Away from Spa for 10 Weeks - How to Sanitize?

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my12by60

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Nov 2, 2012
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Every year we take out our trailer for a trip of about 10 weeks. We have friends that come to the house once a week to add trichlor tabs to our swimming pool and check water chemistry parameters and adjust as necessary. For our spa, in prior years I have tried to use the spa frog bromine/mineral cartridge system. I put in a fresh mineral cartridge and bromine cartridge and ask my friends to change the bromine cartridge once per month. The water has never been very good upon return with this method. I normally time my drain/refill schedule so that I need a drain/refill right when we return from our trip. But I don't want to allow anything funky to get started in the tub while we are gone. Our normal sanitation system is dichlor/bleach because I use the tub everyday and have no problems keeping on top of things.

So what I am looking for is a cheap and easy to administer sanitation system for a 380 gallon tub that is going to be sitting with 100+ degree water but not being used for 10 weeks. We live in the Phoenix area, so even with the tub temp set way down the water will still be hot due to our hot summer temps. I have a few spa frog bromine and mineral cartridges left on hand and would like to use them up, but that is not a high priority if some other system is simple and easy for my friends to manage.

Of course, I could just drain the tub and let it sit empty but I have read that is not a good idea due to drying seals, etc.

Thanks for any guidance.
 
I don't think it can be done for 10 weeks. I think of a spa like a pet. It needs darn near daily attention. Leave the cat in the house for 10 weeks and hope for the best? Nah. My thoughts are, if you can go on vacation for 10 weeks, you can afford to pay someone the time to look after your hot tub. Ask the neighbor to add two ounces of bleach every other day, and pay him a couple hundred bucks.
 
jblizzle said:
I'd drain the spa and start over when you get back.
Drying what seals?
Click to expand...

I had read that it was bad for the spa to sit empty for a prolonged period. Draining it and starting over 10 weeks later would be the simplest since I will be due for a water change right around the time we are leaving anyway.

Does anybody here advise against leaving the spa sit empty for 10 weeks in the Phoenix summer heat?
 
I had a spa on my deck that had been empty for a very long time, evidenced by the amount of dirt on the cover and inside the spa. Gave it to a friend of mine, he has been using it for 4 years almost with no issues.
 
We are trying to decide what to do with our hot tub and will only be gone for 10 days ...

Not sure if better to drain now and let any water remaining fester for 10 days or lower the temp, raise to shock level and cover it.
Likely we will do the latter as then as least for a good portion of the time there will be chlorine in the water preventing it from getting to nasty.

But again, 10 weeks is far too long with no care so I would rather have a few gallons of nasty water to deal in the plumbing upon returning than a tub full of nasty green water.
 
jblizzle said:
We are trying to decide what to do with our hot tub and will only be gone for 10 days ...

Not sure if better to drain now and let any water remaining fester for 10 days or lower the temp, raise to shock level and cover it.
Likely we will do the latter as then as least for a good portion of the time there will be chlorine in the water preventing it from getting to nasty.

But again, 10 weeks is far too long with no care so I would rather have a few gallons of nasty water to deal in the plumbing upon returning than a tub full of nasty green water.
Click to expand...

Draining is easy so if nobody can note any possible problems with the spa sitting empty for 10 weeks then that is the route I am going this summer.

Any tricks for removing as much water as possible from the lines after I drain?

I would think whatever is left in the lines would evaporate in the Phoenix heat vs. getting too foul, but I would l like whatever ideas you folks have for clearing the lines.

If I get the lines cleared fairly well, would I need to do a decontamination when I get back in 10 weeks or can I just refill?
 
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