How to Clean a Hot Tub in Less Than 24 Hours

Every hot tub eventually needs a deep clean. That means draining your hot tub, purging the inside of your hot tub plumbing, and cleaning the surfaces. But how often should you clean your hot tub? And when does the water need to be completely replaced?

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to clean your hot tub, including how to clean the inside of your hot tub pipes. Watch the video below or keep reading for the complete tutorial.

How Often Should You Clean Your Hot Tub?

Every three to four months, plan to drain and deep clean your hot tub. That’s because contaminants build up over time inside your hot tub plumbing. And these contaminants form a layer of biofilm that makes it resistant to your normal hot tub chemicals. So whenever you’re draining your hot tub, plan to also flush your hot tub plumbing with a hot tub line flush.

Besides regular quarterly cleaning, when else should you deep clean your hot tub? Here are some signs that it’s time to drain and clean:

• You notice slime forming in your water
• Your water is cloudy
• You smell musty odors
• Your chemical levels, like chlorine or bromine, keep dropping
• You notice a skin rash after using your hot tub
• You haven’t used your spa in a long time

If these symptoms are happening more and more often, it’s time to purge your plumbing, clean your surfaces, and replace your water.

How to Deep Clean a Hot Tub

If you’re planning on a hot tub deep clean, start by purging your hot tub lines with a line flush cleaner. Then drain the water and wipe down the hot tub shell. Finally, refill your hot tub with fresh water and rebalance your hot tub chemicals.

Here’s the complete step-by-step walkthrough of that process:

1. Flush Your Hot Tub Plumbing

Before you drain out any water, you’ll want to purge your hot tub pipes. First, remove your cartridge filters. Then add a hot tub line flush product to the water. This will clear out any grime and biofilm buildup inside your pipes.

Turn your jets on high, leave your hot tub cover off, and let the line flush circulate for at least 20 minutes (or whatever the manufacturer’s instructions suggest). If you’ve never used a line flush cleaner before, or your hot tub hasn’t been used for a while, you might have a lot of buildup in the pipes. So let the line flush circulate for a few hours, or even overnight.

You’ll notice nasty foam or scum forming on the surface of the water as the line flush cleaner circulates through your hot tub plumbing. That just means it’s working and pulling out all of the biofilm out of your hot tub pipes.

If excess foam starts to form and threatens to overflow, turn off your air valve (jets) and wait for the foam to resettle, or scoop some foam out with a skimmer net. Then restart the jets for another 20 minutes.

2. Drain the Hot Tub

Turn the jets off and shut off your hot tub circuit breaker. Then drain out your water using a hose or submersible pump (sump pump). If you’ve never drained your hot tub water before or you need help finding your drain valve, check out our guide on How to Drain a Hot Tub.

3. Clean the Filter

As your hot tub is draining, clean your hot tub filter. You can spray it with water using a high-powered garden hose nozzle. If your filter is very dirty, soak it in a hot tub filter cleaner solution. We recommend soaking it overnight in the solution. This will clean in between all the pleats, making your filter look and work like new. If you want more help cleaning your filter, check out our walk-through on How to Clean Hot Tub Filters.

If your filter is older than a year or it looks like it is in bad condition, replace it. It’s a good idea to keep a second, clean filter on hand to replace the cartridge while the other one soaks in the filter-cleaning solution.

4. Clean the Hot Tub Surfaces

Once the water has completely drained, it’s time to clean the hot tub shell. Wipe down all of the surfaces with a soft cloth to avoid scratching the acrylic shell, and use diluted white vinegar. You can also use a hot tub cleaner (sometimes called a polish). But diluted white vinegar works great and won’t affect your water chemistry. A multi-purpose surface cleaning product will work as well.

Be sure to clean all of the nooks and crannies and the headrests. No matter what you use to scrub your hot tub, be sure to rinse it thoroughly before you start refilling, or you may end up with foam.

5. Refill the Hot Tub

Before refilling, double-check that all your jets are open. This reduces the risk of water pressure problems from trapped air.

Then, refill the tub with fresh, clean water. Use a hose filter to remove any impurities, like minerals and metals.

Fill the hot tub by putting the hose inside the filter. The water will fill up the pipes inside the hot tub first, which will help prevent hot tub air locks. If you do end up with an air lock issue, check out our guide for more help. Your water level should be at least halfway up the skimmer opening.

6. Clean the Hot Tub Cover and Spa Cabinet

Wipe down the underside of your cover with a diluted solution of vinegar or bleach (10% bleach solution). If your hot tub is outside, you may also want to apply a cover protectant to help avoid sun damage. Then, clean your spa cabinet (the hot tub “frame”). Most cabinets are made from wood, so use a gentle wood cleaner and a soft cloth. We have a full guide on How to Clean a Hot Tub Cover if you need more help.

7. Rebalance the Water Chemistry

Once the hot tub is filled, test the water. Keep your jets on low and your air blower off when adding chemicals. You want the chemicals to circulate and dissipate, but too much air in the water can cause high pH and oxidation.

Start by balancing your total alkalinity and pH. Your alkalinity levels should be between 80 and 120 ppm, and your pH levels should be between 7.4 and 7.6. If you’re struggling to get your chemistry balanced, check out our Hot Tub Chemistry 101 guide.

Wait for the chemicals to circulate and dissipate (at least 20 minutes), then add your chlorine or bromine to sanitize the water. You don’t need to add shock since the water is new. Allow the water to circulate through the hot tub for at least 8 to 12 hours with the cover on. Warm water helps the chemicals dissolve, so be sure to heat up your water.

How to Keep Your Hot Tub Clean

The first step to keeping your hot tub clean is sticking to a simple, weekly cleaning schedule. This means wiping down the surfaces above the water line, rinsing your filters, and balancing your water chemistry.

Once a week, you’ll want to do the following hot tub care routine:

1. Test your hot tub water. Check your alkalinity, pH, and chlorine or bromine levels once a week with test strips. Then rebalance your chemistry as needed. This will keep your water sanitized and bacteria and algae at bay.
2. Shock your water. Regularly shocking your hot tub recharges your sanitizer and keeps your hot tub healthy. Use a non-chlorine shock weekly or a chlorine shock if you’ve had heavy hot tub usage. If you need more help with shocking, check out our guide on How to Shock a Hot Tub.
3. Rinse your filter. A clean filter protects against cloudy water, funky smells, bacteria, and algae. Spray your filter cartridges with a hose once a week and spray them with a filter cleaning solution once a month. Then soak it in the filter cleaner whenever you’re draining your hot tub.
4. Wipe down your hot tub cover. Cleaning the top of your cover and underneath it protects against mold, mildew, and nasty smells. Wipe it down with a 10% vinegar-to-water solution to keep mildew away.
5. Wipe down the shell and scum line. Using a sponge (or a damp cloth) and diluted white vinegar, wipe away any debris and scum above the waterline. And don’t forget to wipe down the headrests.

Now that you know how to clean your hot tub the right way, you can avoid lots of issues like cloudy water and scummy water. And if you keep your water balanced and your filters clean, you should only have to do a full drain and clean every 3-4 months.

6 Household Products to Clean Your Hot Tub

We want to let you in on a dirty little secret about how to clean a hot tub: you don’t need special spa cleaning products. Sure, it might feel easier to stop at your local pool and spa shop for a hot tub cleaner, but you really don’t need to.

1. White Vinegar to Clean a Hot Tub

If you’re conscientious about cleaning your coffee maker, you probably a bottle of white vinegar sitting in your pantry right now. And if that’s the case, you already know vinegar is an excellent cleaning agent. But have you ever wondered how to clean a hot tub with vinegar? It’s easy.

Typical white vinegar will have an acidity of about 2.5pH, although it can go as high as 4pH. That means it’s strong enough to dissolve messes without the risks of heavy-duty commercial cleaners. For example, it’s less likely to damage a vinyl hot tub cover.

Vinegar cleans by charging the particles of whatever you’re scrubbing. Those charged molecules are then more attracted to positive and negative charges in water molecules, making the offending substance easier to remove.

You can use vinegar to clean all kinds of surfaces, but it’s especially helpful for removing scum lines in your hot tub shell. It’s also really inexpensive, so you’ll save money using vinegar to clean your hot tub instead of a special cleaner.

Important: You may have heard you can use vinegar to clean hot tub pipes too. We strongly recommend against that. It won’t hurt your pipes or anything, it just won’t be effective. Vinegar is an excellent cleaner for a lot of things, just not for the nasty biofilm that accumulates in hot tub plumbing. To make sure it’s removed and your pipes are clear, always use a hot tub line flush product on the plumbing.

What You Need

• White vinegar
• Microfiber cleaning cloth or sponge
• Bucket or spray bottle
• Warm water

Cleaning Instructions

1. If you’re cleaning your hot tub shell, drain your tub first.
2. Mix a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water in a bucket or spray bottle. Give it a good stir or shake to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
3. If you’re using a spray bottle, spray your hot tub shell or cover thoroughly. If you’re using a bucket, carefully pour the vinegar-water solution over what you want to clean.
4. Let the solution sit for fifteen minutes.
5. Wipe down your shell or cover with a cloth or sponge. If you’re dealing with stubborn stains, you may have to repeat the process.
6. Once your shell or cover is clean, rinse it thoroughly before refilling your tub.

You can also use vinegar to clean your filters. Simply soak your filters in a 50% water and 50% vinegar solution for two hours. Keep in mind you may need to use an actual hot tub filter cleaner if it’s really grimy, or replace the filter if it’s beyond cleaning.

2. Olive Oil to Clean a Hot Tub?!

OK, when you think about how to clean a hot tub, you probably don’t think about using oil. That just seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But hear us out.

If you do any cooking at home, you probably have a bottle of olive oil. This common pantry ingredient can also be classified as a detergent because, as an oil, it works to remove other oils that trap dirt.

Say you have a sticky sap stain on your hot tub cover or shell. It’s not something you can easily rub off or wipe away because the stain is basically glued to the surface with an oil film. A detergent or soap helps remove the stain by suspending the grease connecting the dirt to whatever surface you want to clean.

Once you’ve removed the sap, you can use a good surface protectant to keep it from adhering so strongly in the future, saving you some time and elbow grease.

You’ve probably seen olive oil soap in the natural aisle of the grocery store or at a health food store. That’s because olive oil is mostly made of triglycerides, which are the fatty storage molecules in plants and animals. Triglycerides are a primary component of traditional soap, so olive oil is a green alternative to harsher detergents.

What You Need

• Olive oil
• Microfiber cleaning cloth or sponge
• Mild soap
• Warm water

Cleaning Instructions

1. If you’re cleaning your hot tub shell, drain your tub first.
2. Pour a little olive oil onto your cloth or sponge. Gently rub the stain with your cloth until it breaks up.
3. Once the stain has broken up, simply wipe it away.
4. Wash your hot tub shell or cover with mild soap and warm water to clear away any oily residue.
5. If you cleaned your shell, rinse your hot tub thoroughly to prevent foaming when you refill it.

3. Cleaning a Spa with Diluted Bleach

Say you’ve got a case of hot tub folliculitis on your hands. If that’s what you’re facing, you don’t just need to clean your tub. You need to clean and sanitize it.

Like vinegar, bleach breaks the bonds of stains. But it has the added benefit of killing bacteria. Bleach forms a variety of chemicals when added to water, including hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite anion. Hypochlorous acid kills bacteria while hypochlorite anions disrupts the natural processes of a bacteria, rendering it harmless.

You can also use bleach if you have tough stains and scum lines vinegar can’t handle. Bleach destroys molecular chromophore bonds, which are what give the molecules color, which is what stains are.

Important: if you are going to use bleach to clean your hot tub, make sure you thoroughly rinse your tub both before and after cleaning and never, ever mix bleach with anything besides water. Mixing bleach with vinegar or other chemical cleaners can create highly toxic fumes which can irritate your eyes and skin or even cause respiratory failure.

What You Need

• Bleach
• Disposable sponge or shop towels
• Bucket or spray bottle
• Rubber gloves (safety first!)
• Clothes you don’t mind getting stained
• Warm water

Cleaning Instructions

1. Drain your hot tub. If you tried cleaning your tub with anything other than water, make sure you thoroughly rinse those areas.
2. Wearing gloves, mix equal parts of water and bleach in your bucket or spray bottle.
3. If you’re using a spray bottle, spray your hot tub down with the water-bleach mixture. With the bucket, carefully wet the insides of your hot tub with the solution. Try to avoid creating a huge puddle of bleach that you may have to step in later.
4. Let the bleach rest for fifteen minutes.
5. Scrub your hot tub down using a disposable sponge or soft rag.
6. Thoroughly rinse your tub before refilling.

4. Baking Soda

If you’re looking for a versatile cleaner, look no further than a humble box of baking soda. Mixed with water, it creates a base cleaner, or you can use it as a mild abrasive. So if you have a particularly stubborn bit of scum that just won’t go away, simply add a bit of baking soda to your sponge and scrub.

Aside from cleaning your hot tub, baking soda is pretty much a miracle worker around the house if you’re looking for milder ways to clean.

5. Simple Green

If you’ve been wondering how to clean a hot tub without chemicals and without worrying about noxious fumes, Simple Green might be closer to your preference. It isn’t chemical free—everything is chemicals—some are just more potent or toxic than others. But Simple Green is non-toxic and biodegradable.

You can use it for both the interior and exterior of your hot tub, though you should avoid applying it to suede, leather, and unfinished wood. Your best bet is to always test a small, inconspicuous area when trying a new cleaner.

And note that while it doesn’t give off nasty fumes, it also has a … unique scent. Some people love it, and some people whose olfactory sense is functioning properly absolutely hate it. You may want to take a quick whiff of it at the store before you buy it.

What You Need

• Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner
• Microfiber cleaning cloth or sponge
• Bucket or spray bottle (if you need to dilute it)
• Warm water (if you need to dilute it)

Cleaning Instructions

1. Drain your hot tub.
2. Decide whether you want to use the Simple Green at full strength straight from the bottle, or dilute it based on how dirty your hot tub is.
   • For heavy-duty cleaning, mix one cup of cleaner for every cup of water.
   • General purpose cleaning uses one ounce of cleaner for every cup of water.
   • Light cleaning calls for one ounce of cleaner for every two cups of water.
   • Diluting your cleaner can also help save money, provided doing so doesn’t negate its effectiveness.
3. If you’re diluting, mix the proper amount in a bucket or spray bottle.
4. Spray down your hot tub or pour over the shell.
5. Let the Simple Green work for two minutes.
6. Scrub any dirt or stains with a soft cloth or sponge.
7. Rinse with clean water. This is especially important, because this cleaner can cause hot tub foam if you don’t rinse properly, and then you’ll have an even bigger mess on your hands.
8. Repeat steps or decrease dilution if the stains aren’t coming off.

6. Rubbing Alcohol

Using this one is actually more about looking good than it is about cleaning, especially if you have chrome or stainless steel fixtures in your hot tub. Staring at grubby, fingerprint-laden fixtures can get old fast. Alcohol will shine them right up.

What You Need

• Diluted rubbing alcohol (we recommend at least 90% alcohol content)
• Microfiber cleaning cloth or sponge

Cleaning Instructions

1. Drain the tub and clean the shell first using your preferred method if the metal fixtures are under the water line.
2. Add a small amount of rubbing alcohol to your soft cloth or sponge.
3. Scrub the fixtures until they’re nice and shiny.
4. Thoroughly rinse your hot tub before refilling.

Your hot tub isn’t the only thing around your home that has shiny fixtures and other surfaces that can benefit from a few swipes of rubbing alcohol.

Frequently Asked Questions about Hot Tub Cleaning

Need more help cleaning your hot tub? Here are some common questions and answers.

Can I Use Vinegar to Clean a Hot Tub?

Diluted white vinegar is great for cleaning hot tub surfaces, but it’s not the best choice for trying to purge your hot tub plumbing. The sludge that builds up in the pipes responds much better to a hot tub line flush that’s powerful enough to break down any biofilm completely.

What Should I Use to Clean the Inside of My Hot Tub?

Because your hot tub shell is made of acrylic and can scratch easily, use a soft cloth or sponge to wipe down your surfaces. Use diluted white vinegar or a hot tub shell polish. Finally, a multi-surface cleaner that’s made to clean vinyl, fabric, and metal can be used to clean your hot tub cover.

How Do I Clean a New Hot Tub?

To clean a brand new hot tub, start by rinsing the jets, filter well, and shell with water. That’s because new hot tubs are usually shipped with antifreeze inside the fittings and plumbing. Then drain and remove the water with a sump pump, shop vac, or garden hose. Wipe down the surfaces with a soft cloth and diluted white vinegar, then fill the hot tub with filtered water.

When Should I Drain My Hot Tub?

While weekly cleaning will help with most hot tub issues, plan to drain your hot tub and change out the water every three to four months. This also includes purging your hot tub pipes.

Why do you need to drain and clean your plumbing? Every time you use your spa, contaminants like hair products, sweat, and body oils get into the water and pass through the filter and plumbing. And as those contaminants pass through the pipes, they start to build up and create a layer called biofilm. The only way to get rid of biofilm is to drain your hot tub and use a line flush cleaner.

Besides regularly draining it every three to four months, you’ll need to drain your hot tub if:

• Your spa is giving off foul odors.
• The water won’t clear, no matter what you do.
• You’ve been using your spa more frequently or you’ve had more people use it than usual.
• You haven’t used your spa for a long time.

Key Takeaways

• Drain and deep clean your hot tub every three to four months to remove biofilm buildup and total dissolved solids that your regular sanitizer can’t eliminate.
• Always purge your plumbing with a line flush cleaner before draining. Run the jets on high for at least 20 minutes to break down biofilm inside the pipes.
• Clean your filter cartridge while the tub drains. Rinse it with a hose weekly and soak it in a filter cleaning solution every time you do a full drain. Replace filters that are over a year old or visibly damaged.
• Use diluted white vinegar or a hot tub surface cleaner on the shell. Wipe with a soft cloth to avoid scratching the acrylic. Rinse thoroughly before refilling to prevent foaming.
• Refill through a hose filter to remove metals and minerals. Place the hose inside the filter compartment to fill the plumbing first and help prevent airlocks.
• Balance your water chemistry in the right order after refilling. Adjust total alkalinity (80 to 120 ppm) first, then pH (7.4 to 7.6), and finally add your sanitizer. Keep jets on low and the air blower off when adding chemicals.