’t be sanitized as effectively as you would like.

As a result, the same bacterial risks will be found in this water as well. Again, you wouldn’t want to get into a hot tub full of people when the water is this bad. That’s not all, however.

When the water is basic, the levels of calcium in the water start to rise. Ultimately, it will cause a flaky substance known as scale to form on the surface. Scale deposits will start to appear on the small jet openings as well as in the pipes.

This will reduce the amount of space available for the water to flow freely through the pipes, which ultimately reduces the pressure in the jets.

More importantly, the calcium deposits that start to appear on the filters and pumps will be incredibly hard to clean. Eventually, you will have no option but to get rid of the filters and the pumps and install another one altogether.

What Is the Meaning of Total Alkalinity?

Understanding this term is very important. Total alkalinity primarily refers to the ability of a solution to neutralize the acidic content that is added to it. The total alkalinity in your hot tub primarily acts as a sort of a buffer.

It manages to maintain the pH level in the water, thus keeping it stable, and allows you to adjust the total alkalinity without having to affect the chemistry of your hot tub altogether.

Understanding the total alkalinity is important for balancing the water. When it comes to caring for the water in your hot tub, you should know how to measure and adjust the total alkalinity before you decide to tamper with other chemicals.

Ideally, the total alkalinity in your hot tub should not fall below 100 ppm. To adjust the alkalinity, the best thing to do is add a bit of an alkalinity increaser.

There are many kinds of alkalinity increasers available in the market, so you can easily buy one. But, it’s important to allow each dose that you administer to circulate properly in the water before you decide to add some more.

Balancing the pH Value in Your Hot Tub

The concept is pretty basic: if the water is acidic, you can just add alkaline chemicals to raise the pH value. Similarly, if the pH value is higher, you can add some acids to decrease the PH value.

While it seems simple, there are certain factors to consider. For starters, when you add pH increasers or decreasers into your water, it’s also going to have an impact on the total alkalinity of your water. Balancing both is a bit more complicated, but it can be done.

Using a Hose Filter

To keep contaminants and other metals out of the water in your hot tub, one of the best things that you can do is make use of a hose filter. Hose filters often help in cleaning up the water and make it easy for you to get into the pool without having much to worry about.

More importantly, hose filters can be attached easily to the hose, thus making it easy for you to fill up the water. In some cases, they clean up the water so well that you could even drink it! Most people use hose filters in the water lines on their RV.

Use a Sequestrant

Metal sequestrants are an excellent choice for people who want to play it even safer and improve the effectiveness of their water filters. A sequestrant doesn’t remove the metals from the water; it just bonds to the metals and then suspends them on the surface.

This makes it easy for you to grab them easily without any issue whatsoever. While using a sequestrant, you don’t have to worry about the pH value of the water being affected. It’s also going to reduce the buildup of metals and ultimately bring down staining as well.