Using Swirl Away as I type this....

[kervis]

I am doing my very first water change on this last very nice day of Autumn!  It's supposed to be in the 60's today with a high in the 30's tomorrow....

The half bottle of swirl away--with no filters in-- is running.

The foam is spectacular!  Does that mean  it is dislodging gunk or would it have foamed up no matter what?

Anyway, my question:  Do I attempt to scoop any of that out or do I just leave it be?

Thanks!

[Brewman]

I think it foams up regardless.  When I used the product I got a foam column several feet above the water level.  I didn't bother scooping it or anything.
 Just rinse your spa really well- you want to get out as much of that water as possible so you don't have foaming issues on your new water.  
 You may consider putting a shop vac on your jets to pull water out of the plumbing.  I was amazed at how much water was still in the plumbing after I did my first drain.  It was many gallons.  

[kervis]

Thanks Brewman!  

I have a really old shop vac--not sure how well it will do, but I'll give it a try.

[drewstar]

Yup Swirl away will foam. As brewman stated, I'd rinse the hell out of the tub.  Why did you use swirl away?  I've only used it when I started it up for the first time, but not routinely with water changes outs....Most folks I've spoke to only use it if they feel they have an occasional problem.  Did you have a problem or are you just super clean?  

[kervis]

I never did it when I got the tub!  The very nice delivery guys quickly assembled everything, then proceded to fill it and take off.

I had been reading and learning here for quite some time, so I knew that others had washed out the tub, used fast gloss, etc.

When it was MY turn, I sort of felt intimidated?  Maybe not that word--how about "super clean"!  

The young men did not even wipe out any visible dirt that they saw.  Maybe they didn't see it and only I did?  :-?  I cleaned it all up the best I could, trying not to appear freakish about it.  I guess I felt that if they thought it was okay, then it must be.

They poured in the bottle of Metal Gon when the tub was 1/2 full, and poof, that was it.  I guess I figured that I'd change out the water after the first month anyway, so good enough.  

Well, thanks to all of you, I did NOT change it out!!  8-)  I didn't go crazy with the chems, and I kept everything under control.

Now, going into winter, I decided to Swirl Away to make sure NOTHING was hiding that could possible give me any trouble this winter, besides my own negligence!

I know it's not a bathtub, but we don't shower before we use it, we use lotion, conditioner, deoderant.    It all goes in.  

I figured it was the right time for a fresh start.  I was pleasantly surprised--the foam stayed a lovely white and the water was still nice and clear after running for 90 minutes.  I only had a slight residue in the filter compartment, otherwise all is good.  I am draining it with the hose now.  It is going on 43 minutes now and I figure it's about half drained.  I have washed and cleaned around the top and the water line.  When I get back from the dentist it should be empty and dry and ready to Fast Gloss the upper part.

I'll try the shop vac on the jets but I don't know how that will go.  Should I refill to rinse out the jets/tubing or just let it be?

Can I use my jet setting (on the garden hose) and try to get some fresh water to to through the tubing and force the old stuff out?  I guess I'd hate to fill up the 400 Gallon tub only to rinse it and dump it.  I will if I must though!

What is the name of the $100ish oil-free submersible pump that I can get to speed things along and where do I get one?

Thanks and I may have more questions as I refill.  

[lskarp]

I got a $30 pump from Spa Depot that worked fine.  It even connects to a garden hose.  It uses 3 D cells for power and it claims to be able to run 5 hours on that.  I did not hook up the hose to the tub, so I drainined my 500 gallon spa with just the pump in approx 3 hours.  If I used the hose as well, I am predicting 1 to 1.5 hours.  The nice thing about the pump is that there is only like 3 gals left at the bottom to sponge out.  With the hose, I woudl imagine a good amount of bailing.

[Brewman]

I'd just use the shop vac to get most of the water out, rinse what you can easily rinse, and then fill and go.  Any small amount of foaming you may have left over should dissappear, or just use a teeny bit of defoamer to knock it down.
 
 I'm surprised at how long it takes some of theses spas to drain.  Must be lucky, but my 480 gallon Optima takes about 45 minutes using the built in drain.  It leaves a couple gallons on the bottom around the footwell, which is easily bailed out using the old bleach bottle trick.  

[Slappy]

I am unfamiliar with this stuff called "Swirl Away" .
Could someone explain please?

-Slappy

[anne]

I just used Swirl away for the first time too- it was my third water change, but since I had problematic water for the last few weeks, I decided to be really thorough about cleaning it out this time (I posted elsewhere about my nasty ring-around-the-filter).

The swirl away did NOT foam up all that much, although it did make the water pretty "soapy" feeling and created a little surface foam. The bottle specifically says to make sure air injectors are off. I would think that any air would make for more foam. I kept all 3 jets on for 40 minutes, then drained and rinsed, No special technique for clearing the pipes.....refilled, and I am 3 days into sparkling clean, non foamy water.

Slappy- Swirl Away is a pipe cleaner that you can add to your water right before draining, have it circulate in all the piping, and it supposedly helps to clean out any nasties that you cannot see. It would seem that having chlorinated water on a regular basis in the pipes would do the same thing, but I used it as a little extra cleaner this time as I was suspicious of my tub's condition. I do not personally plan to use it with every drain and refill.

[Vinny]

I found what anne said to be the same with me. I did add air to see how much foam I would get but only put it on for 5 min max (I like to play around with things but didn't want/need all that foam it could produce). I also found it had a soapy smell to it too.

I plan on using it on a yearly basis. I had a couple of jets that were sticking and using swirl away took care of them. I kept the water in overnight and turned the pumps on about an hour total, I filled with fresh water ran the pumps again and then drained the tub, refilled and everything worked fine.

I try to get a siphon going with sump pump tubing and when I'm successful in it not losing it's prime, it can empty the tub in about 15 minutes. I have a pump that takes about 45 minutes to empty the tub and I also put it in there and whenever the sump pump tubing stops working at least I have something draining the tub, I also use it for my pool's cover.

My advice to anybody looking for a pump is to buy a sump pump. They have some that might be able to drain the tub in 10 minutes ... read the specs on some of them.

[kervis]

I'd just use the shop vac to get most of the water out, rinse what you can easily rinse, and then fill and go.  Any small amount of foaming you may have left over should dissappear, or just use a teeny bit of defoamer to knock it down.
 
I did it!  I was able to suck the water out of the precision jets, the foot jets--just about everything, and yes, I was amazed at what came out--almost 5 gallons.  Thanks for suggesting that, as I would have had a really hard time using 400 gallons for just a rinse.    I like to conserve when I can!

Then I rinsed the tub to get any residue off the shell, vacuumed all of that out, and my 400 gallon tub took 70 minutes to fill!