How to Winterize/Close your Hot Tub / Spa
We hope you keep your hot tub open year-round due to it’s therapeutic benefits, but some of you might not and others of you have multiple houses and travel south or don’t rent out your house all year round. It sure is fun to be in your hot tub when the snow is falling. However, if you do choose to close your hot tub for the winter, below is a basic guideline as to what you need to do in order to close/winterize your hot tub in 10 easy steps. Doing so will help avoid broken plumbing due to freezing water and make for an easy start up when you want to use it again.
If any of these things make you uncomfortable we would recommend you contact us for service.
1. Turn off all Power to the Hot Tub
Before draining or servicing your hot tub, it is critical that you shut off power at the breaker. This will keep you and your hot tub out of harm’s way as you begin the closing process. Remember, electricity and water do not work well together, so use caution whenever you’re working around your hot tub’s electrical areas.
2. Drain the Hot Tub
Connect a garden hose to the attachment inside the equipment access area of your hot tub. Once the hose is connected, turn the valve to drain the water. Use a sump/bilge pump to drain any water that wasn’t flushed out of the hose.
3. Drain the Air Blower
The next step in winterizing a hot tub is to drain the air blower. If your hot tub does not have an air blower, skip ahead to step number 4. Begin by putting your hot tub’s cover on, and then plug the hot tub back in and turn it on. Once the hot tub is covered and turned on, activate the air blower function and let it run for about a minute to flush the water out of the channels. After draining the air blowers, safely turn off and unplug your hot tub once again.
4. Loosen Unions On The Heater And Pumps
Open up your hot tub’s access panel and locate the pumps and heater. Loosen your pump and heater unions to enable any remaining water to drain from the lines. Repeat this process on all pump unions if your hot tub has more than one.
5. Remove Pump Drain Plugs
Remove the lowest drain plug from the front of each pump. It is looks similar to the one on the left. This allows any remaining water to drain from the inside of your hot tub.
6. Use A Wet-Vac To Remove Water From The Lines
Next up in winterizing a hot tub is to remove water from the plumbing lines. Water left in the plumbing lines can freeze and cause serious damage to your hot tub during winter. To clear out the lines, insert a wet vac into each drain, jet face, union, suction, and filter cavity to remove the water. Place the wet vac in each space for approximately 10–15 seconds to ensure all water is sucked out. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! If your tub freezes, it could ruin it.
7. Clean Hot Tub Filter Cartridges
Winterizing your hot tub is the perfect time to remove and clean any hot tub filter cartridges! This actually should be done on a monthly basis if you were to ask us and we would recommend that you leave the filter in a clean dry place for the time the hot tub is closed. Leaving dirty filter cartridges in your spa over winter can lead to an unpleasant cleanup come spring time, especially if they are not dried and left in while wet. Once you remove the cartridges, spray them down with a garden hose and use a filter cleaner like this you can get from amazon or in our store to gently clean off any debris build up.
8. Replace Drain Plug On Pumps
Once all the water is drained out of your hot tub lines, replace the drain plug on the pump. Tighten all unions, and ensure all gate valves are open.
9. Add Hot Tub Antifreeze
The last step before putting the hot tub cover on for the long winter is to pour one gallon of hot tub antifreeze (which we also sell in our store) into the top of each pump, and one gallon into the filter cavity. Antifreeze, as the name implies, prevents any remaining water left in the lines from freezing. After pouring the antifreeze, place the equipment access panel back on .
10. Close The Hot Tub Cover
The final step is to put your hot tub cover back on.
NOTE: Based on the pictures we chose for this post – we would recommend that you do NOT let the snow pile up on your cover and if we get a big storm that you take a shovel or leaf blower and get the snow off your hot tub cover. It can extend the life of your hot tub cover. You can get covers for your entire hot tub as well, especially if it is somewhere that you are not around to get the snow off it.
Winterizing your hot tub may not be for you, but with these easy steps, you’ll have it done in no time. If you would prefer NOT to do it yourself, we would be glad to help. See our hot tub closing options – or contact our service department to get your closing/winterization scheduled. If you have any questions you can call us at (616) 363-4161. We serve all of West Michigan including Grand Rapids, Lansing, Holland, Byron Center, Ionia, Lowell, Cadillac and all parts in between.
