How To Drain Clean and Refill Your Hot Tub

It is time to do some spring clean up and while you are cleaning up everything else it is a great time to do a deep clean on your hot tub. This is the time of year that you should do a deep cleaning flush out the lines of the hot tub, clean the filters and wipe it down really well. Below is a list of directions to make your hot tub brand new for the year to come.
  • Start with a good purge. Any hot tub store will sell a great purge and you will want to have this on hand this time of year as you never know when that really nice day happens and you get the inspiration to clean. Read the back of the bottle for directions but my favorite purge is Clean Start from Silk Balance. It works better than anything else I have used. You will want to pull out the filters and put the purge into your old water and let it run according to the directions on the packaging. Clean Start is 30 minutes. Some purges will want you to run for 24 hours.
  • Pull the filters out add the purge and let the product do its work.
  • After about 10-15 minutes you will start to see scum coming out of the jets. It is super important that you either bail that scum out of the water or wipe it down as it starts to stick to the sides as it will be a lot of elbow grease to get that off the sides once it has stuck to it.
  • After the allotted time according to your packaging of the purge with the jets running turn the power off to the hot tub. Either by unplugging or turning the breakers off. Either add a submersible pump and pump the water out or drain by the hot tubs drain. Pro hint… gravity draining by the tubs drain typically takes several hours.
  • Once you start draining be sure and wipe the scum line down as the water level drops. If you allow the scum line to dry it will take a lot of elbow grease and nearly a scratch pad to get it off. It is best to wipe it down during the draining process.
  • After tub is completely drained. Wipe tub down with a damp rag. Off The Wall cleaner works really well for this as well.
  • If you are lucky enough to have the Hot Spring Spas Tri-X filters just throw them in the dish washer. No soap, NO heat on the dry cycle. If you do not have Tri-X filters you will want to soak your filters in a good de-greaser filter cleaner. I very much like Bioguard filter cleaner or Pleatco filter tabs work wonderfully for this as well. After soaking the filter make sure you rinse really well so no soap will get into your freshly cleaned hot tub.
  • Waa-lah nice clean filters.
  • Fill the hot tub back up… make sure you place the hose in the filter compartment and fill the hot tub up to the base of the pillows or above the highest jet. Once the tub is full you can turn the power back on to the tub. Replace your filter and balance your water and enjoy your freshly cleaned hot tub.

Want To Learn More?