Spa and Water Feature Cleaning

SPA AND WATER FEATURE CLEANING

The steps for pool cleaning will work just as well for spas and water features. Here are a few special tips about what you might encounter that is unique to these bodies of water.

1. Many above ground spas are made of fiberglass, so take care when vacuuming to avoid scratching the surfaces.
2. Vacuum the corners of water features and small spas with a spa vacuum.
3. Evaluate the spa or water feature, before you invest a great deal of time in cleaning. Test the chemistry first, so you can determine if you are better advised to drain the unit rather than clean and treat it. If the water or surfaces are very dirty, if the water is extremely hard or cloudy, if the dirt is in among rocks and gravel where it might be very hard to reach, pump out the water and clean the unit that way.
4. If you do drain a spa or water feature, be sure the equipment is turned off at the breaker so the time clock won't turn it on before you are ready. You might need to set up your submersible pump and go to another job while the unit is draining. Your submersible has a small hole in the bottom to re-circulate the last inch of water to avoid burning out it's seal, so you can let it run without worrying that it will run dry.
5. Before you clean the spa or water feature, clean the filter and run some fresh water (from the garden hose) through the circulation system to purge any dirty water from the lines. Nothing is worse than draining, cleaning, and refilling a spa only to turn the circulation back on and watch dirty water contaminate your work.
6. Be extra careful with chemical testing and application. Most spas and water features contain a tiny fraction of the volume of water in a pool, so they can't absorb a mistake the way a pool might. It is better to add chemicals more slowly and in less quantity than you think necessary. You can always add more, but it is a real problem to remove any excess.