Welcome to our forum.
I bought a Little Giant submersible pump to help me out with faster drain and fills. I will be trying it out next month to see how fast I can do it. This will be a sort of "practice" for my first cold weather drain and fill sometime in December.Any veterans out there want to offer tips for doing a drain and fill in the freezing weather? (this will be my first winter as a spa owner)
As long as the power is off, and there is no freeze danger, sounds like your plan should work.
My dealer told me that it would not hurt the grass. But I have not performed my first drain yet. I'll experiment on my neighbours grass on my first drain (j/k).