Top 5 Things You Should Not Do to Your Hot Tub

Energy House encourages our customers to get into their hot tub and relax and believe owning a HotSpring® Spa makes Every Day Made Better™. To keep enjoying your hot tub our service technicians recommend following these guidelines for what not to do to your hot tub. Regular maintenance of your hot tub could save our customers a call to our service department and costly repairs. Just like most valuables, you can extend the life of what you own if you take good care of it. For example, you would not leave your car sitting in the garage for months at a time without driving it, change the oil at the recommended mileage mark, and clean your car inside and out when it gets dirty. All of these things combined help down the road to having a better-looking vehicle that runs smoothly years later. A hot tub is a machine like your car that needs minimal maintenance to keep running smoothly.

1.       Do not skip out on routine water care: It is very important for your safety to maintain sanitary water of your hot tub. When it comes to water care, test the water weekly with a test strip and add spa water care based on your results. Another time to test the water is just before you get in to make sure the water is balancing out and ready to get in. If you smell an odor, see a green color, or suds in the hot tub, it is time to drain and refill, as the water is no longer sanitary.
2.     Do not forget to clean your filters: After talking with our service manager about the calls and scheduled backyard visits, he said about 70% of the time the issue is caused by dirty filters. The good news is that if customers clean their filters, they can prevent a technician from coming out to their hot tub. We sell two different types of filter cleaner one that is a spray and the other is a deep conditioning filter cleaner, either product works wonders. The filters should be cleaned every 2-4 months and replaced every 2-21/2 years. Also, another trick is to rotate the filters, meaning one filter runs the water with the circulation pump and the other filters with the jets. It is important to give this main filter a break by moving another filter in its place. The filter that runs the circ. pump will have a gray cap, so it is easy to identify. 
3.        Do not forget to care for your hot tub cover: Wipe the spa cover clean, we offer a cover spray that is formulated to keep your cover clean. Leave your cover open for an hour or so right after putting chemicals into the hot tub. Don’t let the cover get too heavy, this is especially important for those in areas where there is snow during the winter, such as: Shaver Lake, Squaw Valley, Oakhurst, and Bass Lake.  Pro tip: allow your cover to fully dry out once a month, this will help extend the life of your cover.
4.        Do not quit maintaining your hot tub: Do not forget to maintain weekly water care, clean your hot tub cover periodically, clean your filters every 2-4 months, and drain and refill hot tub based on use. If you can maintain a schedule for making sure that these steps are not completely forgotten in the mix of life, then you will have a well-functioning easy to use hot tub in your backyard. For our customer who use the salt sanitizing system, the hot tubs control panel will alert you when the salt in the water is getting low and needs to be replaced. Do not leave your hot tub full of water and not care for the water by testing and adding water care products. Do not turn the power off and leave the spa full of water, this can lead to freezing of the pipes, especially during winter months in places that snow. A frozen hot tub is a costly mistake. Change the silver ion cartridge every 4 months. Drain and refill as needed. This is based on usage; how many people are getting in the hot tub at one time and how often the hot tub is being used. A good indicator of when it is time to drain and refill is when the PH balances are getting off the scale more than your usual weekly maintenance seen on the test strip. 
5.        Do not use your hot tub as a bath: Another way to keep your hot tub water clean and ready for a soak is to not use your hot tub as a bath. If you had a long day or just went to the gym, your hot tub is not the first place that you should go. A quick rinse in the shower will be sufficient for you to be ready to hop in and relax. Same goes for wearing lots makeup and hair products, if you know there might be a chance of getting your face and hair in the water, leave the makeup and hair spray off or wear waterproof makeup. Same goes for lotions, sunscreen, sweat, dirt, etc. Your hot tub filters will thank you. Also, laundry detergents with lots of soap can easily create bubbles or foam in your hot tub. Rinsing your swimsuit with water after use will keep them clean and your hot tub foam free.

Light Up Your World

Add a little magic to your backyard with string lights that brings the "wow" factor. Having lights surround your hot tub also adds to the romance. As soaking in a hot tub is a sensory experience, with the hot tub mood lighting, Bluetooth music sound system built into your hot tub (select models only), the warm feeling of the water, and smell of the spa with our spa scents that come in many different varieties. The only sensory missing is taste, as we don't recommend drinking the hot tub water, might we suggest a small table on the side of the hot tub for after you get out to enjoy chocolate dipped strawberries in your bath robes. Strawberries are in season after all, one of the great benefits of the Central Valley's summer heat. 

Here is a picture of the Spazazz spa scents, there are other scents not pictured that might meet your fancy. Give us a call for the other scents and we can have a bottle ready for pickup along with your other water care items. 

It is important to know how to hang up your string lights even if you do not have a deck or covered patio. I'm sure there are more expensive ideas out there, however I like the idea of adding a wooden post into a cement bucket in order to have a place for your lights to string to. For those with a beautiful deck, take advantage with an even easier way to get those string lights up, by using what you have. There are also many different types of string lights out there to use, here is a list of the top 8 string lights in 2020.  This is one of those honey-do's that your honey will not mind doing. Simple, easy and transforms your backyard into a romantic staycation or fun social environment to make future entertaining more enjoyable. Tell us about your at home string light project and if the outcome was everything you were hoping.

Moms of Energy House

This Mother’s Day is obviously going to be a bit different than past Mother’s Days. The family gathering may not be as large and the traditions may be altered, however let us be sure to thank our moms for their hard work, as raising children is not easy. Sunday is just around the corner, do you have Mother’s Day plans in place for mom? The mom’s of Energy House explain what makes them happy to be a Mother and what they are doing for Mother’s Day.

Our Office Manager, Olivia Hinkle, has two sons Eric 43 years old and Steve 40 years old. Olivia said, “Steve was born the day after Mother’s Day and some years it falls onto the same day.” We then joked about how sharing his wife’s Mother’s Day with his birthday could be a lot going on in one day and how maybe splitting the day up could be a solution. When asked about her favorite part about being a Mom, Olivia said, “Watching them grow up and see how they both became great husbands and fathers.” This was also a similar response for the Father’s Day post created last year. All around we love to see what amazing adults the children become.

A fond family tradition of hers was to make sure that they gathered around the dinner table no interruptions, just good conversation asking about how their day went. The plans for Olivia’s family this Mother’s Day weekend will be different due to the pandemic, as they will be seeing their kids and grandchildren in the front yard looking out the window or by video chat. Normally, the family would celebrate with her Daughter-In-Law together in their home with the grandchildren there, except for Steve and his four children who live in Missouri.

Our Salesperson, Sandy Reed, has a daughter Lisa 45 years old and son Sean 50 years old. Sandy’s favorite part about being a mom is, “being together as a family and being able to at the same time be involved in our own things. For example, just the other day her son and daughter were playing guitar, completely different songs and sounds, and her granddaughter was making something with her sewing machine, all while I was cooking in the kitchen. They asked why I was so quiet and really, I just loved having them around and didn’t mind the different noises one bit, it felt like old times when they were just kids.

For Mother’s Day plans Sandy and her kids normally would go out to brunch and then go to the Japanese Tea Garden and then feed the ducks. This year, we are staying home cooking corn beef and we are going to plant flowers and maybe watch a movie. As Sandy lives with her daughter and granddaughter and still spends time with her son, she is still able to enjoy her family even during the highs and lows of this pandemic.

Our Marketing Coordinator and Office Assistant, Jacque Rejcek, has one son Grayson who is almost 2 and another little one on the way. When asked about her favorite part of being a mom she said, “The time spent with Grayson and just seeing how much he has grown really has felt accelerated. The best part is hearing those baby giggles and just how quickly he is catching on to everything that we do. His latest hobby has been putting his little chair into the kitchen and being able to watch us clean and cook. Simple chores seem exciting to him, at least for now. A happy memory with our family is of us sitting around the dinner table and playing Queen we will rock you, while banging on the table and clapping our hands to the beat and singing along.

For plans for Mother’s Day, “I’m not sure what we will be doing, most likely my husband will cook breakfast and we will go on a walk around our neighborhood.” As a pregnant mom with one busy toddler, I recommend for any family’s with younger children, a day to spend time with family and squeeze in some her time to relax maybe even take a nap.

No matter how grown up your kids are, give mom some extra love this holiday. These are stressful and testing times for many parents, especially for those whose kids are at home and mom has taken on the role of parent and teacher. Also, many moms are provider or are unable to work currently. Let us help our family, friends, and neighbors in any way we can. Remember to shop local to help small businesses stay afloat during these times, keep our local economy flowing. Have a Happy Mother’s Day Energy House customers!