I have finally picked up my spa and while going through the manual it states to start up the spa do the following:

-balance the water (pH, Hardness, Alkalinity...)
-add the Spa Starter Blend to the spa

On top of that a Spa Started pack came with my tub, a bunch of chemicals.

Can anyone tell me what chemicals are used for “balancing the water”?

As what exactly is spa starter?

Cheers!

This is a bigger question than you might realize and should be covered by the dealer who sold you the spa.

the simple version:

Test your FILL water with the test strips provided.

Ph and alkalinity are what make up water "balance" if your water is out of balance on the high side, it can be scale forming.. much more common is water that is out of balance on the low side. This means your water is acidic and corrosive to your heater and any other metal parts.

Lets start with PH and alkalinity.
Your ph should be between 7.2 and 7.8
your alkalinity should be between 80 and 150

To raise both Ph and alkalinity use Baking soda.. regular arm and Hammer is fine.

Usually city water needs to be in the same parameters as spa water so chances are you are not going to need to lower it. If you are using well water that may be a different story.

If your fill water is in balance great.. just check it at least once every couple of days so that you can be sure the parameters have not been affected by something else you've added.

You need to have a sanitizer level of around 2 ppm minimum. You will add that. I dont know what sanitizer they set you up with .. bromine or chlorine or baquacil... My favorite sanitizer is Sodium Dichlor. If you have that in your box of tricks try that. sTart with a couple of tablespoons and see where that puts you.

If you are using bromine.. watch out for PH drift to the low side. Bromine can use up the buffering of your total alkalyinty quickly and will need to use more bicarb to maintain your balance

Run your jets on high for about 15 minutes after you add chemicals. then test again

All the other stuff in your startup kit is accessories.

Just remember that any product you add can affect the Ph.
and check it often... low ph is the biggest cause of heater failure and it can happen fast!

Barb

I figured it was loaded question, but thank you for your info.

The reason I ask is I am somewhat confused on how to start my spa because it is using a chlorine generator and not bromine etc. The instructions state "first balance your spa" then follow these instructions...

It was the generic balance part that I was confused about because I thought that meant using bromine or chlorine. I take it it does not however with your answer.