Leaving Spa unattended for 10 days.

[rpape01]

Can anyone give me some tips for leaving my spa unattended for 10 days?

I use BBB to maintain the spa but will be going on vacation for 10 days.

I was surprised I couldn't find this topic anywhere.

Thanks for the help.

 

[rpape01]

A note: My hot tub is indoors. So freezing is not a problem.

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Drain it fully, plumbing and all. Spas need at least weekly attention. Anything beyond and they will become sick. If it gets sick, so will anyone else using it.

Scott

 

[chem geek]

If you let the water temperature get a lot lower, even lower than pool temp, then you can shock with chlorine that should last 10 days. My pool at 50ºF loses chlorine at around 25% of the FC level over 2 weeks. You'd have to have your spa water down to at least room temperature (72ºF) to have any hope of the chlorine lasting for 10 days even from shocking. There are some pool services that visit pools once a week, shock to 14 ppm FC and have 4 ppm FC after one week with pools in the 80's and exposed to sunlight (but with 100 ppm CYA), but you wouldn't succeed with this if your spa was kept in the 90's or higher in temp.

 

[rpape01]

FYI.

I dropped the temp to 80. (min temp i can go)

Put 3 cups of bleach in.

Put a tarp over the hot tub so I didnt ruin my cover.

Chlorine was 3.4 when I returned today.

 

[chem geek]

Great! I'm glad that worked for you and thanks for reporting back in so we know this is reasonable advice to give to others. 3 cups of 6% bleach in 350 gallons would be 33 ppm FC. Is your spa larger than 350 gallons? Just wondering about your shock level.

 

[BC]

Question,
Doesn't having an ozonator also accelerate FC usage? If so and a hot tub is equipped so.....would turning this off during an extended vacation help the situation?

 

[chem geek]

You are correct. Ozone reacts with chlorine so if you have a way to disconnect the ozonator (say by turning off the UV or CD device) then that will help make the chlorine last longer. An ozonator can be helpful in a high bather-load situation such as a residential spa used every day or two, but isn't so good when there is no bather load because it just increases chlorine demand.

 

[rpape01]

250 gallons.

I have an Ozone generator.

Hope this helps others. NOTE: I feel the tarp was key in protecting my cover with this high chlorine level.

 

[GuinnessPhish]

I'm facing a similar situation as the original poster...

I'm leaving my hot tub for 7 days.

I've been using chlorine as my sanitizer.

Just curious if anyone knows for sure....how long does an ozonator typically work for? The spa I have is 8 years old, and I doubt that the ozonator was ever replaced.... I read somewhere that you should expect an ozonator to work for around 3 years. Anyone know?