Importance of Draining and Refilling Your Spa Twice a Year

Taking proper care of your spa keeps it functioning at its best and helps prevent costly repairs and untimely breakdowns. While much of that care involves simple maintenance tasks, like balancing the water and cleaning your filters, some tasks require a bit more effort and time to complete — such as draining and refilling your spa.

Draining and refilling your spa may feel daunting, but it is more than worth your effort. Here is why taking on this task twice a year is crucial.

Why Does a Hot Tub Need to Be Drained?

If you’re keeping up with cleaning and changing your spa’s filters, then you may wonder why it’s necessary to replace the water entirely twice a year.

While your filters are key in keeping your spa water sparkling, there will come a point when they are no longer effective. This is because your spa’s water is slowly absorbing minerals that can’t be separated from it by a filter. These minerals are measured in total dissolved solids (TDS). 

Once the TDS becomes too high, your only option for perfectly clean water is a full drain and refill. Water with high TDS will take on a hazy appearance, become foamier and harder, and struggle to stay balanced, as chemicals won’t be able to dissolve into it as easily.

The Opportunity for a Deep Clean

Draining and refilling twice a year will not only give you fresh water that can easily absorb the necessary chemicals, but it will also give you an opportunity to scrub the spa’s shell and clean out its plumbing. 

Over time, these elements of your spa will begin to collect residue, which will affect the water quality. The only way to remove that residue is by thoroughly cleaning them during a drain and refill, preferably using special spa cleaning products.

When to Drain and Refill Your Spa

The frequency of your drains and refills is going to depend on how often you use your spa, but in general, you should aim for two times a year. If you’d like to get a clearer picture of when it’s time to drain and refill your particular spa, you can measure the TDS of your water using a TDS kit or by bringing a sample to your local spa store. 

Once your water has reached 2500 TDS, it’s time for a drain and refill.

How to Drain and Refill Your Spa

Clearing out your spa’s water and giving it a deep clean is not too complicated, but there are some important things you’ll want to know before you take it on. For the best results, make sure to follow these key steps:

Prep Your Spa

To properly clean your spa’s plumbing, you’ll want to run a special cleaner through it before draining the water, such as Natural Chemistry Spa Purge. You simply add this product to the spa, run the jets for about five minutes, and turn the jets off to let the spa sit for about five hours. Then, you can run the jets once more to clear the system out. 

After you’ve prepared your spa, you can begin the draining process.

Drain the Tub

To drain the water, turn the power off on your tub, attach a hose to the drain, and allow the water to empty out somewhere where it won’t cause any unwanted flooding. To speed this process up, you can also use a spa pump.

Clean the Shell

Once the tub is drained, use a spa cleaning product to thoroughly scrub down the shell. Avoid products that are not specifically designed for this purpose, or you can end up having issues with your spa’s water upon refilling it.

Refill the Tub

After you’ve got your spa’s shell sparkling clean, you can plug in the drain and begin refilling. Do this through the filter area so that the pump can be filled with water. Once the tub is filled, turn the spa back on, allow it to heat up to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and begin adding the necessary chemicals.

Superior Spa Care Tips From Performance Pools

By draining and refilling your spa twice a year, you can keep your spa running at its best for years to come. If you have any questions about draining and refilling your spa, the knowledgeable team at Performance Pools can help. Contact us to learn more today!