Hot Tub & Pool Service in Murray, Utah
Hot tub and pool service in Murray, Utah. Four utilities serve Murray, and Murray City water has high alkalinity that makes pH hard to hold. We test each visit.
Ask two Murray homeowners a mile apart what comes out of their hose and you may get two different answers, because they may be on two different water systems. That is the first thing to know about hot tubs in Murray, and it is why we test rather than assume.
Which water do you have?
Murray City’s own water district map shows four separate utilities operating inside city limits:
| Utility | Where it tends to be |
|---|---|
| Murray City Water | Most of the city core |
| Salt Lake City Public Utilities | Portions, mostly toward the east and north edges |
| Jordan Valley Water | Portions toward the west and south |
| Taylorsville-Bennion | A western edge |
Your water bill says which one you are on. It matters because the four systems draw from different sources and arrive at the tap with different chemistry. What follows is about Murray City water, since that is what most of Murray has. If you are on Salt Lake City water, the Millcreek page covers that supply.
Murray City water: the alkalinity problem
Murray City Water runs 27 sources, 19 deep wells and 8 springs near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, and publishes its results as a single system-wide average rather than by source. The headline number the city itself uses is an average hardness of 194 milligrams per liter, or 11.4 grains per gallon, which it describes as moderately hard. Most people hear that and think scale.
Scale is not actually the problem here. Look at the calcium on its own: Murray averages about 54 milligrams per liter of calcium, which works out to roughly 135 parts per million of calcium hardness on a hot tub test strip. The spa target is 150 to 250. Murray fill water is, on average, slightly low on calcium hardness for a spa. It may need calcium added, not removed.
The number that matters is total alkalinity. Murray City averages about 139 milligrams per liter, and the high end of the range reaches 313. A hot tub wants 80 to 120. Fill water at 139 is already above the range, and a fill from one of the higher wells can be nearly three times it.
Alkalinity is the water’s resistance to pH change. When it is high, pH becomes stubborn. You add reducer, the pH drops, and a day or two later it has crept back up. Owners on Murray City water who keep fighting pH and losing are usually not doing anything wrong. The water is over-buffered from the tap, and until alkalinity comes down, pH will not stay put.
The pH itself, by the way, is fine. Murray averages 7.7, comfortably inside the 7.2 to 7.8 spa range. It is the buffer under it that causes the trouble.
What this means in practice
Order of operations. On a Murray City fill, we bring alkalinity down first and let pH follow. Doing it in the other order wastes chemical and does not hold. That is the sequence on every routine visit, not just after a refill.
Calcium may need to go up, not down. Counterintuitive for water the city calls moderately hard, but the strip does not lie. We test calcium hardness every visit and add if it is under range.
Dissolved solids shorten the clock. Murray water averages about 375 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids, and the range runs up to 944. Dissolved solids are everything left behind when water evaporates, and a hot tub accumulates them from every chemical dose. A tub filled from a high-solids Murray well starts with less room before the water is too loaded to balance. Three months between drains is a safer target than four for many Murray tubs.
It varies by street and by season. With 27 sources feeding one system, what reaches your tap depends on which wells and springs are running. The city’s published range is wide: hardness from under 5 grains to over 27, alkalinity from 79 to 313. Two neighbors can fill on different weeks and get different water.
Murray neighborhoods we service
The routes run through the established streets around Murray Park and Vine Street, the Cottonwood area on the east side toward the Millcreek line, the neighborhoods behind Fashion Place and along Van Winkle, and the homes around Wheeler Farm at the south end. Murray has a lot of mid-century houses on generous lots, which means a lot of tubs that have been in the same spot for decades and a fair number of older backyard pools.
We are based in Millcreek, so a Murray stop is about ten minutes from home. Thursday and Friday routes.
Services in Murray
- Routine hot tub maintenance, $75 a visit
- Pool and swim spa maintenance, $110 a visit
- Drain, clean, and refill, $275 flat
- Deep cleaning and repair, hourly, quoted after we look
Routine visits include chemicals. On a Murray City fill that usually means alkalinity reducer, and on this water it can take a fair amount, which is our problem rather than yours. A drain and refill bills chemicals at cost.
Book a visit or call. Tell us which utility you are on and we will know what to expect before we open the cover.