Located in Bothell, Washington, SeaKlear, a division of HaloSource that develops specialty chemicals for pools and spas, started in 1985 producing a natural clarifier unique to the market at the time. Finding a way to use the crab shell remains from seafood processing plants as the active ingredient, it’s now one of the most popular clarifiers.
“From there, we just built a line of products that are very efficient,” says Terry Arko, recreational water specialist for SeaKlear. “Our motto is ‘use less to get more efficiency’ so we have more
concentrated premium products in our line.”
Among those products is the Spa Stain and Scale Control.
While it’s been on the market for about three years, it’s just recently gaining notable traction in the industry. “When you deal with hot tubs, they’re pretty notorious for staining and scaling, primarily because you’re dealing with hot water that has a high evaporation rate,” Arko explains. “Anytime you have that, you’re going to get a buildup of calcium and things that will contribute to scale. Our product is designed to interfere with that process. It doesn’t allow the calcium to solidify and form on things.”
In keeping SeaKlear’s goals to offer low-maintenance products, Spa Stain and Scale Control is relatively simple for the consumer: Two ounces per week added to 300- to 800-gallon hot tubs. The 32-ounce bottle has measurements on the side in two-ounce increments, so users simply look at the side of the bottle and pour what they need.
The motivation to keep things simple is fueled by consumer desire to do the same. “People are just overwhelmed with chemicals, in particular with hot tubs,” Arko says. “They don’t buy their hot tubs because they want to be chemists and do all the mixing and adding. If we can simplify that in any way, that’s what we’re about.”
Over the last couple years, the company shifted to putting some SeaKlear products in pods, namely the Weekly Clarifier Pod and the Spa Shock Oxidizer Pod. It’s routine for hot tub owners to shock their water at least once a week. “Until now, you had to use powder in a container, scoop and measure, so there was uncertainty of using too much or not enough, or even spilling,” Arko says. “We’ve taken that and put it in a two-ounce pod that will work in 300 to 500 gallon size hot tubs. Just drop it in and it dissolves, and the shock is done.”
Don Riling, vice president of Olympic Hot Tub, located in the Seattle area, says that Olympic was instrumental in helping SeaKlear bring the pods to market. “We visited their facility a few times before the introduction of the shock pods and looked at various packaging with them so they could get our feedback,” Riling says. “We immediately starting selling the pods in our stores and included them in all our startup kits that went out with every tub delivery.” Olympic also offers the clarifier pods and uses the four pack periodically for e-store promotions to get customers introduced to the product.
Olympic has sold SeaKlear products as its main water-care line Olympic offers for several years, and Riling has high praise for its sales and support team. Riling says Terry Arko is a great resource, excellent at customer service and is an all-around terrific guy.
“SeaKlear has been working to make water care for customers simpler,” Riling says. “We’re not seeing much in the way of innovation from other hot tub water care companies in the industry, which is a shame.” Riling says. Olympic also loves how SeaKlear’s corporate entity, HaloSource, does amazing work toward water preservation and bringing drinking water to third-world countries. “They have a much wider vision,” Riling says, “and it’s nice to know doing business with them helps support and fund these very important initiatives.”