Nuisances are the things that won’t cause permanent damage to the hot tub: cloudy water, dirty filters, and jets popping out.
Pipe freezing is when the big, expensive damage gets done to your hot tub. It is usually caused by improper winterizing, or surprise power failures.
Hot tub frozen in the snow
When winterizing a hot tub, you must get all of the water out of it. Most people, however, don’t realize that just draining the hot tub doesn’t remove all of the water. After draining, most hot tubs still hold 5-20 gallons of water in the pipes, which will freeze up when winter temperatures drop below 32 degrees. Freezing water expands, and often that causes pipes to crack. The average cost of a repair from draining the tub improperly was $1900 in 2022.
A less frequent cause of pipe freezing is losing power during the winter. That can be caused by a power outage to your home, or something in the hot tub tripping your circuit breaker.
If you lose power at your home, and the outside temperature is 32 degrees, and your hot tub is at 100 degrees, you have some time you have to worry. Hot tubs with decent covers will hold the heat in for many days. Of course, the colder it is outside, the quicker the water in the hot tub will cool off. Unless you have a generator, there’s not much you can do about a power outage. And if you do have a generator, remember that a hot tub heater and pump will draw at least 20 AMPS, which will strain most small generators.
Fish tank heaters make great hot tub emergency heaters.
For emergency use, you can get an electric heater and put it inside the hot tub base. It will prevent freeze ups without using the hot tub. A 1500 watt electric heater will not tax your generator as badly as trying to run the entire hot tub.
Another easy to use electric heater that works great in a hot tub is a 500 watt fish tank heater. They are inexpensive and don’t require you to open up the hot tub to put a heater into the base.
The best action you can take to protect your hot tub from unexpected winter problems is to have an emergency backup plan, including the tools you’ll need, before the problem occurs. Get yourself those electric heaters now so they are ready to go when your hot tub shuts off in the dead of winter. Here’s a link to our article about your hot tub first aid kit.