Spa Spring Cleaning, Grilling

Yesterday morning I woke up and soon was outside tossing a cleaning paste into the spa. This stuff is intense with the amount of bubbles and foam it produces and it only takes a short while for the foam to build to overflowing.

I let the spa run with all the jets opened and both pumps on and spent the next hour scooping foam from the spa and tossing it on the ground by the pad.

I put more cleaning paste in and let it foam some more. All the foaming helps to remove the buildup within the plumbing of the spa and helps breakup some of the buildup in the jets. Since I did not empty the spa all Winter it was in dire need of a good cleaning.

Once the last of the foaming was done I turned the spa off and set my 1/3hp pump in the bottom and quickly emptied most of the water. While the water was draining I took a pad and cleaned all the upper parts that are not submerged in water as much.

I use the kids water cannons to suck the last of the last of the water and any debris left. They work great as I can set the end flush against the bottom and get almost every drop sucked up.

Every jet got removed and taken in the house to clean. Some of the jets were worse than others but a bunch of the spinning jets had become stuck in one spot due to the grit and buildup in them.

I went in and helped Hive account@stryeyz with the jets as I needed to take a bunch of them apart to properly clean them out. Pretty happy I managed to get them apart and put back together without breaking anything. Lots of plastic tabs that could have easily broken but didn't thankfully.

I got the hose in filling then we got the jets all reinstalled. I spent a while online trying to find options for chlorinating that is more automatic. There are really only a few options for non salt water spas and I don't like any of them. None of them last for long or are too costly for the recurring need. I will probably just have to deal with one of the floating units that we fill with pellets

With the water filled I tossed a bunch of chlorine in and had the pumps run for a 30 minute cycle to pump the chlorine around and help to wash away anything left from the foaming.

The pump went back into the bottom to empty the water one last time.

I again sucked the last bits of water out which pulled the last bits of debris that was left, giving me a nicely cleaned tub. I got the hose tossed in and started it refilling.

I got a fire going in the pit for the afternoon and kept it going through dinner.

It took about 90 minutes to fill the spa. I dumped a bunch of calcium in and brought the ph up to normal and let it heat. The heating is the longest part of it all as the water was 51 F and needed to raise to 100 F. The process takes about 7 or 8 hours and it meant that we would not get to soak yesterday. By the time we went to bed it was only to 80 F.

I had to stoke the fire and add some more wood so I could grill burgers for dinner.

Such a process to get the spa cleaned but it is a part of the needed maintenance. I'm rather proud that we were able to get through Winter without having to drain it, I don't like the idea of trying to do it in 10 F temps. The overflowing of the water did enough to keep us going but by the end it had to get changed out completely.

It rained pretty good overnight and we are supposed to get a bunch of wind today. The boys are on Spring break so are home all week. It was extremely nice to be able to soak this morning in the perfectly clean water.