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Watkins Wellness has been perfecting its saltwater sanitization system since it introduced ACE Saltwater in 2010. In 2019, the company launched a reimagined saltwater system under the FreshWater brand and has been building on its capabilities since. In 2024, it added a Smart Monitoring Sensor, giving the system the ability to monitor and report on the water quality, taking away the guesswork and chore of using test strips. And now, in 2025, it’s adding the option to dose the water with the proper chemicals to keep water balanced. The combination of all three systems is called FreshWater IQ and can be controlled from the newly updated spa apps.
“Fundamentally, we’ve been trying to remove all of those barriers to entry and pain points that consumers have traditionally had in spa ownership,” says Steve Stigers, executive vice president at Watkins Wellness.
“It’s a paradigm shift for the industry because there isn’t anything else out there like it,” says Rob Anderson, vice president at Olympic Hot Tub. “We’ve had enormous success with the salt system, ever since ACE first came out. FreshWater IQ helps automate sanitizing the water. The smart monitoring system dials in exactly what [customers] need to do to adjust the water. And then with the dosing, it’s almost going to be hands-off.”
How it works
A canister, about the size of a printer ink cartridge, with three compartments containing pH up, pH down and a phosphate remover attaches underneath the filter lid. A medical-grade pump injects water into the
