Sanitation System FAQ | Lifestyles Hot Tubs

No, and this is worth being clear about because it surprises people.

A salt water system works by generating chlorine from the salt in your water. The chlorine is still doing the sanitizing. What changes is where it comes from and how consistently it arrives. Instead of you adding chlorine in doses that spike and then fade, the system produces it steadily at a low level.

That consistency is the whole point. It is why salt water feels softer, why it does not smell like a public pool, and why owners report less eye and skin irritation. If you are looking to avoid chlorine entirely, a salt system is not the answer and you want to read the section on chlorine free options below.

Very little, and no.

The target salt level in a spa salt system is a small fraction of the salt concentration in sea water, and it sits below the level at which most people can detect salt in water at all. Owners consistently describe the water as feeling softer rather than tasting salty.

A salt system designed and approved for your specific spa will not damage it. What causes problems is salt added to a spa that was not built for it, or a system run outside its intended salt range.

The salt level in a properly run spa is low. At that concentration, in a spa with components selected for it, salt is not corrosive in the way people imagine. Where we do see trouble is with owners who add pool salt to a spa that has no salt system, or who let their salt level drift high and leave it there. If you own a spa with a factory salt system and you keep it in the range the control panel gives you, you are fine.

If you are not sure whether your spa is compatible, bring your model information into any of our showrooms and we will tell you.

The system itself is an upfront cost. After that, your ongoing cost is cartridge or cell replacement rather than a steady stream of bottled chemicals.

Most owners spend less per year on water care products with a salt system than without one, and they spend considerably less time on maintenance, which for a lot of people is the part that actually matters. Stop into any showroom and we can put real numbers next to each other for your specific model.

Less often than a chlorine spa, but not never. A salt system holds a steady baseline sanitizer level, which handles ordinary use, but it is not designed to catch up after a heavy load.

Shock after a party or any session with several people in the water, and as part of your routine care on the schedule in your owner’s manual. If your water has gone cloudy or developed an odor, that is your spa telling you it needs shocking rather than more time.

The one thing we would flag is that no system is completely hands off. A salt system still needs you to test your water, keep pH and alkalinity in range, and manage calcium hardness. It removes the weekly chore, not the attention.

Sometimes, and it depends on the model. Some spas can take a salt system as a retrofit, others were not built for it, and adding salt to a spa in the second group is how the horror stories start.

Rather than guess from a model number, send us your spa details or bring them into a showroom and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing. In some cases the answer is that the money is better spent elsewhere, and we would rather say that than sell you a system that will not serve you.

Salt is usually the easiest for day-to-day ownership, chlorine is the simplest and most budget-friendly way to get started, and bromine sits in between.

Chlorine works quickly and is easy to find and dose, but it needs regular testing and adjusting, and some people notice a stronger smell or skin and eye irritation. Bromine stays more stable in hot water, tends to be gentler on skin, and has a milder odor, though it usually costs a bit more and acts more slowly than chlorine. A salt system, such as the FreshWater Salt System offered on new Hot Spring spas, produces sanitizer from a small amount of salt, so you add far fewer chemicals and the water feels softer. The trade-off is a higher upfront cost and the need for compatible equipment.

Not sure which fits how you plan to use your spa? Stop by any Lifestyles showroom and our water care team will help you choose.

Yes, you can switch at any time. The key is to make a clean break rather than layering one sanitizer on top of another.

For most changes, such as moving from chlorine to bromine or the other way around, we recommend draining the spa, cleaning the filters, and refilling with fresh water before starting the new sanitizer. This avoids reactions between leftover products and gives the new system a clean start. If you are moving to a chlorine and bromine free option like BaquaSpa, a full drain and flush is especially important because Biguanide does not mix with chlorine or bromine.

Switching to a salt system is a little different. It requires a salt system that is designed for your spa, so check with us first to confirm whether your model is compatible.

Our water care team can walk you through the right steps for your spa and your water.

ACE was the salt water system on Hot Spring Highlife and Limelight spas built before 2017. It used a cell that owners cleaned periodically and eventually replaced.

The FreshWater Salt System is the current design. It uses a titanium cartridge that you remove and replace rather than clean, and the system is integrated into the spa rather than added on as a separate piece of equipment.

The practical difference for an owner is the maintenance routine. ACE owners clean a cell. FreshWater owners replace a cartridge. If you have been reading instructions that do not match what you are looking at, that is almost certainly why.

Yes. Your ACE equipped spa is still fully supported. Our service department works on these regularly and can tell you whether replacing a cell or looking at other options makes more sense for the age and condition of your spa. If your ACE system is not generating the way it used to, that is worth a conversation before you spend money on a cell.

A word of caution on replacement cells: there is a lot of aftermarket product sold online for these systems, and quality varies enormously. If you are going to replace a cell, get it from a dealer.

Yes. Ozone and UV are both supplemental.

They reduce how much sanitizer you need and help keep water clear, but neither one holds a residual sanitizer level in the water, and that residual is what actually protects bathers between uses. Every spa needs a primary sanitizer, whether that is chlorine you add, bromine, biguanide, or chlorine generated by a salt system.

Where ozone and UV earn their place is in cutting your chemical use and your workload. Treat them as a helper rather than a replacement and you will get the benefit without the surprise. For the products that pair with each system, see our Hot Spring water care and SilkBalance pages.

Ozone is introduced into the water after the heater as part of the circulation system. It oxidizes bacteria and organic material as the water passes through, which means your primary sanitizer has less work to do. A spa with a working ozone system generally uses noticeably less chlorine or bromine than the same spa without one.

Ozone equipment does not last forever. UV based units typically need a new bulb about once a year. Corona discharge units generally run several years before they need replacing.

This is worth knowing because of how the failure shows up. If your water suddenly needs more sanitizer than it used to and nothing else has changed, an ozone unit at the end of its life is a common culprit and one most owners never think to check. Our service department can test and replace these.

We do. We carry Baqua Spa, which is a water care system built around biguanide rather than chlorine or bromine. Biguanide is the same class of sanitizer used in some contact lens solutions, and it works without the odor people associate with chlorine.

Owners choose it for a few reasons. Some find it gentler on skin. Some simply dislike the smell of chlorine, particularly with an indoor spa where the odor has nowhere to go. If you have a known sensitivity to any sanitizer, that is worth raising with your physician rather than treating as a product question.

One thing to know before switching: biguanide systems are not compatible with chlorine, bromine or most ozone setups, so moving to it means a full water change and a different routine rather than a swap of one bottle for another. Any showroom can walk you through what the changeover involves.

It can, and this is worth knowing before you fill rather than after.

A lot of homes across Livingston, Genesee, Oakland and Shiawassee counties are on well water, and Michigan well water frequently carries iron and manganese. Those metals will stain a spa shell, tint the water, and shorten the working life of a salt cell or cartridge. Owners often blame the spa for something the fill water did.

If you are on a well, treat the fill water before it goes in. That means a pre filter on the fill hose and a metal sequestering product as you fill. Do it once, properly, and the rest of the year is far easier.

The single most useful thing you can do is bring us a sample of your well water. We will test it, tell you exactly what is in it, and build you a fill routine around it. After that it becomes a fifteen minute job at each water change instead of a running battle.

Water across southeast and mid Michigan is generally on the hard side, whether it comes from a municipal supply or a well, and high calcium hardness is the most common water chemistry issue we see in this region.

In a salt system specifically, high calcium leads to scale building up on the cell or cartridge. Scale reduces how much chlorine the system can generate and shortens the life of the part, so you end up replacing it sooner and wondering why your water is not holding.

The fix is straightforward once you know your numbers. Test your fill water, and if calcium hardness is high, use a calcium remover before the spa is filled rather than trying to correct it afterward. Our showrooms carry what you need and will test your water for you.

Yes. Our autoship program sends your water care products to your door on a schedule built around your spa and how much you use it, so you are not making an unplanned trip to a showroom in February because you ran out of something.

Bring us a sample and we will test it and tell you what your water needs. For the most accurate reading, fill a clean bottle from about elbow depth with the jets off, cap it, and bring it in the same day. It is worth doing at every water change and any time your water is behaving in a way you cannot explain.

For more on balancing and maintaining your water, see our Water Care FAQ.