Regular cleaning is necessary for your hot tub to remain secure and dazzling throughout the season. Bromine is a common choice among the many chemicals used to keep hot tubs clean since it is efficient at eradicating bacteria and limiting algae growth.
However, there are situations when a hot tub’s bromine levels may become too high, creating water imbalances and potential health problems. In this article, you will learn how bromine functions in hot tubs and the necessary steps needed to lower the bromine levels in your tub.
How Does Bromine Work In Hot Tubs?
Because healthy water keeps you safe and extends the life of your hot tub, chemical balance is essential in your spa. To keep your water clean and safe, sanitizing agents like chlorine and bromine are employed. Because they eliminate potentially harmful impurities in your spa, they are an essential component of appropriate hot tub water maintenance.
Frequent sanitizer dosages are essential to maintaining the cleanliness and safety of your water, despite the fact that they may appear unneeded or even wasteful to a hot tub novice. Even more regularly than with a pool, you’ll need to test for and add chlorine or bromine to your spa.
You can read: How Long to Wait After Adding Chlorine to Hot Tub: Ideal Time
How To Lower Bromine Levels In Hot Tubs?
Hot tubs should have bromine levels between 3 and 5 ppm, or between 4 and 8 ppm for spas. You might, however, occasionally be dealing with excessive bromine levels. Here are a few steps you can follow to reduce the bromine levels and ensure that it is safe for use.
Test Bromine Levels
- Use bromine test kits, pads on most bromine test strips are color-coded and respond to the presence of bromine in water. They are commonly accessible. To determine the bromine level, simply dip the strip into the hot tub’s water and compare the color to the color chart.
- Use liquid test kits, although they can be a little trickier to use, liquid test kits provide more accurate detection of bromine levels. You can ascertain the precise bromine levels by comparing the color of the liquid to the given color chart, which shows the liquid’s bromine concentration.
Wait
Waiting for the bromine to break down is the simplest technique to reduce the bromine level in your hot tub. When bromine levels are only slightly increased, you can simply wait for the bromine to gradually break down over the course of the following day or two.
Keep the spa or pool closed and let the bromine and water dissipate. Bromine should also be taken out of the water if you’re utilizing an automatic bromine dispenser.
Dilute Bromine With Water
If you have an indoor hot tub, it is not a good idea to let the sun take care of your bromine overload. Additionally, it can take several days for your bromine levels to balance if they are significantly higher than what is advised.
Another method for reducing bromine levels is to partially empty the tub and fill it with fresh water to dilute the water. You can balance the sanitizer by lowering the bromine concentration by diluting the water.
Use Sodium Thiosulfate
Sometimes sodium thiosulfate is referred to as a “neutralizer” for bromine. The sanitizer in your hot tub is effectively removed from the water by this chemical, which breaks it down.
Use sodium thiosulfate only if you need to fast lower the levels, in my opinion. It is simple to switch from an overdose of bromine to an underdose by adding too much sodium thiosulfate to your water.
Advantages And Disadvantages of Bromine In Hot Tubs
Bromine is widely used primarily in hot tubs because it works well with high temperatures of water. Even after all the pros of using bromine, there are a few misconceptions about it that users don’t know about. Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of using bromine in hot tubs.
Advantages
- Suitable for high temperatures: Bromine is more stable than chlorine in hotter water. In hot tubs and spas, where water temperatures are normally greater, it keeps its sanitizing qualities and efficacy. In general, bromine works best in water that is over 75 degrees.
- Stays for longer periods: Bromine evaporates more slowly, thus bromine levels can stay high for a longer period of time and you don’t need to add bromine as often.
- Safer to use: Compared to chlorine, bromine has a softer fragrance and is less prone to irritate the eyes and skin or produce harsh chemical odors.
Disadvantages
- Expensive: Because bromine is often more expensive than chlorine, it may not be the most cost-effective option for large swimming pools or spas.
- Sanitizes slowly: Compared to chlorine, bromine takes longer to activate and establish its sanitizing effect.
- Prone to UV rays: Both chlorine and bromine degrade in the presence of UV light, but bromine does so considerably more quickly, making it a better choice for indoor pools.
How To Maintain Bromine Levels In Hot Tubs
We cannot emphasize this enough, the single most crucial thing you can do to maintain the health of your hot tub and everyone who uses it is to develop and adhere to a water maintenance plan. Here is a daily, weekly, and monthly plan to maintain the hot tub and to ensure that the bromine levels are safe to use.
Daily: Two times every day, for at least an hour each, run your filter. You can let your hot tub run longer if you plan to use it that day to better filter out toxins brought in by people.
After every usage, you can also apply a dose of sanitizer or spa shock, if you choose. For your hot tub manufacturer’s suggestions, check the manual for the recommended usage.
Weekly: Take remove your filter and give it a thorough rinse in clean water; alternatively, you can use a filter cleaner. After testing your water, make any necessary adjustments to alkalinity, pH, sanitizer, and calcium chloride.
Always remember to test before adding anything since if you applied sanitizer during the week, you might not need to add a dose on the weekend.
Monthly: To get rid of biofilm, flush your hot tub’s circulation lines and jets roughly every three months with a line flush product. Drain all of the dirty water from your spa once the sludge and germs in your pipes are dead and circulating.
Then, fill your spa with new water after cleaning your hot tub and washing or replacing your filter cartridges. After you’ve refilled your hot tub, shock it and balance the water’s chemistry. Before entering the water for the first time, make sure to test it once more.
FAQs Related to Lower Bromine In Hot Tubs
Bromine cannot be neutralized by baking soda. Baking soda functions as a pH buffer, assisting in pH stabilization and reducing abrupt changes. It has no direct impact on the process of neutralizing or getting rid of bromine from the tub’s water.
Since bromine has a pH of about 4, it has the potential to modestly lower the pH of your hot tub if bromine levels are high. To boost the pH of your tub when this occurs, use sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate.
For hot tubs, the ideal bromine concentration is between 3-5 ppm, while for spas, it should be between 4-8 ppm. Going above this will lead to high bromine in water which will irritate and going lower this level will lead to less bromine concentration which will not sanitize the water.
You now understand the various techniques to successfully lower bromine in your hot tub, restore water balance and avoid related problems including skin and eye irritation, respiratory problems, and corrosion. You can build a clean, healthy hot tub for your friends and family to enjoy with the proper maintenance and attention.
