What To Do With Spa While On Vacation???

[Quickbeam]

My wife and I will be going away for about one week and I’m looking for some ideas on what to do with the spa. I read on one online site that I should turn the heater back to about 80 degrees. This seemed to make sense to me but then I spoke with my dealer and he suggested I only turn the spa down to 94 or 95 degrees. He suggested that I would spend more money heating the tub back up to 101 degrees than I would save having it turned down to 80 degrees. Any thoughts on this??? Note that he also suggested that with the insulation in the tub, even if I set it to 80 degrees, the tub probably would not get much below 94 or 95 degrees in one week anyway.

There is also an economy mode on my spa (Jacuzzi J-345). It looks like if I activate the economy mode the heater will only come on a maximum of 30 minutes after the secondary filtration is activated, and if I don’t have the secondary filtration activated, the heater will come on a maximum of 30 minutes per day. Note that I do not have the secondary filtration activated, so if I activated the eco mode, the heater would come on for a maximum of 30 minutes per day. I again asked the dealer about this, and he suggested that for one week I shouldn’t bother with the eco mode, but if I was going away for more than one week I might want to consider it. Again, any thoughts???

And for future reference, if you also have any ideas on what should be done on longer vacations, like two or three weeks, I would also appreciate hearing those ideas.

Please also note that I am not using either chlorine or bromine as a sanitizer, so no need for suggestions on what to do with sanitation. I think (hope) I have a handle on that one.

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

if its only a week I make sure the filter(s) are clean, throw in a heaping cap of chlorine and call it good, I don't even worry about the temperature, I'd rather have it ready to go when I get home then worry about saving $1 or $2 when I'm gone (which you will spend re-heating it anyway when you get home)

in your case what sanitizer are you using?

[Quickbeam]

if its only a week I make sure the filter(s) are clean, throw in a heaping cap of chlorine and call it good, I don't even worry about the temperature, I'd rather have it ready to go when I get home then worry about saving $1 or $2 when I'm gone (which you will spend re-heating it anyway when you get home)

in your case what sanitizer are you using?

Thanks TwinCities,

Appreciate the feedback. This is our first hot tub and we’ve only had it about 3 weeks. As for sanitizer, we are using hydrogen peroxide. So far we really like it. We have a friend who has been using it for quite some time with good success and that’s where we got the idea.

[Vinny]

I agree with what was said but you may want to figure out how long the peroxide lasts - if you put in the dose and it's not used will it last days, weeks or hours. That would be my concern because with a chlorine shock you can get a great killing effect, have residue chlorine that lasts a few days and then all you need to do is add a regular amount and your good (1 week of not used).

[Shan]

If you're going away in the summer the sun will do most if the work.

Or if you're getting close to the 3-4 month mark, flush the pipes and drain it when you get back. But a dip in the tub after a week long vacation is a must for me.

Cheers