No matter how hard you try, you’ll still get dirt, sand and other debris settling on the bottom of your hot tub. Some of it gets carried in by the the wind and some on the bottoms of feet. The rest appears purely by magic. Poof! There it is.
For a while, I kept trying to come up with ideas for getting it out. I needed something beyond the normal spa cleaning tips. Initial attempts included an aquarium fish net duct-taped to a long dowel and a long hose connected to the end of a wet-dry shop vac. Thankfully, that last idea never went from Eureka! to reality.
Then one late-summer afternoon, I was in a rural general store and happened to look at the clearance table. There were some toys on it and one of them caught my attention.
Eureka (for real, this time)!
It was a water or pool toy used to shoot long streams of water. Essentially, it’s like a 3-foot syringe with about a 2-inch diameter tube. You pull the pistol grip handle at one end and suck water up into the other end. When it’s full, you point it in the air and blast an impressively long stream of water.
What does that have to do with spa cleaning and removing the grit in the bottom of your hot tub? A lot, I hoped. So I bought it and put it to the test.
I put the open end near the grit and pulled the handle. The grit and water around it was quickly sucked into the tube. Then I pointed it toward the yard (not the kids, not the neighbor’s dog… (not that time, anyway) and pushed the handle. Grit gone, and in a display that rivaled the fountains of Venice. Hot tub cleaning has never been more fun!
There was only one issue. The tip of the one I bought was black and I discovered it was leaving little black marks on my white, pearlescent tub bottom. No problem. I wrapped the end with packing tape and cut out the hole with an Xacto knife. No more marks.
You can find these toys in lots of different department stores or online. Mine is called the “Stream Machine” and I’ve seen another one called “Water Blaster.” There may be others. There are several lengths available, so be sure to get the long one. I got mine on clearance for about $5, but you can buy them new for under $15. After using it for a couple years now, I believe it’s well worth the money.
It doesn’t remove much water at all, and that’s never been an issue for me. However, if you’re concerned about throwing away water that you’ve lovingly treated, just squirt the water in a bucket, wait till the grit settles, and gently pour back the clean water.
One other piece of sound advice…hide it from the kids.
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