Draining and Refilling Your Hot Tub

Draining and refilling your hot tub

We’re right in the thick of the best time to drain and replace the water in your hot tub.

If you take care of this (or get this taken care of) in October, there’s a good chance you can get through the winter without doing it again. And since winter is such a miserable time to handle any outdoor chores, now is your moment!

You can do it by yourself or save yourself a lot of time and hassle by:

• Clicking here to book one of our professionals to do it for you.

If you want to give it a go yourself, or if you just want to know exactly what we do when you book us to take care of this tedious job, follow the steps below.

The easiest and fastest way to drain your hot tub:

• Add Swirl Away 24 hours before you plan on draining the hot tub and follow the steps on the bottle.
• Turn off the power completely. That means turning your breaker off from your GFCI (outdoor breaker box) or your main breaker panel.
• Find the black drain/fill valve under your hot tub steps or behind the door (if you have a portable unit).
• Remove the safety cap from the valve fitting.
• Attach the end of your garden hose and lay the opposite end lower than the drain valve.
• Turn the outer section of the valve counterclockwise to start the flow.
• It will drain over the next hour.
• Conversely you can use a submersible pump to drain the hot tub at a more rapid pace.

Once the draining is complete, rinse the inside of the tub with fresh water, which should drain out the valve as quickly as it flows in.

What next?

Close the floor drain, fill up the footwell, then open the floor drain again. This helps rid the hot tub of any contaminants that have ended up in the low lying plumbing lines.

• Close the floor drain and refill the hot tub using your garden hose through the skimmer mouth to prevent any airlocks occurring.
• Stop filling once the water is halfway up the neck jet opening.
• Reconnect the power by flipping your breaker on and get the water circulating.
• Add your startup chemicals, like SpaGuard Smart Tabs and a SpaGuard Balance Pak, once the hot tub has reached over 85 degrees .

It might be best to keep a complete water care kit around, so you have everything you need to troubleshoot or get the hot tub chemical balance right.

This all takes up to 4 hours for most homeowners – a lot of time when you only have the weekend to handle all your chores. Let us take care of it for you.

You can book a hot tub drain, clean and refill for as little as $175 if you’re a weekly maintenance customer. How much is your time worth?

Give us a call to schedule your service today and avoid the last minute rush.