Freezing water literally broke the end off of this pipe.
Regardless if you use a pump or just open the drain hose in your tub, you will still have anywhere from 5 to 20 gallons of water in your pipes when it’s empty. During the winter, that water will freeze and often crack the pipes it’s hiding in.
To protect your investment, the water must be blown out using compressed air, and antifreeze needs to be added to prevent the trace water from freezing.
The drains in your foot wells are especially susceptible to freezing since the piping is at the bottom of the hot tub. Depending upon the construction of your hot tub, those pipes are hard if not impossible to access to repair.
The bottom line is that merely draining your hot tub for the winter is a sure way to insure you will have leaks in the spring
