Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: Brookenstein on March 16, 2006, 05:19:39 pm
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Leslies told me to buy a 25' back flow hose or something like that? I did, that looks useless. Not sure WTH I'm supposed to do with it.
Went to Home Depot pumps were like $75, no thanks. Bought another hose thingy in the pump section for like $6. Still not real sure what I'm suppose to do with it. I sucked or blew or whetever it was to get water coming out of it and that sorta worked, but the hose part in the tub kept floating to the surface. I tried putting it on the jets, but couldn't remember what the heck I was trying to accomplish with that, lol.
The tub water hasn't cleared up and my filter is nasty every morning after I clean the filter the day before. I think I'm going to go ahead and drain and refill tomorrow, but I don't want it to be an all day job again.
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Buy sump pump hosing or a pool vacuum hose and it'll go by quicker
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I bought a battery pump from Spa Depot for around 30 bucks and between that and the drain open with a separate hose, my spa drains in less than an hour. Add in the small Shop Vac for the left over water and draining is a breeze for me.
I was surprised at how fast the pump works. You do have to add an extension of old garden hose as the one it comes with won't reach outside the spa if the pump is in the footwell. Poor design flaw, but easily fixed.
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Leslies told me to buy a 25' back flow hose or something like that? Â I did, that looks useless. Â Not sure WTH I'm supposed to do with it.
Don't you have an external drain or are you simply trying to get a second line draining?
If you put the hose over the jets and turn the pump on it will create a siphon but make sure you have the air off to the jets as you are trying to evacuate the air from the line to get the siphon started and any air from the jet defeats the purpose.
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Brook, FWIW, what *I* get from the advice on using jets and hose is this:
put one end of the hose in the tub, one end outside....turn the jets on, put the end that's in the tub against a jet until water starts to flow out the other end...at this point, it should keep flowing, so long as the end outside the tub is lower than the hose in the tub (and the inside end is kept under water). weight the end that's in the tub with something that'll keep it down, or use this suction to help clean any loose cruddies off the seats and floor area....be sure to turn the power OFF on the tub as soon as possible after the syphon is working....
Granted, I haven't done this yet, but it's what I get from what I've read so far.....also, as the water level gets below the seats, you might want to try and schluck the water into the footwell area while suction is still good.....
If I'm wrong, OOPS.....but I THINK that's what everyone was talking about.....and for extra speed, use the normal drain with a hose on it along with the above info....
Best of luck!
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Buy sump pump hosing  or a pool vacuum hose and it'll go by quicker
That is what I thought I bought for $6 at Depot, just not sure what I do with it.
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Don't you have an external drain or are you simply trying to get a second line draining?
Yes I do, but it took 4 hours to drain the last time. After 2 hours I added a second garden hose and it still took 4 hours. I would like to get it drained by 8 am and filled by 9, so it will be hot by bedtime.
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I bought the cheapest sump pump I could find, added some thin rubber to the bottom so I would not scratch the tub surface then attached the pool vac hose to it and can drain the tub in less than 1/2 hour. Then I let the last inch or so drain out the main drain.
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I guess if I invited some of my gun totin' weirdo friends up here to take pot shots at the tub when it needs draining, it'd probably drain pretty quick, too..... ;)
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submersible pumps works for me drains tub under 1hr cost about 15 pound uk 26us dollars tub is cleand filled and heated by early ev
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hot sauce ;D ;D ;D
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That is what I thought I bought for $6 at Depot, just not sure what I do with it.
A sump pump hose is usually black, corregated and rigid (no comments please!) ;D A back wash hose is usually collapseable and won't keep it's shape unless it has pressure running through it - think of a cheap fire hose.
What I do is: turn the heater down to the lowest setting (this way NO DAMAGE (this capitalization is for me) can possibly happen), lay the tubing out, turn on a pump without air coming out of the jet, place the end of the hose over the jet and let it run for a minute, turn off the tub (remove electricity), keep the hose under water (I think bosco said he uses a vice grip ... I'm trying that next time), make sure the water is coming out the other end and if all goes well then the tub will drain in about 20 - 30 minutes. I sometimes lose my prime in the hose and I have no idea why; I then take out the pool cover pump and it takes FOREVER (about an hour). I don't want to invest in a sump pump but this may make it go really fast too.
Hope this helps!
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A sump pump hose is usually black, corregated and rigid (no comments please!) ;D Â A back wash hose is usually collapseable and won't keep it's shape unless it has pressure running through it - think of a cheap fire hose.
Hope this helps!
I now have one of each of those hoses thanks to the idiot at Leslies. I even told him thats not what I thought I needed, and he assured me it was.
Thanks, I'll let you know if it helps tomorrow. :)
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i bought one at home depo for about 100 dollars and it drained the hot tub in about half an hour. it was really fast. i used a big hose too that may make a difference. it was worth it to me to be able to drain it quickly in casr i had problems when it gets really cold.
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What happened to your water Brooke? Didn't you just change it? I hope you didn't let your drunk neighbor in the tub--just kidding. ;D
The tub water hasn't cleared up and my filter is nasty every morning after I clean the filter the day before.  I think I'm going to go ahead and drain and refill tomorrow, but I don't want it to be an all day job again.
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I don't know what happened to the water. It was perfect, then a couple nights ago we went out there and it was suddenly cloudy. Normally I shock with MPS, but I decided to shock with dichlor... added apparently way too much (probably 2.5 TBS... nightly I do about 3/4 of TBS). Anyway, the next morning the water was still cloudy, but there was no chlorine showing when tested. With that amount there should have been. So, I went to Leslies, they tested everything... everything was good except my CYA was high. I was going to ignore that if the water went back to normal, but it hasn't and the dirty filter daily really makes me wonder what is in the water. ??? So, if all goes well tomorrow I will drain before the kid goes to school. I've got a busy day and we are hoping to finish the tile this weekend... so the timing kinda sucks.
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That's strange. 2.5 TBS shouldn't have thrown you off. Vermonter recomends 7 times your normal dose for shocking. I'm around 2.5 TBS myself. I wonder if your N2 cartridge is toast? It shouldn't make that much a difference but I would throw a new one in. Is it the orginal unit?
I don't know what happened to the water.  It was perfect, then a couple nights ago we went out there and it was suddenly cloudy.  Normally I shock with MPS, but I decided to shock with dichlor... added apparently way too much (probably 2.5 TBS... nightly I do about 3/4  of TBS).  Anyway, the next morning the water was still cloudy, but there was no chlorine showing when tested.  With that amount there should have been.  So, I went to Leslies, they tested everything... everything was good except my CYA was high.  I was going to ignore that if the water went back to normal, but it hasn't and the dirty filter daily really makes me wonder what is in the water.  ???  So, if all goes well tomorrow I will drain before the kid goes to school.  I've got a busy day and we are hoping to finish the tile this weekend... so the timing kinda sucks.
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I wondered the same thing about the N2... I'm about 1-2 weeks away from 4 months. I really didn't think I had overshocked it either... I knew it was a good dose, but not enough to do something like that.
I wasn't going to worry about the high CYA if the water cleared up, but it hasn't and with my mom coming I don't want a nasty tub.
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I now have one of each of those hoses thanks to the idiot at Leslies. I'll let you know if it helps tomorrow. :)
It should help.
There are lots of ways to hold the tub end of the hose at the bottom and keep it there:
Vice grips
Small children
Bare toes
Otherwise-useless spousal unit
Otherwise-useless progeny
Brick with smooth edges and corners - Can you say "Great Aunt Betty's Fruitcake from last Christmas?"
AOL discs wired together
Sock full of rocks
Wall-eyed lemurs - stuffed, of course
Large tub of fresh salad greens (this is what you use to get the Wall-eyed Lemur stuffed)
But whatever you use, the black crinkled hose should go faster than a smaller garden hose.
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I usually start draining the spa when I get out at night using the standard valve and garden hose. When I wake up it's all done.  I guess someday I'll have to buy more hoses and pumps etc.
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I thought about doing it that way Gomboman, but its been a bit chilly here lately so I didn't want to. I'm sure I'll do that during summer though.