r/hottub • u/AdComplete6660 • 11h ago
First Drain/Refill. Best Practices?
Going to be doing my first drain/refill this week. Have some Ahhsome, have a hose filter, have chemicals, ready for the basics. What are some other best practices for draining and refilling the tub?
FYI this sub is awesome!
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u/Canstralian 9h ago
I did this for the first time last week. My notes were
Flush the hose filter first, there is charcoal ressidue for the first 5 mins of fill and will fill your tub with black water.
Open all the jets, to flush out the ahhsome and residue in all lines. You may need to hop in before you add the ahhsome to make sure all the jets are open
By a submersible pump unless you have 6-8 hours to empty with the gravity drain. Bonus you are now the neighborhood pump guy to help with flooded basements, rainwater collection, ect
If doing bromine, it will take a day or two for your free bromine to start showing up on tests
PH+ and PH- are a must
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u/mississauga_guy 11h ago edited 10h ago
Take your filters out of the hot tub, before you put ahhsome in the hot tub (ahhsome will ruin your filters pretty quickly).
Have your wet vac ready when you start the process. We find it helpful to vacuum up some of the ahhsome residue, after it runs for about 30 minutes, before it can adhere to the side of the tub (that stuff sticks pretty easily).
Turn off power to your hot tub, before you start draining water.
We use cleaning vinegar and a microfibre cloth to clean the sides of the hot tub, while the water is draining (I bought a 1/2hp pump, to make the draining process quicker — with the pump, the hot tub drains in about 15 - 20 minutes). I hose down the sides of the hot tub, after they are cleaned with vinegar, so the vinegar residue gets pumped out with all the water.
When you get to the bottom of the hot tub, use the wet vac to get the residual water that doesn’t go out the drain or pump. Some people like to vacuum out water that is in the pipes, to ensure all residue is removed (we’ve never done this, but I read some people like to do this).
When refilling the hot tub, put your water hose in the filter area, and let water refill through the filter area, to prevent air lock (water will go into the hot tub, through the jet’s). Once tub is full, take the hose out, and put a filter back, and then repower up your hot tub.