Lay My Hat

We have a new (4 month old) hot tub and while I read they usually need to be refilled every 4-6 months, I'm finding that doesn't hold true for a vacation rental. Due to the higher bather load, we are going 4-6 weeks. Do you find the same? Our property sleeps 6- 8 and we book about 75 nights in June, July and August. What happens is even though the test strips show okay, it gets very cloudy. I know you can add only so many chemicals (defoamer, clarifier, etc), before it's just best to empty and start over.

We don't have a hot tub, but they have been discussed on LMH before. Here's a link or 2 that you may find helpful.

viewtopic.php?t=26312&highlight=hot+tub
viewtopic.php?t=22423&highlight=hot+tub
http://www.troublefreepool.com/index.html

Happy reading!

I nearly installed a hot tub and if I had would have costed in a change of water every change of guest.

There's no way I would get in a hot tub that someone else had been in, filthy sex ponds...

We change the water in our hot tub every week while we have guests. There's no way the water would last 3 /4 months with guests using it as no matter how many times you ask them to shower before using it not all of them do or do properly and there will always be body lotions, sun lotions, hair gel etc getting in the water. We've also had to change the water on a couple of occasions after just a couple of days. The defoamers etc are only a temporary fix for maybe the one day if your desperate and can't change the water. It really does add to your work load but the guests, well most of them seem to love it.

About every week, depends on use.
As ours is next to the pool and on the same level its easy to set up a syphon from pool to tub overnight and add a touch more chlorine and off to go.

Gardenboy - never had sex in a pond so I cant comment; but whatever turns you on I guess !
Did have sex in the sea off Martinique, that was fun !

What if there is a time of year when you don't get many reservations -I would guess the chemicals in the tub still need to be checked weekly?

I don't imagine the issue is any different for other parts of the world, although the legislation may be more lax; in the UK a hot tub at a holiday let has to be a unit suitable for commercial use rather than a typical domestic installation, and the HSE require that the tub is drained, sanitised and refilled at each changeover. Between changeovers daily checks must be made by a competent person and the chemical balance adjusted as required. A far cry from just changing the water occasionally.
There have been deaths in the UK resulting directly from legionella from incorrectly maintained hot tubs. Only changing the water every few weeks sounds like a pretty good way at the very least to increase the risk of skin complaints; given that a hot tub is the perfect environment for legionella to develop, and that a whirlpool system is then the ideal method for aerosolising the bacteria and delivering it in an inhalable form over a wider area (the fatalities in the UK were passers-by), the risk to guests and others is significant.
This document from the UK government makes interesting and disturbing reading.

Well, that's frightening and convinces me to have it changed each time.
However, checking the balance daily? I am 1 1/2 hrs away and our person charges $25 each time he comes. That's cost prohibitive . I think I'd rather padlock it and use it only for our own use then.

We do have a bromine floater and use a shock product . i would imagine there was no sanitizer in those spas that were responsible for spreading Legionnaire's Disease?

Ours is checked every day and chemicals added as needed. I don't thing there is any way you could not do daily checks as the chemicals in there are used up faster than a pool with the higher water temp and guests getting in there not completely lotion or whatever free. Ours is locked during the day and only opened at night after being checked and after guests have had proper showers (not just the one at the pool) so we know the levels are ok before any guest sets foot in it. We do live on site though and I really don't know how you would manage if you didn't.

Our cost for him to come check and balance the chemicals just went up to $29 a visit.

I was about to start having it refilled each time a group left, even though we have no such regulation in the U.S.

Then I decided if the water is clear, and the chemical levels are correct, I don't see any reason .

So at least for now, I will have him come out on the days someone is there and we will raise our nightly cost.