Yikes! You turn your spa jets on, and suddenly your spa becomes a giant foam machine–or a latte gone wild. First, you scream at the kids asking who dumped soap into the spa. But you don’t have any kids and your spa doesn’t smell soapy.
1) Now ask yourself, how long ago did I drain my spa? Why? High Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) will cause foam. If your TDS reading (which you can have tested at your local spa shop) is over 1500 ppm, it’s time to dump the water, clean your spa, and start anew again.
2) Have you cleaned or replaced your spa’s filter in recent memory? If you draw a blank on this question, go directly to your spa’s filter, check it out and if it is anything but lilly white, it’s time to clean it. You can hose it off, but I recommend purchasing a filter cleaning solution from your local spa dealer, like Leisure Time Filter Clean.
Also if your filter has been servicing your spa for over 18 months, it may be time to replace it.
3) Calcium hardness is another cause of foam in your spa. If the calcium hardness is less than 200 ppm, bring it up with a calcium increase product, like Leisure Time’s Calcium Increase.
4) Have you diligently shocked your spa’s water? If not, the foam can easily be reduced with a good shock treatment using a non-chlorine shock, which you can find at your spa dealer. Shock your water, at the very least, once a week.
5) If you are missing a container of dish soap–well, it’s time to deal with the gremilins gone wild.
Pool & Spa Master 