Hot Tub Service & Repair – How Often Do You Need One?

Coming home after a long day, grabbing your fluffy robe, and climbing into your hot tub to have the jets melt your stress away is possibly one of the best ways to recover from your busy day.

But what happens if, when you lift your cover, you discover your water has gone murky, smells bad, or worse of all, is cold?! 

This may signal that you need a hot tub service or that one or more of your parts may need to be repaired!

The good news is that problems should be rare when you purchase a high-quality hot tub from leading brands, such as the ones in our showrooms.  

When they do happen, you’re not alone in facing them, and they can often be repaired quickly, letting you get back to your regularly scheduled spa session. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss the steps you can take to minimize the risk of hot tub problems developing and what you should be watching for so you know when it’s time to call in the hot tub service professionals. 

How Often Will I Need My Hot Tub Serviced?

Maintaining your hot tub and keeping it running in prime condition will require regular maintenance, which can often be completed on your own to support the day-to-day state of your spa. 

If you miss steps in your regular hot tub maintenance schedule, you’re more likely to discover issues with your hot tub that can require a professional service to help get you back up and running properly. 

When you create your maintenance schedule, be sure to break things down into how often they need to occur. 

To make this easy, we’ve compiled a short list of items that should be completed at various intervals. 

Weekly

• Water temperature check 
• Test your pH and alkalinity levels 
• Shock your water 
• Wipe the exposed surfaces
• Check your water level
• Rinse your filter

Monthly

• Deep clean your filters
• Inspect your jets & seals
• Clean inside and outside of your hot tub cover

Quarterly

• Drain
• Deep clean your shell
• Flush the pipes 
• Refill 
• Balance the water chemistry

If you’re keeping up with these steps, you shouldn’t experience issues with your hot tub very often, and you’ll be maximizing its lifespan with ease.

6 Ways to Know If Your Hot Tub Needs To Be Professionally Serviced

If you’ve been keeping up to date with your maintenance routine but still seem to be experiencing certain issues, it’s best to call in a professional service technician to help get your hot tub back in top condition.

Here are six things that can signal it’s time to give your local dealership a call to book a service appointment. 

1. Leaking

If you’ve been keeping an eye on your water levels and they need to be topped up often, it may be due to a water leak somewhere in your system. 

Leaks can be difficult to diagnose. It could be from a leaking pipe or, even worse, a crack in your hot tub. 

The problem is that if it’s due to a small crack, it can be difficult to spot during an inspection but can cause significant problems.

If you want to be sure you’ve taken every step possible before calling a technician, check all the pipes in your system for leaks, then drain the hot tub and thoroughly inspect your shell. 

If you find a crack, call our technicians to come out and repair it, or schedule a technician to come out and diagnose and repair the problem if you cannot find the culprit behind your leak. 

2. Temperature Changes

While body temperature water is great for kids when they play in a hot tub, it certainly doesn’t give the relaxing, stress-reliving experience you’d expect to get out of your spa when you settle in for your steamy evening soak. 

If you’ve lifted your cover only to discover your water has gone cold or isn’t nearly as warm as it should be, it may be a sign that your heater needs to be repaired or replaced or that there is a problem with your control panel. 

Check your heater for a corroded burner, and call a service technician to stop by and check your system for any issues that may be the cause of your cold water. 

3. Weak or No Jet Pressure

One of the first things people do when they lean back in their hot tub seat is turn on the jets and let go of all their stress as they get a personalized, deep tissue massage. 

But what if you turn them on and nothing happens? 

Or maybe it’s just a gentle stream that comes out. 

Either way, this can be caused by several factors, including an airlock, clogged pipes, dirty filters, or a buildup of debris in your jets. 

If you want to try to troubleshoot the issue yourself before calling a service technician, you can try a few things. 

First, take out your filters and give them a good clean. 

You’ll want to check your jets as well for any buildup of debris or any corrosion around them. If they look good, but your jets still aren’t functioning properly, there is one last thing you can try before it’s time to schedule an appointment. 

Open all your jets and turn them on full for 10-15 seconds at a time until you begin seeing bubbles. Once you see bubbles, leave them on high until all the air has been released.

If this still doesn’t seem to fix the problem, or the bubbles never seem to start coming out of your jets, it’s time to call in the professionals to diagnose and repair the issue. 

4. Error Codes

Hot tubs have come a long way over the years and have high-tech devices to help discover and notify you of any issues that may be occurring that you’re unaware of. 

If you’ve noticed your hot tub displaying error codes, it’s important to take note of what they’re communicating to you and do a quick follow-up. 

If you’re unsure of what a code means, give us a call, and we can help you troubleshoot it over the phone or book a service appointment if it will require a more in-depth diagnosis and signals potential repairs.

Some of the most common error codes you may see include:

• DRY: Your water level is low
• COOL: Your water temperature is too low
• OH: Your water temperature is too high
• FLO: There is something wrong with your water pressure

5. Frequent Dirty Water

The quality of your water is one of the most important aspects of your hot tub and can have long-term effects on your system if it’s frequently dirty or unbalanced. 

Dirty water can take various forms, from a foamy surface, a cloudy appearance or algae blooms beginning to develop!

There are some common issues for this problem and some steps you can take to verify it’s not a more serious issue. 

The first thing you should try is treating your water with a shock treatment. 

If this doesn’t seem to clear up your water, you can take it a step further by completing a full deep clean on your system.

Drain your hot tub and clean your shell, ensuring you use a quality shell cleaner and thoroughly rinse it off afterward. At this time, you’ll also want to remove your filters, cleaning them under running water and leaving them to soak in filter cleaner.

If your water is quick to return to its dirty state even after refilling and rebalancing your water, it may be time to schedule a hot tub service appointment to get the issue diagnosed and repaired right away. 

6. Off Putting Water Smell

The water in your hot tub will always have a distinct smell to it, often a light scent of chlorine or some other sanitizing product. 

However, your hot tub should never smell so bad that it shocks you or seems like an assault on your senses! 

If you’ve lifted your hot tub only to discover your water is not smelling normal, there can be a few things happening. 

Your chemical levels may be too high, often resulting in your hot tub creating the suffocating smell of chlorine you’d find at the local public pool or gym. Identifying this is as easy as testing the chemical levels of your water and treating them accordingly. 

Often, your water may smell bad and have high chemical levels simply because the cover was put on after treatment and trapped the gases in, overloading the water. 

Remember to always leave your cover off after treating your water for at least 30 minutes to off-gas the chemicals as they do their job. 

Your water may also smell bad if you have a clog in your pipes, your filters are dirty, or your pump isn’t working properly. All these problems result in your water sitting stagnant, which is the perfect environment for bacteria to develop and get out of control, leaving you with foul-smelling water. 

Try cleaning out your filters and inspecting your system for any issues. You can try doing a full water change and shell clean as well. If it’s being caused by blocked pipes or a faulty pump, your fresh water will end up sitting stagnantly as well, resulting in the same issue recurring. 

If this is the case, schedule an appointment immediately for a hot tub service to avoid your water causing any damage to your shell or system. 

Hot Tub Service and Repair in New Jersey

If your hot tub has developed any of these issues, or you simply want someone to come by and give your hot tub an inspection to catch any issues early before they become a problem, our team of hot tub service professionals is here to help. 

Hot Tub Central is your go-to hot tub dealer and service provider with showrooms and hot tub service technicians in Toms River, Oakhurst, and Manalapan. 

If you’ve been considering investing in a top-quality hot tub or are looking for a reliable, professional hot tub service provider to perform regular maintenance on your existing spa, get in touch with us, or visit your local showroom.