When and How to Drain Your Hot Tub

How Often Should You Change Your Water?

You should change out your hot tub water every two to four mounths. I recomment having it done every three months. The leanght between drain and cleans will depend on bather load and habits. Over time non-organic contaminats (Total Dissolved Solids or TDS) will increase causing clouiness along with other problems.

Eventhough organics are destroyed by your sanitizer system, your TDS levels will continue to increase. So how do you really know when it is time to have your hot tub drained and cleaned?

Drain and Clean Formula. Using your spa's water volume and estimated bather load, you can easily estimate the number of days between necessary water changes. First, divide the number of gallons by three. Then, divide the result by the average bather load. The final number is the estimated amount of days between your drain and cleans. This is only an estimate and is based on the assumtion that your hot tub is being properly maintained.

If you want to maximize the use of your water before dontating it to a section of your yard you can use TDS test strips to test the levels in your hot tub. Once the TDS level hit 1500 ppm or greater it's time to change the water.

You have desided it's time to drain your hot tub. Before you start draining your hot tub you want to make sure that the power is off. This is a great time to test your hot tubs G.F.C.I. (ground fault circuit interupter) braker. This is done by pushing the test button while it is in the on possition. If it is good it will trip and turn off the power to the hot tub. If this does not happen you need to have the G.F.C.I. replaced.

After you have made certain that the power is off to the hot tub you can start to drain it. There are a few ways to do this. The fastest way would be with a drain pump. If you do not have one don't worry most hot tubs come with a drain fitting that you can connect your garden hose to. They are usually located near the equipment. If you can not find your drain connection you can syphen the water out. Again, don't worry. I'm not going to have you out there sucking on a hose. It is real easy to get a sypen going. With the outlet end in the hot tub you'll turn on the water. Once all the air has cleared from the garden hose, simply, turn off the spicket, disconnect the hose and drag it to where you want the water to drain to. Becareful not to let the end in the spa suck any air and do not raise the drain end above the water level while your moving it to where you want it. Once you get all the water out you can clean and wax your hot tubs shell.

DO NOT USE BLEACH TO CLEAN YOUR SHELL AND COVER! You can use sodium bicarbanate (baking soda) to clean any tough stains.

After you clean your hot tub you'll want to use a shop vac to get all of the old water out that you can. The more of the old water you can remove the longer the new fill will last. You should also clean your filter at this point if you have not been doing so on a regular basis.

Filling your hot tub back up. There are two common issues that can arrise from draining and refilling your hot tub. Most of the common flow issues can be avoided by filling your hot tub through the skimmer. After you fill your hot tub turn your breaker back on. If you have a G.F.C.I breaker and used the trip button to kill the power you'll need to turn the breaker all the way to the off position then to the on position. If you turn it from the trip position to the on position you are not actually turning the breaker back on. Atleast once a week someone calls me because their spa will not come back on after they drained it. That said, if from the off position if you turn it on and it pops back to the trip position one of two things is happening. First, and most common, the little trip button is stuck. If you look closly you'll notice that one of the corners is lower than the others on the button. If this is the case you need to have the breaker replaced. Though it may be working there's no gaurantee it's going to be working when you need it most. Or something in the equipment area got wet and may need to dry before the breaker will hold.

Once it's full and pumps working correctly add your start up chemicals and enjoy.

#hottubmaintenance #cloudyhottub #cloudyspa #spamaintenance