subject: Preparing Your Home Spa For Winter [print this page] As the cold winter months arrive and you have a home hot tub or spa, you have two choices. You can drain and cover up your spa for winter or, a better idea would be to flush it and replace the water to continue using it during the cold months. Whatever your decision is, you must act quickly to keep your home spa looking good . Plus you can save money and energy at the same time. Otherwise, improper draining or winterizing could potentially wreck your spa rendering it unusable forever.
To prepare your hot tub or spa for the winter, check out the manual so you will know what needs to be done to get it ready. If your spa has a freeze protection system, switch it on and ensure that the heat settings are a little higher than usual. If your home spa comes with a timer/auto heat mode selector, use this to prevent freezing.
If you do not have freeze protection, place the timer switch to cycle on at regular intervals. In cold areas, it helps if you cycle on at least 15 minutes for every hour. The extra run time is critical in cold weather. But if you use your home spa everyday, it requires less energy to have a constant temperature than making the device cool off and heating it up again.
Before shutting down your spa, get a degreaser to remove oils from skin and bath products. These accumulate in the pipes and jets. Do this 24 hours before draining. It is a good idea to use an underwater pump to remove water. Then clean the vents and filters. Remove the cartridge filter from the skimmer. Clean the skimmer entrance using a cloth that has been soaked in filter cleaner. Always wear gloves while doing this. Soak the filter in a bucket of water together with the recommended filter cleaner to eliminate oils and sediments. Rinse thoroughly and put aside.
Finally, use a vacuum to remove the remaining water and reinsert the filter cartridge into the skimmer. Use a non-abrasive polish to clean the surfaces of your home spa.
