It is important to completely drain and clean your hot tub every 3 months. The first and foremost reason is because you want your hot tub and all of its components to last as long as possible. Water can be destructive; it’s like you’ve always heard – “just look at the Grand Canyon!” Ironically, the water in your hot tub is going to completely ruin everything. Pump seals go bad and eventually ruin the motors, the gaskets sealing the jets break down, even heaters and sensors get eaten up. The most important reason for getting rid of the old water and adding new water is TDS or Total Dissolved Solids.
Total Dissolved Solids, to put it simply, are any non-water substances that are in your hot tub’s water. You can’t use a hot tub without using chemicals to keep the water clean. Any time you add any chemicals they leave behind small amounts of TDS. Do you wear cosmetics? Lotion? Deodorant? Guess what? Those leave TDS too. Not to get too gross about it, but all kinds of stuff comes off your body when you use your tub.
Total Dissolved Solids can cause some problems. They can stain surfaces and reduce the effectiveness of your sanitizer. They also increase corrosion. Water is bad enough when it comes to breaking stuff down over time. Water with too much TDS in it is like sandpaper-water. Significantly more corrosive!
While the chemicals you use kill bacteria and generally keep your water clean, there’s no way to prevent TDS from building up. One good way to limit how much build up you get is to reduce the amount of chemicals you use. Check out the chlorine sanitizing system we recommend, it’s super simple – https://cleanhottub.com/using-chlorine-to-sanitize-your-hot-tub/
That’s pretty much it! You want your hot tub and all of its components to last for years and years? Drain, clean and refill once every three months. If you don’t, you’re going to spend lots of money on replacing parts and covers, and eventually your hot tub will be beyond repair.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope this helps!
Hot Tub Mark