Unlike traditional hot tubs which essentially chemical bomb the water, you should enter an ahhNatural tub clean. If it becomes overwhelmed with oil and bacteria, you may need to resort to chlorine to get it back to clean state. I have resorted to using chlorine on a few occasions, but only to get my water back to “normal”. When I do this, I remove the ahhNatural bag from the tub until most of the chlorine has dissipated.

ahhNatural specifies using hydrogen peroxide to shock the tub and keep it clean. I usually do this after refilling the tub. Over the course of using the tub, I use “MPS” – monopersulfate. There are a few forms of this compound on the market, which most pool supply stores will carry at least one. Essentially this uses oxygen, like peroxide, to keep the tub clean. You should experiment with various MPS brands. SpaDepot offers an MPS I have used consistently. However, I have found that when the water gets really dirty, you may eventually go through a large quantity of MPS. What I have noticed is that in large quantities, MPS will break down into some cloudy material. This may give you the impression that your water is dirty. It will eventually get filtered out, but you may need to resort to chlorine to get the tub back to normal. Too much MPS can wreak havoc with your pH too.

The biggest tip is that pH is critical. It is true that your ahhNatural water will stabilize to its preferred pH, which will likely differ greatly from the standard spa pH level. I have also lived in two areas where the water is quite different and can impact how easy it is to maintain your pH.

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Then I found Softub.

It looks a bit strange at first, but man – it was exactly what I was looking for. It’s totally not your typical hot tub. It plugs right into a standard wall outlet. It’s lightweight – I can carry it! It’s easy to assemble/disassemble – the motor (that protruding part in the photo) and the tub. Connect the three tubes, fill the tub and you’re off!

Not to mention, it’s called a Softub because it is soft – it’s made with marine grade vinyl and foam, so it’s lightweight, yet durable.

What is really innovative is how it’s heated. Unlike typical hot tubs that have separate heating elements, Softub uses the heat from the pump motor to heat the water. The result is a very cost efficient tub. I estimate it costs me $15/mo in electricity to operate (the site claims $10, but I suppose that depends on the cost of electricity where you live and the average outside temperature).

The design is a bit abnormal for traditionalists. It’s perfectly round and there are no “seats”. But it is soft! An the filter protrudes out from the side, inside the tub. But if you can get over those minor differences, you’ll love this.

For a little less than the price of a heavy, bulky, regular tub, you can have an easy to install, lightweight, portable hot tub. I’ve had mine for nearly three years now and it’s simply amazing!

Of course, there are some drawbacks. The lid on my model doesn’t go over the edge of the tub completely – as a result, rain water tends to leak into the tub, resulting in the water becoming dirty quick (or filling the tub up). One drawback to the unique heating method is that the tub doesn’t get hotter than 104 degrees F. This is probably acceptable for most soakers, but I would prefer a few more degrees. The air/bubble mechanism isn’t very robust, so don’t expect a “rolling boil”. Finally, the Softub product isn’t widely distributed, so you may not have a local service shop to call on – I had a minor problem under warranty and had to ship my motor.

All in all though, the Softub is well worth the investment.

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For $240 you get “the system” (best I can tell, you can only buy this at their site). The kit contains a perforated bag they call the “pad” (presumably some sort of rock mixture), sea salt, sodium bicarbonate, and vitamin C. The vitamin C was not labeled, so I only recently figured out what this was. Besides not knowing what was in the mystery bag, the rest of the kit seemed like grade school science.

Probably the biggest downfall to the whole system is the additional time and maintenance required. But I guess that should be expected – you’re not nuking your water, but going for a natural balance. I followed the instructions to prep my natural hot tub for the new approach – basically you need to clean everything thoroughly – kill all of the bacteria. The instructions recommend emptying the tub, but I did not – I just shocked it with some chlorine and cleaned the filter as they suggested. It appears the system relies on the mystery bag soaking up the sea salt and sodium bicarb to help clean the hot tub water – this step takes about a day in itself.

After the initial prep, it’s pretty much just like any other tub – except you have this bag in the bottom. You still need to play with your water for the first week or so to find the balance. I also found that you should clean your filter frequently for maximum benefit. You’ll find ahhNatural a little more demanding than normal chemicals – you need to clean and recharge the bag monthly and it is suggested to replace the bag annually (another $240).

While the instructions suggest using hydrogen peroxide for the chlorine alternative (it breaks down into water and oxygen), it also mentions using MPS (monopersulfate), they claim is a more concentrated peroxide. I found this stuff at my local spa store and it seems pretty effective. The instructions also suggest using a natural clarifier, like the Sea Klear brand, which I also found locally (or buy at ahhNatural). I use the MPS after every soak – a little goes a long way. And I use the clarifier when the water looks funky.

I would not recommend the ahhNatural system for people who want easy maintenance, although this isn’t much harder than the traditional method. The instructions suggest that heavy users probably won’t find this of great value, but I often soak after a sweaty day. As a result, I just need to clean the filter and use the clarifier more often.
All in all, this is a great natural hot tub, spa or pool water treatment alternative.

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