hey everyone eric here from nomadic fanatic i hope you guys are doing well out there
today we're going to be talking about this
awesome device right here and why you may want to get one and i'm going to show you
the easiest most simplest way to take care of one of these portable hot tubs coming right up
yes hi everyone i'm going to be uploading this video with some nomad internet there's
a link below in the video description if you need some mobile unlimited internet
for the road or whatever so yeah today we're talking about my intex portable hot tub that
i love so much i'm going to share with you today how i maintain this guy exactly because
in my experience it looks like all the other people who own these are for some reason making
it some kind of a secret thing where they even lie about the chemicals and how they actually keep the
water clean so look there's no other video like this on youtube i can promise you today i'm going
to show you step by step exactly what i do to keep this water clean i'm going to show you the exact
chemicals and procedure and timeline for how i keep crystal clear hot water 104 degrees in this
portable hot tub by intex some more information will be at the end of the video if you are looking
for one of these neat things but this is an intex model here they also come from coleman sally spa
but the intex brand is definitely my favorite i've owned a couple of these now as you can see it's
an inflatable hot tub that has a cover that has locking caps yes all of six of these are locking
so that children cannot get in when you're not around and the heater system over here is right
here it is 104 degrees right now which is the max hot temperature we'll get into all the settings of
that later but it plugs into a standard 110 volt outlet you do not need to wire a 220 outlet just a
regular outlet now for that reason it does take a little bit of extra time to heat this up initially
like i filled it up with water the water was 44 degrees from the spigot here at base camp
it took a full 48 hours to get above 100 degrees so it does take some time to get there but
you can't beat it because you don't have to have an electrician come out and wire you a 220 volt
just plugs into any standard grounded outlet and as i mentioned at the beginning of this video
for some reason there's a ton of misinformation out there for some reason people are not being
honest about these things like they don't tell you how they really keep the water crystal clear and
maintain things so we're gonna go through the exact chemicals that i use and how often i use
them and i'm gonna share this with you first let me take the cover off since i'm here at base camp
by myself i don't lock these individually i just keep them unlocked all the time so it's just a one
handed job now to bring it to open it up all right and then we'll remove the top cover which again
has an inflatable inside here to help keep the temperature of the hot tub
now as you look in here you will see that that water is pretty darn clean it has been in here for
nearly three weeks now three weeks of the same water and the longest i've ever
done is two months with the same exact water i've got my little floaty in here
okay and this floaty takes tablets i'm using bromine tablets but you could also use chlorine
if you choose there are two filters you'll see the one on the bottom there
that's a light on top it's actually a waterproof led light that looks really cool at night
and there is the second filter there more on those in just a second the control panel over
here allows you to set your desired temperature oh that's not the right button that's the right
button for temperature okay turn that back on turn the heat back on and if you want the bubbles
and you can probably see the steam is rising a lot more now also
now hang on before we get too far into the maintenance of the hot tub itself let's talk
about one point because this does surprise people a lot if you're used to a conventional hot tub
like a hard sided hot tub that's 220 volts you have jets and those are jetting out hot water
into your back and massaging you whereas these are simply pushing out exterior air
in a bubble form because there's a strip along the bottom and again it's going to be whatever
temperature it is outside because the pump back there is gathering the ambient air out here so
if it's 40 degrees at night and you're in there and you're in your back's really close to it
those bubbles can feel a little cold so there are some drawbacks to these inflatable hot tubs
but i mean if it's 50 60 degrees outside those bubbles feel so good on my lower back i even
stretch my feet out and get a little foot massage from from the other ends and stuff like that so
more on the hot tub specifics here in just a second let's talk about exactly how i care
for my hot tub to show you what's on this table these are the only products i use i promise you
s1 filters they do not need to be in texts but do not just go online
and get any brand you want that look the same because you're bound to find
these guys right here which look like the same thing they are type d filters these are bad
they do not fit they are a different size than your s1 filters that go into these hot tubs so
these are available at walmart i can reuse them and make them last about two weeks and i will
show you how to do that we've also got the bromine tablets again if you choose to go with chlorine
that's fine i just personally prefer bromine because the chlorine makes my eyes water plus once
you turn the bubbles on in the hot tub if you had chlorine in there the bubbles and the air and the
heat and the moisture and the steam they're going to find a way to get into your eyes anyway i have
found and i only lasted about three days with chlorine the very first time i got one of these
and then i switched to bromine real quick they do the same thing it's just a lot less irritable the
other chemical i use quite often is the d foamer this you will have to use if like your shorts
or your bathing suit had too much soap in them it didn't get rinsed in the washing machine too much
or other things like oil on your skin or sunscreen or or somebody had makeup or something
ph plus i've used a couple times honestly i think we can put that over there i don't think i use
that very oft and then the spa clarifier say your spa is a little cloudy and see how you can kind of
see a little bit of foam there too that d foamer will take care of that but if it's a little cloudy
in here i'll use the clarifier if it's very cloudy in here hang on and uh your pool spa test strips
here which i do every single day i'm here at base camp it's okay to skip a couple days but i check
it every single day not a whole lot on here i care about there's seven different things but we are
looking at the bromine levels the pink right there and also down here the ph levels and oftentimes
the only thing i've had to do is add a little more ph with this guy but that's very rare actually for
for my experience and i am going to be honest with you having a hot tub and carrying it for yourself
takes a little bit of effort you have to work on this every single day that's right once
every single day you have to clean these filters are you hearing me right if you wait two days
you may lose those filters they may get too bad let me show you how to look at these filters all
right you're gonna turn off the heater and the pump reach into there and unscrew them
unscrew both of them all right let's take a look at these sometimes one is worse than the other
that one's not too bad for one day this one is probably going to look a little worse for
some reason and indeed it does as you can see it is dirty pretty easy to clean these though
just going to use a standard hose and spray them out
something like that we're good to go and like i say i can get about two weeks out of these filters
before having to change them you might even get longer all right and once we get both filters
reattached on there we'll turn the pump back on and the heat and like i say every time i'm here
at base camp with the hot tub i put a test strip in there and test those levels and how you do
that is turn the bubbles on initially for about 15 seconds just to kind of get all the water agitated
and then drop one of these strips in make sure your fingers are not wet when you reach into this
thing put one of those strips in there swirl it around for about five seconds bring it out
shake it off and check your levels all right and the only two things i care about on this strip is
the far right side over here where the orange is at that is the ph level which looks to be once
again a little low and the bromine right there the middle pink which is right there where it's
supposed to be so we need to add some ph one of the things about all of these chemicals is
that you need to wait 30 minutes before adding a different chemical so i'm going to start with my
ph i always start with my ph before doing anything else and i am just kind of you know looking at the
colors and trying to fix it i may have to do it again in 30 minutes but keep the filter on but
don't turn the bubbles on after you add the ph up and then after 30 minutes turn the bubbles back on
check your levels my ph is in a good spot so i'm happy with that the bromine in the floater there
you're just kind of eyeing it right before that tablet goes out i usually add another one on top
of it and then i don't keep that floater in while i'm using the hot tub but overnight and everything
before i put the cover on i put the floater back in and just let it do its thing as long as i keep
up with adding a little bit of ph maybe once a week a tablespoon or so and keeping up with the
bromine i really have no problems unless i have a friend come and use it and they have some soap
or some extra oils or something different that affects it usually like i say the clarifier or
the d foamer will fix that however sometimes you're still going to have cloudy water in
what do you do at that point well you gotta shock your hot tub i know that sounds like a crazy weird
thing but even me sometimes i get behind sometimes i leave the house for three four five days without
maintaining my hot tub and it does get a little cloudy on that day i can't use my hot tub because
i'm going to use four in one shop and this stuff's available at walmart believe it or not in the
pool section just make sure you get shock that is bromine safe and make sure that the shock is okay
on vinyl hot tubs and pools there's directions on the back for how much to use so for that you
need to know how many gallons your hot tub holds in this case it holds 177 gallons and i need a
half a cup of this stuff it is very powerful stuff you do not want to have it anywhere near your nose
when you're pouring your measurements because it is painful to get this stuff in your nose at all
so there is very specific directions for this i'm not going to do it today because i don't need to
do it but essentially you're not going to use your bubbles at all once you add this you're a
little half a cup of this stuff you sprinkle over the top of the hot tub and leave it alone you can
keep your heater and your pump on that's fine but this stuff does not do well if it's agitated with
bubbles also you need to keep the lid off of your hot tub for three or four hours i like five or six
hours i'm just not going to use the hot tub on the day i use this anyway i'll use it the day after
but you can't have the lid on which means you're probably going to lose some temperature also so
that's again that's why i don't use the hot tub on days where i shock my hot tub but the next
day when i come out and i check everything that water has been clear every single time i've never
had to empty my hot tub because i couldn't get rid of the cloudiness it's always worked with
this as a last resort another thing you're going to want to do regularly is have a little spa net
here so you can skim stuff off the top of the hot tub on a regular basis believe it or not
every time you get in and out of your hot tub your feet are going to have some
they're going to have something on them and you're going to bring something in there alternatively
you could bring a hose around and every time you exit and re-enter your hot tub you can just spray
your feet off before you get back in but in my case that didn't really help a whole lot because
i still had to use this net at least a couple times a day this works great for getting stuff
off the surface but if you are a hot tub owner you'll notice some stuff stays on the bottom
how do you get that stuff that's on the bottom eric the sand the pine needles all that kind of
stuff i waited several months thinking i could find a better way to get sand and debris off
the bottom it just doesn't work the only way to do it is with one of these intex rechargeable
waterproof submergible vacuums and it really really works well it charges by dc i think these
are about 54 bucks on amazon comes with a long telescoping pool pole so you can use it on the
pool or the hot tub all you do is switch this lever right here over to the one and as you'll
see it's still not making any noise it's not activated until you actually submerge it in water
now you probably can't even hear it doing its thing but you see the
debris i'm gonna go over right now i'm going to go like that come back she gone
let's see there's a few more little things over there i'm going to go over all those
they go a few more little pieces over here just going to roll right over them and they're gone
also i like to just kind of go around the edge because underneath the bubble rack there you can
also get some more sand and debris and then you do need to empty the cartridge of that little
vacuum cleaner out after every single use that's super easy you know like i said there's no way to
keep debris from getting in the hot tub it's gonna happen you're just gonna have to think about that
and remove it so we've been over all the chemicals that i use to maintain my hot tub it's super easy
however if all of those don't work even the shock doesn't work and you still have nasty water inside
it's not the end of the world it's only 177 gallon capacity on this particular model here just empty
it and put new water in and start over it's no big deal however one thing i forgot to mention is that
once a week uh when i am done using this for that time like i've already spent 30 45 minutes in the
hot tub and i'm ready to get out once a week i grab my little scrubber okay and this thing is
quite flexible i sit in the hot tub i go around and i clean the entire sides of the hot tub while
scooting my butt around the hot tub once i'm done with that i get in the middle of the hot tub and
i scrub from the middle to all the edges and and scrub all of the dead skin and other stuff that's
on the side of the hot tub to get it off then i get out of the hot tub then i turn the bubbles
on on the hot tub to stir that all up and then i get my net again and clean all that out and also
go take a shower i pretty much always take a nice shower after i'm done using the hot tub because
you have those chemicals on you and i think that a cat might like lick my arm i think jax has tried
it a couple times in the past so you don't want to have those chemicals on you if you have pets
because they'll they'll lick the chemicals off at night but that's how i keep my hot tub clean these
hot tubs are not perfect but with just a little bit of work to them and a little bit of effort
i've enjoyed every second of this and if you have one of these and notice that i forgot to say
something or you have a better idea or advice or a shortcut or just any other help please put that
in the video description below i'm sure there'll be a lot more helpful information out there that's
just how i do it just trying to think if that's everything before i go hop in my swimming suit
yeah my biggest tip make sure whatever you wear in there is completely rinsed but you will notice
that as you're using it the temperature is going to continue to drop for me personally if i spend
45 minutes in this and use the bubbles i will go from 104 degrees to like 95 or 96 degrees in just
45 minutes it drops really really quick all it's also been cold outside i usually only use this
at night so that is my intex four person portable inflatable hot tub and people have been asking me
lately why i haven't been putting links anymore in my video descriptions for these products
well i myself and many of my other rv friends uh got booted from amazon they just said we are
terminating your affiliate status basically i how do i say this the right way as an influencer that
reaches a lot of people i have the power to drastically affect amazon's inventory
and warehouse that's basically how it says i help sell them too much stuff is basically what they're
saying in the last couple years before i got booted from the affiliate program nearly every
link i would put in the video description got sold out in a matter of hours and then my viewers would
be like eric your link doesn't work what's wrong with you well i can't control amazon's and i don't
work for amazon i can't control their inventory their their links change often enough so the
best information i can provide for you is shop around maybe you can get an open box on amazon
or a used no don't get a used one but ebay sometimes sells them but amazon has free shipping
so i mean if you're really really looking to get one i'll put the model number of what i have here
in the video description the model number and that way you can find and shop for it yourself
i wish i could get a little cut back but i'm just sharing it to help also the chemicals
again will be in the video description for everything i used so that's about it that's
how i care for my portable hot tub and i love it when i'm not using it when i leave base camp for
six to eight months deflate it or empty the water out deflate it dry it all off throw it in the shed
easy peasy i'm gonna get my swimming trunks oh yeah you wouldn't like it it's amazing
if it is pretty cold outside i can turn the bubbles off and enjoy it without the bubbles but
it's definitely not the same thanks for watching guys
hmm