A hot tub is the ultimate in backyard luxury – a place where you can immerse yourself in hydromassage, escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life, and spend quality time with the ones you love.
But no matter how upmarket your hot tub might be, no matter the quality of the construction or the length of the feature list, no element will define the feeling of luxury more than the water found within.
To create and maintain perfect hot tub water, you first need to test it. In this guide we’ll look at the spa testing equipment you need to create the very best soaking experience possible.
What is spa testing equipment?
Hot tub testing equipment covers a range of tools designed to analyse the chemical composition of your water.
Hot tub water will be used over and over again, and the warm, wet conditions inside a spa can prove a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, algae, fungus and other organic contaminants. A hot tub owner must therefore ensure that an appropriate amount of sanitiser, such as chlorine or bromine, is in the water.
But if you’re not careful, the sanitisers can cause discomfort, so the perfect hot tub water will also balance elements like pH, total alkalinity and calcium hardness, ensuring the water isn’t just clean and clear, but also feels soft and luxurious.
Hot tub water testing equipment can come in analogue or digital forms. It is precisely calibrated to the perfect levels for each of the relevant water chemicals and characteristics, and will tell you whether you need to increase or decrease those levels in order to create the perfect chemical composition for your spa.
How often do I need to use spa testing equipment?
Hot tub water should be tested daily. This ensures that any potential issues are caught early and that your spa is always filled with water that is clean, clear, fresh and safe.
But this frequency of testing can feel like quite a burden to a hot tub owner – when you spend more time using spa testing equipment, you spend less time soaking in your spa. But what if there was a way to test your water far more – once every 60 minutes – while working far less?
The latest and greatest in spa testing equipment, Hot Spring’s automated FreshWater® IQ system offers exactly that. It takes care of your testing, so you don’t have to.
Types of spa testing equipment in 2024
Spa water testing has come a long way over the years, with new technologies and innovations helping to make the process simpler over time. So what does hot tub water testing equipment look like in 2024? Here’s a quick rundown of your options, from the basic to the best.
1.Test strips
The most common form of spa testing equipment is the humble test strip: strips of paper embedded with chemical reagents that respond to specific chemicals in the water. When you dip the strip in the water it changes colour, which you compare to a colour comparison chart to see whether the concentration of the chemical is too low, too high or just right.
Cheap and simple to use, test strips are by far the most popular spa water testing method. The main drawback is the relative imprecision when compared to other options, so you may struggle to create the most luxurious water possible.
2. Test kits
The very first type of hot tub testing equipment, test kits are still used to this day. Like test strips, they use chemical reagents, but unlike test strips, the reagents are in liquid form. Water is dropped into a vial of reagent, it changes colour, and the colour is compared to a comparison chart.
The process takes a little longer than test strips, but is a little more precise – though not as precise as digital methods, which means that many former test kit users have now moved on to digital tools. Which brings us to…
3. Automated digital testing
The latest and greatest spa testing equipment is designed to maximise precision and minimise work. FreshWater® IQ is an automated digital system that uses sensors to check the exact chemical composition of your spa water every hour. Whenever an improvement can be made to the water, the digital display tells you exactly what to do.
FreshWater® IQ is designed to work in tandem with the FreshWater Salt System – if it senses your water needs a little more sanitiser, for example, you can add the perfect amount of chlorine with the press of a button!
FreshWater® IQ: the only spa testing equipment you need in 2024
Your hot tub should take care of you, not the other way around. A patented, first-in-world water testing technology, FreshWater® IQ represents the ultimate way to test your water in 2024. The system conducts automatic testing every hour and provides clear instructions if adjustments are ever needed.
Say goodbye to test strips and test kits, and say hello to the ultimate in precision, and serious savings: spend far less money on water and chemicals, and spend far less time on maintenance.
What you do with all that extra time is up to you. Our recommendation: spend it soaking in the world’s most luxurious hot tub water.
