Drain, Clean & Refill

Hot tub drain, clean, and refill in the Salt Lake Valley for a flat $275. We empty the tub, clean the shell, refill, and balance the water. Book online.

Every hot tub needs fresh water on a schedule. Chemicals go in, water evaporates, minerals stay behind, and eventually the water reaches a point where it stops responding to adjustment. A drain, clean, and refill is the reset. We empty the tub, clean the shell while it is dry, fill it back up, and balance the new water so it is ready to go.

Who it is for

Everyone with a hot tub, three or four times a year. Beyond that, it is the right call when:

The water will not hold balance no matter what gets added
The tub has been sitting unused for a season
You just bought a house with a tub and want to start from clean water
A rental tub is between long bookings and due for a reset
The water has a smell or a foam problem that balancing did not fix

If the water is fine and only the surfaces are dirty, deep cleaning is the service you want instead. If you are not sure, tell us what you are seeing and we will say which one fits.

What we do

Drain the tub. We pump it out, including the footwell. Where the water goes depends on your yard. Onto the lawn is fine for balanced spa water in these amounts.
Clean the shell while it is empty. This is the part you cannot do with water in the tub. We wipe down the shell, the seats, the footwell, and the waterline, and clean around the jets. Light scale comes off here.
Pull and rinse the filter. If it is past saving, we tell you.
Refill from your outdoor tap. A hose bib near the tub makes this faster.
Balance the fresh water. We test and adjust all five factors: chlorine (sanitizer), pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid (stabilizer). Fresh fill water in the Salt Lake Valley almost always needs adjusting before it is right for a spa.
Cover it and leave it heating. The tub takes several hours to come up to temperature.

Price and time

A drain, clean, and refill is a flat $275 and takes one to two hours on site. That excludes chemicals and materials. Fresh fill water needs a starting dose to get it into range, and that is added to the ticket at what it cost us. This is a fixed-price service, so you can book it online for a Thursday or Friday, pay when you book, and we confirm it. If you want the tub ready for the weekend, book a Thursday.

How often it should be done

The standard answer is every three to four months, and for most tubs in the valley it holds. Here is the reasoning, because the reasoning tells you when to lean shorter.

Every dose of sanitizer and balancer adds dissolved minerals to the water. Every gallon that evaporates leaves its minerals behind. Over a few months the total climbs until the water is so loaded that adjustments stop working: you add pH reducer and the pH barely moves, you add sanitizer and it disappears faster than it should. At that point the only fix is fresh water.

Fill water that starts with more dissolved mineral in it hits that ceiling sooner. That is where Utah comes in. Salt Lake City water from the canyon plants is on the softer side for this area, but in summer the city adds deep well water that is much harder, and some valley wells run several times harder than the canyon supply. A tub filled in August starts closer to the ceiling than one filled in April. Murray water, to take one example, ranges widely enough across its wells that two tubs a mile apart can start from noticeably different water.

So: three to four months for most tubs. Lean toward three if the tub gets heavy use, if it is a rental, or if the last fill was in late summer. And lean toward it any time the water starts fighting you.

Signs you need it

Balancing the water has stopped working, or takes more chemical than it used to
The water looks dull or slightly gray even when it tests fine
Foam appears as soon as the jets run
A smell that comes back a day after you shock it
It has been more than four months
The tub has been sitting with the cover on and nobody has tested it

Where we do this

We do drain and refills everywhere on our valley routes, including Murray, West Valley City, and Taylorsville, from our base in Millcreek. Fresh water is the natural moment to start routine maintenance if you are not on it already. The same service works for swim spas, though the larger volume means it takes longer, and we will quote that separately.

Questions about drain, clean & refill

How often should I drain and refill my hot tub in Utah?

Every three to four months for a normally used tub. Heavy use, a rental, or a fill done in late summer when valley water is at its hardest all push toward three months. The sign that it is time is water that will not stay balanced no matter what you add.

How long does a drain, clean, and refill take?

One to two hours on site. Draining is the slow part. A hose bib close to the tub and somewhere for the old water to go both speed it up. The tub will take several more hours to heat back to temperature after we leave.

Is the $275 really the whole price?

The $275 is the service: draining, cleaning the shell, refilling, and balancing. Chemicals to balance the fresh water are added at cost, and fresh fill water in this valley usually needs some. If your filter is due for replacement we will tell you, and that is a separate part.

Where does the old water go?

Onto the lawn or into a drain, depending on your yard. Balanced hot tub water is fine for grass in the amounts involved. If your tub is somewhere the water cannot easily run off, tell us when you book so we can bring what we need.

Do I need to do anything before you come?

Make sure there is a working hose bib within reach of the tub and that power is on. If the tub has a locked cover or a gate, leave it open or give us the code. That is it.

Can you refill it with hot water so I can use it right away?

No. We refill from your outdoor tap, and the tub heats it. Depending on the tub and the weather that takes several hours to overnight. Book a Thursday and it is ready by Friday evening.