We are redoing a spa that was left at my son's house. It has been sitting for a while. We would like to clean out the pipes of any crud that is in the pipes from where it has been sitting and also would like to check out the pumps. We would prefer not to fill the tub completly to do this. Severe water shortage in the area, and he has a shallow well. This tub does have the suctions at the bottom and a skimmer unit.

Could we fill the tub only partially so we can run the pumps for a little bit, or would that cause a problem since there would be no water in the skimmer unit?

Also what would be the best way to clean out the piping before we fill it with water to treat. My son had heard about using electric dishwasher powder, but I am not sure about that. I was wondering if it would be good to use a heavy dose of bleach, run the pumps some and then drain, change the filter and fill for use. Any other suggestions or ideas on what would be best?

This item you speak of is totally subjective and dependent upon the characteristics of each 'used' spa.

The 'electric dishwasher powder' would definitely do a pretty good job since most of it on the shelves has phosphate content - which is good at getting rid of such junk. But it's one of those things that others would look at you later and say 'you did what???'. Ha. Thing is, it would take a couple of refills to get rid of all of the residual matter once it's done I'm afraid. Soap, is soap, and with all the nooks and crannies in the tub plumbing, it's gonna take a bit of effort to get rid of.

Next... the bleach method. It works. However, for any method like this to be effective, you must fill the tub completely. Then it needs to run for several hours with the jets on high and the tub up to temperature in order to loosen up the gunk inside the piping after it's been whacked by the bleach. All the bleach does is kill off the live stuff, then the fast movement of hot water through the pipes will help to remove it.

Even after this is done, you may experience floaties from time to time and it's the job of the filtration system to remove them.

Good luck with the water shortage.

Thanks Pageup.

Do you think it would be better just to clean the tub as best as possible and then fill and let the filter and sanitizer take care of things instead of trying to clean the piping out. I guess that depends on how bad a spa is. I did take one jet out and there is some sediment in the piping. The internal piping from what I can see if not coated all over.

To check out the pumps and see if there are any shaft seal problems, can the tub be ran without filling it all the way up, just to check things out?

To do that you need to have a 100% perfect seal on the skimmer suction lines.

If you can pull that off, then the pump should work fine.

Watch out when you turn on the jets high speed though, you'll have water shooting out into the neighbors window if you're not careful.