The Maintenance Involved with the ACE Saltwater System

“It’s a saltwater system, you won’t have to do anything with it!” We’ve all heard it, haven’t we? While a saltwater system is indeed less maintenance, it is not “maintenance free”. Hot tubs are just like cars or houses or cell phones; in order to keep them looking and working they did when they were new, there’s a little work involved. We’re going to give you the truth about what upkeep entails with an ACE Saltwater System:

Ongoing Maintenance

• Test the spa water with a 5-way strip at least once per week. This test strip should include alkalinity, pH, free chlorine, hardness levels, and bromine. (You won’t actually need to test for bromine, but it just comes along with the test strip.)
• Use the Vanishing Act calcium remover pillow to reduce hardness to 50ppm* as needed. If there’s too much calcium in the water, it will start to stick to the salt cell and diminish the spa’s ability to function properly.
• Adjust the output setting to maintain clean and clear water based on usage.

30 Day Check-Up

• Have your local dealer test your water for pH and alkalinity, then add chemicals accordingly.
• Confirm the ACE Saltwater System output level. This is very simple. You just need to move the output level up or down, and then back to your typical setting. The tub just wants you to confirm that you’re aware of what the output it set at and it may let you know with a slow flashing a green light.

Every 90 Days

• Clean the ACE Salt Cell. For directions on this process, we suggest viewing this YouTube video by Hot Spring Spas.  
• Visually inspect the ACE cell for calcium buildup between the plates. If your water hardness is over 50ppm, we suggest you do this monthly. Calcium buildup would look like a white, crusty substance attached to the cell. If your Calcium hardness has been maintained between 0-75ppm, buildup is unlikely.

There you have it: the truth about the maintenance involved with an ACE Saltwater System. In the end, the ACE Saltwater System is significantly less maintenance than a traditional hot tub and once you go ACE, you’ll never want to go back. We hope this to-do list helps you to understand what needs to be done to keep your hot tub running as smoothly and efficiently as possible! Happy hot tubbing!

*ppm stands for “parts per million” and is simply a way to measure the mass of a chemical in a body of water
**This list does not include other hot tub maintenance tasks such as cleaning the filters, this is only what’s involved with the ACE Saltwater System.