Why You Should Always Bathe Before Hot Tubbing

You’ve heard the caution a hundred times “Swimmers should bathe before entering the hot tub.”  You may bathe after you use the hot tub, but how many times have you actually bathed before entering?  Most people will answer never – unless it was a coincidence.  While the chemicals in the pool do a good job of keeping the hot tub sanitary (if you keep them properly maintained), they can only do so much.  The oils from your skin, lotion, hair products, etc. will get into the water as well as your hair, dead skin cells, and other disgusting things.  

What Showering Does

Showering helps prevent those not-so friendly guests from entering the hot tub. Showering with soap and water before using the hot tub removes bacteria from your body, and removes lotions, deodorants, dead skin cells, etc.  It will lessen the chance that your hot tub filter will become clogged from your oils and body waste.  Shower after using the hot tub as well, to wash off any bacteria, algae, waste, etc. that may have been in the water.  The longer you wait after using the spa to bathe, the longer any bacteria or viruses are able to sit on your skin.

Effects of Your Waste

You waste products (lotions, makeup, sunscreen, etc.) will come off into the hot tub water.  The disinfectants in the pool will begin to break down those waste products, leaving less chemical to take care of the real problems such as bacteria.   The more people are in a hot tub, the more chemical is needed.  (That doesn’t mean that you should dump in a ton of chlorine if you’re having a hot tub party, it just means you need to be more vigilant in testing the water throughout the party.)  Also, if you do not frequently clean your hot tub, all of those waste products can sit in the hot tub for months.

Some Other Quick Hot Tub Tips:

If you have long hair, pull it up so that it won’t get caught in the filter.

Make sure that your chemicals are properly balanced: chlorine should be at 2-4 ppm, bromine at 4-6 ppm and the pH should be between 7.2 and 7.8.

Never heat your hot tub above 104 degrees.  

Don’t use household chemicals to clean your hot tub – only use chemicals that are designed to clean hot tubs.

Cover your hot tub when it is not being used to extend the life of the sanitizer, protect it from getting debris in the water, and to save on energy costs.

 

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