At Great Lakes Pool & Spa we provided high quality hot tub and spa winterizing services. Our trained and licensed professionals can securely close any tub or spa in preparation for winter. For those of you that choose to close your hot tub on your own please follow these instructions to ensure that it is done correctly.
- Please realize that most damage that occurs to hot tub spas is caused by improper winterization. Additionally, damage caused due to freezing is very costly to repair. Be very careful if you choose to close down your own spa. If you have any doubts, it is much better to contact a local spa professional to do this for you!
- Start by turning off the circuit breaker for the spa’s electrical line or unplug the unit if possible. Remove the hard cover and drain out the spa. This can be done by hooking a garden hose to the spa’s bottom drain spout or by pumping the water out with a submersible pump. Either way, make sure you leave the bottom drain spout open when you are done.
- Locate your spa heater, and turn it off. This is important! Replace the hard cover on the spa and turn the spa’s circuit breaker back on, or plug the unit back in. Turn on the spa’s air blower and let it run for approximately 30 seconds. This will blow all of the water out of the air channel under the spa seats.
- Remove the cover again and soak up all the remaining water inside the spa with towels, a mop or a shop vac. Make sure that you get all the water out, especially in the footwell. Remove the cartridge filter from the spa and check to be sure that all of the water is out of the filter canister compartment. Leave a large terrycloth towel in a lump in the bottom of the footwell to soak up any additional water.
- Go to your spa equipment pack. Trip the ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). This is most commonly done by pressing the TEST button.
- Turn off the circuit breaker that is used for the spa. Also unplug the spa if it is a 110 volt unit.
- Loosen or unscrew any fittings on your spa equipment that look like they could be loosened or unscrewed. These are usually the quick disconnect fittings on either side of the heater and pump. As you loosen each fitting, water will come out. Leave the fittings unscrewed. Remove any drain plugs that may be on your pump housing. This is important as pump housings crack easily with only a small amount of water in them. Make sure you also drain out the filter canister and the heater and remove any drain plugs that are there.
- Blow out any residual water from the jet piping by using the “blowing” end of a shop vac, an air compressor or some types of leaf blowers. Get into the spa and put the plowing end of the hose up against each jet, making sure that the jets are all open as wide as possible and that the topside air controls are closed. Start with the jet closest to the exhaust side of the pump and work your way around the spa, jet by jet. As you do this, more water will likely pour out of the fittings you unscrewed. After you have finished with each jet, you will have removed most of the water from your entire jet system, leaving little chance that any pipe or piece of equipment will have enough water in it to free and cause damage. Do not put any type of pipeline antifreeze in your spa, pipes, or equipment.
- Get out of the spa and put the hard cover back on the unit. Secure the cover to the spa so that wind will not flip it up.
- On portable, cabinetized spas, close and secure the equipment hatch door to keep out vermin that will try to nest in there for the winter.
- Place a tarp over the hard thermal cover. Placing the tarp over the cover and laying swimming pool type water tubes around the perimeter of the spa will keep any rain water from getting into your spa over the winter.
REMEMBER – if you are worried or hesitant about closing down your spa by yourself, we strongly suggest that you contact Great Lakes Pool & Spa. Our trained professionals guarantee our spa winterization service against any freeze cracks to your spa, pipes, or equipment.
For all of your Spa Winterization needs, contact Great Lakes Pool & Spa at 262-242-7793.
