The Importance of Purge, Drain and Refill

While maintaining water balance in your hot tub is important, there’s something else that you need to do to your spa to keep it working properly: purge, drain and refill.

What is purge, drain and refill?

Even with regular cleaning and sanitizing, the water in your hot tub will have some contaminants that cannot be removed by your filter. In order to completely remove those contaminants, you must purge the spa surfaces and plumbing lines of biofilms and other accumulations, completely drain the spa of all the purged water, allowing you to thoroughly clean it and finally, refill the hot tub with fresh, clean water.

Why is it important?

Draining and cleaning your tub is critical for removing the body oils and chemical buildups that naturally accumulate in your spa over time. While normal shocking and water balance go a long way in keeping your water clean, that maintenance alone will not remove the accumulations of biofilms, scaling, etc.

If you’ve noticed that your water is cloudy, slime is forming or the water is emitting an odor, it’s a good sign that you need to purge, drain and refill your tub. However, don’t wait for those signs to appear! We recommend completing the purge, drain and refill process every three months.

How to complete each step

Purge: Use a purging additive to remove accumulations from the surface and plumbing lines of the hot tub. Allow it to circulate through the spa overnight to ensure the biofilm is stripped away from the lines. This is essential because failing to purge the plumbing lines will allow the biofilm buildup to circulate back through your water over and over again. Also remember to clean your filter at this time by allowing it to soak in a filter cleaning solution overnight.

Drain: Once you’ve finished the purge process, drain the water from your spa by following the directions in your owner’s manual. When the water has been drained, clean the entire surface of the spa with spa cleaner and a soft rag to remove dirt. This includes cleaning spa pillows, the water line, inside and around the jets, etc.

Refill: After you’ve thoroughly cleaned your hot tub, refill it with fresh water and a pre-treatment that will remove metals, phosphates and more from the water.

Let us take care of it

If you don’t have the time or desire to go through this process regularly, let us help! We offer full purge, drain and refill services so you don’t have to worry about maintenance and can instead focus on simply enjoying your hot tub. Contact us today for more information.