This is our first season owning a spa . We live in central Illinois where the winters can be very cold with varying amounts of snow. Can you provide any advise regarding maintaining our spa throughout the winter months? One of my biggest concerns would be having a power outage when the temperatures are below freezing. Other than purchasing an electrical generator, are there any other alternatives available which could help protect our spa from freezing if we loose power?
Spa's In The Winter
- Thread starter StuffMan
- Start date
Ahh yes good question! I don't own a hot tub but I have a friend who has one and he wants me to go over the ins and outs of maintaining it and the water chemistry once his new cover comes in and I'm sure he will ask this question. So I'm very interested in this also.
Sorry I cant answer your question but I'm sure someone soon can
Sorry I cant answer your question but I'm sure someone soon can
How did I know someone was gonna throw that picture at this question....lol... I actually thought about that pic when I read the OP but just couldn't do it.... Well Played!
My buddy will dig this answer
My buddy will dig this answer
- May 4, 2011
- 634
I wonder how long it would take for the water to freeze, assuming it's at 100-103 degrees and covered.
I've been reviewing craigslist ads and thinking about how nice a hot tub would be, but other priorities definitely come first. I'm sure having a pad poured and electrical ran would be $1500+
I've been reviewing craigslist ads and thinking about how nice a hot tub would be, but other priorities definitely come first. I'm sure having a pad poured and electrical ran would be $1500+
- Jun 14, 2012
- 2,668
- Pool Size
- 13500
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool Edge-40
I don't know the answer - but I wonder if stuffing some foam rope into the jets and putting a couple of half empty bottles in the water would help (giving room for crushing ice to expand).
I've had a hot-tub for the last decade and the power was never out long enough to cause damage or freeze to anything. And part of that time was spent in the Great White North (Canada).
During outages, I just make sure not to open the lid! I also bought the kind of cover made for heavy snow load -- that makes a difference in terms of insulation.
Your mileage may vary, but I would not expect a major problem. That said, a whole house generator is always a worthwhile investment if your area is prone to LONG winter blackouts!
Alternately, you could buy a portable generator, and then stay warm in the hot tub if your heat goes out (due to an outage
During outages, I just make sure not to open the lid! I also bought the kind of cover made for heavy snow load -- that makes a difference in terms of insulation.
Your mileage may vary, but I would not expect a major problem. That said, a whole house generator is always a worthwhile investment if your area is prone to LONG winter blackouts!
Alternately, you could buy a portable generator, and then stay warm in the hot tub if your heat goes out (due to an outage
I was trying to avoid spending the $3k to $4K investment for a whole house electrical generator this year due to the expense of purchasing my spa ..... too many $'s flowing out not enough coming in……
So, let me toss out this idea; to keep my spa from freezing if we lost power during a blizzard this winter, we could purchase a small "very portable" generator 2,000 to 3,000 watt to use for powering a livestock or pond heater which would be suspended within the middle of the spa (cost about $300). I know that this would not circulate the spa water but it would keep the overall body of water warm inside the spa with the cover closed. Would this provide enough heat to keep the spa's pipes from frezzing?
Please provide some feedback as winter is approaching and I want to be prepared BEFORE I have an incident .
So, let me toss out this idea; to keep my spa from freezing if we lost power during a blizzard this winter, we could purchase a small "very portable" generator 2,000 to 3,000 watt to use for powering a livestock or pond heater which would be suspended within the middle of the spa (cost about $300). I know that this would not circulate the spa water but it would keep the overall body of water warm inside the spa with the cover closed. Would this provide enough heat to keep the spa's pipes from frezzing?
Please provide some feedback as winter is approaching and I want to be prepared BEFORE I have an incident .
- Jun 14, 2012
- 2,668
- Pool Size
- 13500
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool Edge-40
StuffMan said:
Where are is the spa pump/filter and do any of the pipes leave the spa and go elsewhere?
I don't know if you know this but you can get a separate sub-panel with an isolation switch and you can power it from a small generator - perhaps you could put your spa circuits and one or two lighting circuits from the house in there. Many people put their essential items in them to allow them to power them without a maze of extension cords in the house in a power outage.
Here's a good picture and article on this practice:
http://inspectapedia.com/electric/Backup_Generators.htm
Here's another discussion around bonding this type of sub-panel but no pool is discussed so I'm not sure if it is relevant:
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f19/generato ... ded-72660/
Having a power outage that lasts long enough to take your hot tub down the freezing temperatures is highly unlikely. It is much more likely that you would encounter a mechanical problem with your system that would in turn disable the heating or circulation of the tub. In this situation it would be best to fix quickly or drain and winterize the tub and do the repair and then refill.
I'm guessing that your spa is heated with an electrical heater? If it used a natural gas or LP heater, then the only power needed would be for the pump for circulation. Thus, you could get away with a much smaller backup generator to keep the spa from freezing over. The other issue would be how well insulated the spa might be. With reasonable circulation during a power outage, the much higher heat capacity of water vs. air would keep the temperature from dropping so quickly, unless the power outage ran for many hours. Also, if you kept the spa heated throughout the winter, this would extend the time that the spa could be without power. Obviously, you need a good cover to minimize evaporation and loss of heat.
If it were me and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on this, I'd probably install a 3-way valve in the plumbing to a drain pipe with an automatic actuator controlled by a low voltage temperature controller and 24V motorcycle battery, or something like this freeze protect valve:
http://shop.solardirect.com/product_inf ... cts_id=157
This way, if the water does end up getting to near freezing, you at least have an automatic way to drain it out before it destroys the spa.
If it were me and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on this, I'd probably install a 3-way valve in the plumbing to a drain pipe with an automatic actuator controlled by a low voltage temperature controller and 24V motorcycle battery, or something like this freeze protect valve:
http://shop.solardirect.com/product_inf ... cts_id=157
This way, if the water does end up getting to near freezing, you at least have an automatic way to drain it out before it destroys the spa.
a couple years ago here in kentucky we had an ice storm and lost power for 10 days. the temp got down as low as 5 degrees during this time. when the power came back on my spa was still at 60 degrees with no damage at all.