Help Winterizing Plaster Spa Floor Lines

[Earthman Bob]

I can't find any posts about winterizing lines in a plaster spa floor. I've got 4 lines coming from the floor-- two to supply the jet pumps and two to the main pump.

If you don't drain the spa, do you stand in the water to remove the grills and then blow/plug the lines? Or do you always remove the water?

I've had pool guys do my winterizing most years. Some remove all the water, but others don't. This year I'm on my own since the new company I hired first showed up without a proper blower to handle the 100' run to the pool from equipment that was at a lower elevation, and then didn't return today when they were supposed to. Great company. Didn't even return calls/texts.

I already used a shop vac that worked fine for the skimmers and the spa returns, but it couldn't push enough to blow out the pool returns that are submerged, and the main drain. I'll be using a compressor for those.

Thanks for the last-minute help.

 

[Earthman Bob]

The job is mostly done. Considering how few posts there are about floor drains in spas, I'll mention that I did some research and ended up emptying the spa by using the pump to transfer the water to the pool. This let me blow out the floor drains with the compressor I bought today, add antifreeze, and cap them. Tomorrow I'll do the same for the other floor drain that feeds the pump for the jets. Once that's done, I'll blow out the returns, add antifreeze and cap those too. Then I'll use the pump to get water from the pool back to the spa to a height well above the seat and below the returns.

Closing the pool would be pretty easy with two people. With one person-- and with the pool equipment more than 100 feet from the pool, it's a pretty nice workout! The bonus is that I saved a few hundred on the pool guy, and now have the compressor I need to save another couple hundred every year by blowing out my sprinkler system.

 

[pgershon]

I am looking for answer to similar question. I did not fully drain spa but blew air through the floor drains from the pump fitting to create n air lock, like I did for my pool. But I cannot seal the way I did for pool. Should I cap the pipe right after blowing, and will this better lock ion the air?

 

[Earthman Bob]

I am looking for answer to similar question. I did not fully drain spa but blew air through the floor drains from the pump fitting to create n air lock, like I did for my pool. But I cannot seal the way I did for pool. Should I cap the pipe right after blowing, and will this better lock ion the air?

Yes. If you put the plug in while the air is blowing, the same as you would for returns that are below the water line, you should be in good shape. I'm not an expert, so you can wait to hear tips from them, but since they haven't weighed in on this thread so far, I'm pretty confident that that's all you can do.

Interesting that there are so few posts on this, eh? Or am I missing something?

Good luck!