There is hardly any doubt that keeping the water in inflatable spas clean takes more than occasional cleaning. Achieving this excellent maintenance culture with the spa is also not easy. Neither is it a once-and-for-all-job.  On the other hand, no one really likes to use a hot tub with a questionable maintenance history. As they move close, they check out how clean the water is and if it oozes any foul smell on bacteria growth. 

The interrelationship between the factors leading to a bad water condition in inflatable spas is a rather complicated and dynamic one. More importantly, if you own the inflatable spa, you want to ensure that it is safe to use at all times. There must be a fair and correct use of sanitizer and management of the pH levels. There are many reasons or factors responsible for determining the safety of water in inflatable spas.

Chlorine or bromine, which is better?

In the management of inflatable spas, owners may still struggle to decide whether chlorine is better as a sanitizer or bromine. Despite having several spa owners who use bromine predominantly, others still prefer chlorine for sanitization. Chemically, both elements are similar halogens and will behave slightly differently. But the difference is still enough reason why people will pick one to the other. In any case, any of the sanitizers is effective in dealing with bacteria.

However, using chlorine and bromine to sanitize the spa water can complicate issues and compromise the intended safety. Combining both chemicals may hurt the water rather than the intended task of disinfecting the water against germs. Instead of using the two options together, why not pick one and use it consistently? On the other extreme, some spa owners even depend on natural ways to maintain their spa. 

Limitations of Chlorine as a sanitizer

No doubt, there are reasons to reconsider choosing chlorine as your sanitizer in inflatable spas. More so, there is a reason why bromine is more widely used in disinfecting water than chlorine. Perhaps, one of the prominent reasons is that chlorine struggle from practical at certain high pH levels under other standard conditions. 

For instance, when the pH of the water is above 8.2, the effectiveness of chlorine in disinfecting such water condition is less than 10% of the expected reach. By implication, if you want to be had needed to add a chlorine concentration of 1 part per million into the spa initially. Also, by the time the pH rises, you now need to add ten times that amount. 

At a high pH, you need to increase chlorine concentration to 10 times what you should have used when the pH was low. The solution is not to add more chlorine per se but to maintain a low pH that will not reach 8.2. 

Unfortunately, maintaining a constant pH of neutral water is not easy to achieve since it starts from around 7.0. More so, many biological activities within the pool usually lead to an increase in the pH level of the water. So, you need to keep checking and ensuring that the pH remains constant.

Limitation of using Bromine in Inflatable Spas

Bromine is a more popular choice in controlling treating your inflatable spa water, even though it costs more to use than chlorine. Unlike chlorine that struggles for effectiveness at a high pH, bromine thrives effectively at these high pH levels. In other words, instead of working between the amounts of required chlorine and maintaining the pH level, using bromine as an alternative is better. Notably, the environment of the hot tub requires such conditions. Click here to learn about 5 tips of setting up a Inflatable Hot Spa

It does not remove the fact that bromine also has an ideal pH where it works best. Both chlorine and bromine work with the pH level of the water, but users can still achieve much more effective with bromine than chlorine. The reason is that bromine has a broader range of pH where it remains effective than chlorine, which has a low degree of effectiveness. If you have also lost the ability to keep the pH level down, use bromine that is more forgiving.

However, the limitation of bromine is that it requires another oxidizer to keep it in balance in functionality. Of course, adding oxidizer dosing to the water body reactivates the spent bromine salts and increases the bromine concentration. But that also means more effectiveness of the bromine in killing the germs. The foul smell happened when the spent bromine molecules did not get reactivated with oxidizers, and the bacteria has room to grow into foul-smelling water conditions. We have said enough about sanitizers; let us now look at another factor entirely.

Water pH level in Inflatable spas

The pH level of water should also be an equally important factor in keeping the water in the spa safe and healthy to use. So, apart from the issues with the chemical compositions of the water, the pH may also be another reason you need to take care of your spa water. Without taking care of the pH, your inflatable spa may harbor some bacteria that may cause infections, such as rashes after a bath. Since our bodies also have pH sensitivity levels, poorly maintained spas can lead to ailments. 

pH ranges from 1 to 14, but the dynamics mean a lot more than the numbers. For instance, water with a pH of 6.0 is ten times more acidic than water with a pH of 7.0. Therefore, instead of perceiving the difference between the testing values, one should realize that the 1.0 difference is enormous. Suppose the 1.0 difference is that huge, both on the acidic and primary scale. In that case, no distinction can be overlooked when testing the water. 

However, some bodies are pH resistant and may not tell the difference between bathing in tepid water and bathing in coffee. Therefore, it is insufficient to assume that it is safe to use for everyone since someone just bathed safely in the water. While some may not feel anything, others in the same water will get dry and itchy skin in ways that may be unspeakable. Therefore, if you are one of those who enjoy bathing in inflatable spas, ensure you are aware of the pH level before you jump right in.

Conclusion

On a final note, there may be different factors responsible for the water’s condition in inflatable spas. But it is the responsibility of the owner of private inflatable spa owners to keep the water in check. Perhaps those are more reasons why you should get your own inflatable spa that is affordable at havanaspas.com.au