How To Use Your Test Strips

One key aspect of spa pool ownership is making sure the water is always clean, clear, and inviting. This task will be virtually impossible without having a bottle of Spa Pool Test Strips on hand to test the levels of key chemicals that are present in your spa’s water. These strips will provide a color-based reading on five parameters that make up your water chemistry. In this article, we will discuss how to use these test strips effectively, and what these parameters are actually measuring in your spa’s water. We must remind readers of the importance around keeping your test strip bottle lid securely closed, so the strips can function optimally.

Note: You may notice that some of these parameters show the letters ‘ppm’. This is a measurement scale that means parts per million. Essentially, this is telling you how much of something is present in your water. If you have 1 part per million, then you have 1mg of that substance per litre of your water.

How To Use Your Test Strips

To start, you will simply pick a test strip out of your bottle, and dip it into the centre of the spa water, before holding it there for approximately ten seconds. Following that, you will pull the test strip out of the water, flick off any residual droplets and wait 30 seconds to see your results. You will now be able to compare these results to the key provided on the back of the test strip bottle, just like our example above.

Total Hardness – Total hardness or calcium hardness relates to how much calcium and magnesium are dissolved in your spa pool water. These chemicals are found in most sources of water, but too much or too little in your spa pool can be problematic.

Total Alkalinity (TA) – TA refers to the total amount of alkaline chemicals (carbonates, bicarbonates & hydroxides) currently dissolved in your spa pool water. You are aiming to have your total alkalinity between 80 and 120ppm – failure to maintain this can cause corrosion of spa parts, as well as difficulty balancing your water.

pH – As you may remember from high school chemistry, pH, is a measurement of how acidic or basic a substance is. The lower your reading is, the more acidic your water. High readings mean very basic water, we’re aiming for a sweet spot in the middle of the scale, somewhere in the range of 7.2 and 7.8.

Why Do We Ignore the Chlorine Reading?

These test strips assume your spa pool is equipped with an automatic sanitiser such as Ozone or a U.V. system. Such systems may breakdown certain parts of the sanitiser that is picked up on the test strip, resulting in blank results for Free & Total Chlorine. Instead, simply ensure you follow our chlorine dosing plan, which is outlined in your Water Care Handbook, this will provide ample sanitisation for your spa pool.

After you have discovered which chemicals your water needs and applied them in their respective quantities, you will want to ensure your cover is off and then turn on your spa jets to help your chemicals circulate. After allowing about an hour for your chemicals to dissolve and do their work, you will want to test your water again and observe the changes in your water’s chemistry. With your parameters now in check, all there’s left do is enjoy a luxurious soak in your glistening spa pool!