7 Ways (Including Vacuuming) To Remove Dirt From Your Hot Tub

No matter how clean you keep your hot tub, you’re bound to get some dirt and debris in it from time to time: either from the wind blowing stuff in, from the bottoms of people’s feet, and however else stuff gets in water.

Some things you can do to keep it to a minimum is to ask people to shower before they get in, keep towels nearby to wipe your feet, and keep your hot tub covered when not in use.

But I’m here to tell you, even if you were able to enforce these rules 100% of the time, somehow grit will still find a way in!

Lucky for you, though, there are some ways to get rid of it.

Nobody likes grit between their toes (or anywhere else) while they are trying to relax in a hot tub, after all. 

So here are seven ways—including my favorite, using a vacuum—to get dirt out of your hot tub.

1. Use a vacuum

There are variety of different vacuums and suctioning devices you can use to clean your hot tub.

Spa wands, which I will mention later, are technically also a type of manual vacuum, but if you want to get something a little faster and more powerful, you can buy something like these mini jet vacuum cleaners.

They attach to your hose to create a suction that quickly removes any dirt and debris from your hot tub.

They also have their own filter bags, and the larger opening makes them ideal for removing leaves and other large debris.

Bottom line: if you’re looking to remove dirt and sand, using a hot tub vacuum is often your best bet.

2. Use a pool toy

Yep, I recommend using those fun water squirters you get the kids to play with to suck up the water and grit from the bottom of the hot tub.

You just pull the handle out near the dirt or debris you want to remove and voila! The stuff gets sucked up into the tube with some of the water.

Just make sure you don’t shoot the streams of water back into the tub! 

You can also use water guns if you have those laying around.

Or better yet, get the kids to do it. It’s not a super fast fix, but it is a super fun one!

3. Siphon the water out

This one is not quite as much fun, but it is very effective.

You basically make your own vacuum with a piece of garden hose.

To do this, you just need a few feet of garden hose that you have cut the ends off of, and then insert most of the hose into the water until it is mostly full.

Then, quickly pull the top end of the hose out of the water, lowering it below water level outside of the hot tub. 

Now the immersed end of the hose has become a vacuum.

You’ll just need to direct it over the dirt and grit in your tub and it will suction it all out.

Just be sure to refill your hot tub if you lose too much water during the process!

4. Use a spa wand

A spa wand is basically just like those water squirter pool toys we talked about, except it’s made longer to reach the floor of the hot tub from outside the water.

What it does have that the squirters don’t, though, is a filter basket that allows you to easily dump the sediment out of the wand to make sure it doesn’t get back in the water. 

These are pretty handy and inexpensive tools to keep around for continued use.

5. Use silly putty

This may sound…well…silly, but the same stuff you used to play with as a kid is a pretty handy hot tub cleaner.

Silly putty is completely waterproof and it can be pressed into the sediment on the bottom of the hot tub to pick it up.

All that gunk sticks right to it and you just peel it off and throw it away.

This is another great trick to get the kids to help!

6. Use a turkey baster

Another weird tool to clean out the hot tub, I know, but it’s easy to use and almost everyone has one laying around.

Simply squeeze the bulb while the opening of the baster is near the sediment on the bottom of the pool and watch it suck up everything around it!

7. Use a grit gritter

The Grit Gitter is made specifically for the purpose of removing grit from your hot tub.

It works pretty much the same way as the turkey baster, except it’s a bigger bottle that fits in your hand, and also has a larger tip that covers a bit more area.

You just place the opening over the area you want to clean and squeeze and release the bottle, and will suck up the dirt around it and you can empty the bottle outside the hot tub.

Bottom line

While we recommend vacuuming your hot tub to keep it the cleanest, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep the grit out of your hot tub. 

In fact, most of the tools here can be found around your house or in your kids’ toy box.

Keeping the dirt and debris out not only keeps it feeling cleaner, it also keeps germs and algae from forming around it.

Try out one of these solutions and see if it works, or let us know if you have a different method we should try out!