Winterizing hot tub

[Death Dream]

I have a HotSprings hot tub I wanted to shut it down over the winter. However, after looking at videos online on how to do it, I can't find the hole to blow out the water lines. Most of the videos show people just unscrewing a cap on the top edge and moving a piece of plastic upside down etc. I can't find that with mine. When I go to HotSpring's site, it says they can operate year round but no details on how to winterize.

What am I missing? Should I just lower the water temp down to 40 degrees and call it good?

Thanks

 

[JVTrain]

When I have fully closed mine for the winter, I drained out all of the water by using the drain plug. That takes a long time so I used a very cheap submersible pump to drain it faster. Once drained, I disconnected the fittings from the pumps and heating elements inside the spa side cabinet area. Then I took my shop vac and blew out all the lines, getting as much water out as possible. Once I got as much as I could by blowing, I then vacuumed out every jet and the bottom of the filter area with the shop vac to get out the last of the water in those areas.

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Also... be sure to remove the drain screws from your pumps so that all the water comes out of those as well.

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This guide online isn't too bad for reference. How to Winterize And Close A Hot Tub Spa - Poolandspa.com

 

[Death Dream]

Yeah that is exactly what I did. Blew out threw the jets, vaced some. I disconnected the lines but I then reconnected them afterwards and filled what I could with anti-freeze. I think I may need more anti-freeze though. The ones they sell on Amazon are just so small.

 

[Brian VT]

Water trapped in the end of the heater split mine when it froze.

RV anti-freeze should work(?) and is cheap and readily available.
Be prepared to flush/sterilize your tub after storage. Stuff can grow in the pipes. Something like Ahh-Some is recommended.

 

[JVTrain]

I don't think anti-freeze is necessary with spa closings. The most important thing is to drain completely, especially the pump(s) and blow/vacuum everything out.

 

[Death Dream]

I'm worried about the pumps. When I unhooked those, water was still in those pipes. And some of them are really hard to get to. So that is why I'm tempted to just fill it back up and keep it at 40 degrees.

 

[Brian VT]

I'm tempted to just fill it back up and keep it at 40 degrees.

Can it be set that low? Mine will only go down to 80 deg.

 

[JVTrain]

My spa and many other spas, can either be set that low or have a Sleep mode that will allow the temp to be that low. If I leave my spa in Sleep mode during the winter months here, it essentially only runs to protect from freezing. It only heats when the temp dips down into the 40s. I'd have to check my manual again to verify but it's about that range in temp before it will apply heat during it's daily filtration cycle. The lowest I can actually set the thermostat to is 80 degrees.

 

[Brian VT]

The lowest I can actually set the thermostat to is 80 degrees.

It's been in the 20s overnight and 30s during the day here.
I turned mine down from 100 to 80. In 2 days it has only dropped to 88. I wonder if it's even worth turning down if it holds heat that well.

I don't believe mine has a "sleep" mode (Watkins IQ2000).

edit: In 2 1/2 days it only dropped from 100 to 84. I opened the cover twice during that time to check water chemistry. It only took 1 1/2 hours to get back up to 100 degrees. This suggests to me that the heater isn't working very hard/often to maintain 100 deg. with the cover on. I don't think turning it down saves much electricity $.

 

[ccarver80]

BE CAREFUL WITH ANTIFREEZE .... paid hot spring spas to winterize ours last year .... they used rv antifreeze. ... we were building a house this summer and I just got the hot tub set back up .. it had nasty mold and alge all over. .. I'm still fighting it.... could be it also sat all summer and the summer heat created this ... but it's a pain in my butt kinda wish they would have just blown the pipes out. ..


Another idea , I had to do this while waiting for hot spring spas to show up ... put a milk house heater in the bottom after you drain it?
It worked for me after I flushed all the rv anti freeze and stated to fI'll it and found out I had a few wires and fittings
chewed thru by mice.... drained it back out and put a milkhouse heater in they're till the tech could come out 5 days later just an idea