Hot Tubs And Vacation

[dcp]

How do you all deal with your hot tubs when going away for a couple of weeks?

Assume not possible to have someone come and take care of it for me (always possible I guess but certainly inconvenient).

I was thinking one of two approaches:

1) Superchlorination before leaving and super chlorinate upon getting back. Thought is to get chlorine level high enough initially and with no use it should be good for a week or so. Then on getting back blast it again as a sort of mini decontamination.

2) Drain it and leave empty. Thought being I'm due for a water change anyway. Problem is it will definitely be cold enough to freeze any residual water in lines here during mid November. How do you get all water out of all lines? Is a shop vac powerful enough or is compressor needed? If shop vac then suck or blow? Drain lines or jets?

Unless I hear otherwise I'm thinking combination of the two - i.e super chlorinate now and drain when I get back. Any other suggestions?

My basic info - Jacuzzi 380, 550 gal hot tub, using dichlor/bleach.

[OttawaGreg]

How do you all deal with your hot tubs when going away for a couple of weeks?

Assume not possible to have someone come and take care of it for me (always possible I guess but certainly inconvenient).

I was thinking one of two approaches:

1) Superchlorination before leaving and super chlorinate upon getting back. Thought is to get chlorine level high enough initially and with no use it should be good for a week or so. Then on getting back blast it again as a sort of mini decontamination.

2) Drain it and leave empty. Thought being I'm due for a water change anyway. Problem is it will definitely be cold enough to freeze any residual water in lines here during mid November. How do you get all water out of all lines? Is a shop vac powerful enough or is compressor needed? If shop vac then suck or blow? Drain lines or jets?

Unless I hear otherwise I'm thinking combination of the two - i.e super chlorinate now and drain when I get back. Any other suggestions?

My basic info - Jacuzzi 380, 550 gal hot tub, using dichlor/bleach.

I would go with option 1, super-chlorination. You could even put in a floater with tabs just to be sure.

I would also turn the heat down to say 90 instead of 100-104 and dial down the cleaning cycles. By default my two cleaning cycles are 1.5 hours. I have then set to 1.0 hour now and on vacation I'd bring it to .5. Provided your tub has this function.

My biggest worry is if there was a power failure! What if the day after you leave (for say 2 weeks) there is a power failure or surge and the GFCI clicks off. So no power to the tub for two weeks?? Where I am in Ottawa it can go down to -20 -> -30. I am guessing the tub could/would freeze, or at the very least some of the lines. I would have someone (family/friend/neighbor) stop in half way through the vacation period and see it's running. If not then they at least know how to throw the breaker off and on again.

Greg

As for the shop vac question I believe you first blow the water out then suck each one of the jets (one by one) afterwords. You close the other jets and place a rag around the nozzle of the vacuum and put it over the open jet. I've not done this yet, just what my neighbor said he does.