What Kind Of Blade Do You Use To Cut A Hot Tub?

The kind of blade we use to cut a hot tub is the Diablo DEMO DEMON 12″ Pruning blade with Carbide Teeth.

After years of removing spas and trying different reciprocating blades from different brands, this is by far the best blade in terms of performance and price that we’ve used and you can purchase them from their site by clicking here or going to your local hardware store.  Note that we haven’t tested all the variations of brands, styles, and sizes.  We are not affiliated with any of these brands in any way, and these are only our opinions.

Reciprocating Saw Blades We’ve Tested

DeWalt

The first blade that we used to cut up a hot tub was a standard DeWalt saw blade from a multi pack.  I have a DeWalt Reciprocating Saw and absolutely love it, and I figured why not try these first.

That being said, I was unimpressed with these blades for this particular application.  They ran dull very quickly and I basically used the whole multi-pack for the first half of a spa.

Pros: Cheapest, my favorite brand and color
Cons: Wore out nearly instantly and had to use 15+

Milkwaukee

We used two of the Milwaukee reciprocating saw blades for cutting up spas.  The first was the following:

The Wrecker

I’ve used the Wrecker before when working with a general contractor.  It was our blade of choice for most applications.  That being said, it performed just ok.  While it’s useful for getting though the harder areas, it tends to gum up or dull when cutting through the fiberglass.  We had to use 4 blades to cut through an entire spa using only this blade.

Pros: Was able to cut through the plastic tubes and pipes easily
Cons: Gummed up / dulled quickly when going through large portions of fiberglass, and very expensive

The Ax

We love the Ax from Milwaukee when it comes to cutting through fiberglass.  It was an excellent blade that did not dull or wear or gum up easily.  It was able to cut through the spa by only using 2 blades.  That was by far the lowest amount of blades we had to use compared to any previous attempts.  The problem, however, is the price tag.  These aren’t cheap whatsoever, and if you are inexperienced in cutting through fiberglass tubs, then you may end up needing more than two and costing you quite a bit of money.

Pros: This is best blade we used in terms of performance
Cons: Too expensive

Diablo

After the sticker shock of the Ax, we decided to try the Diablo brand.  There were a lot of them at our local Home Depot, so we figured they were probably a good brand.  The first one we tried was on sale in a multi-pack:

Demo Demon 9″ General Purpose with Carbide Teeth

The first mistake we made with this purchase was thinking that 9″ was enough to cut through the thick fiberglass and insulation.  We ended up having to make multiple passes in the thickest of areas that came from both sides.  It was a pain.  However, the carbide teeth were surprisingly sharp and durable.  We noticed that if we had a fresh blade, we’d be able to cut through the plastic tubes really easily.  That being said, it wasn’t the perfect solution.

Pros: Was able to cut the difficult parts easily, and lasted a decently long time
Cons: Length of the blade, and gummed up much quicker than the AX

Demo Demon 12″ Pruning Blade with Carbide Teeth

I first saw this blade, but it was pretty expensive compared to the deals that Diablo had for the general purpose blades.  It was the same style a the AX which we loved, and figured it was probably going to perform similarly.  When we went to our hardware store one day before an appointment, we saw that there was a sale where you got 2 blades for the price of 1.  We immediately purchased two packs to test them out, and I have to say we haven’t looked back.  These blades performed the same, if not better than the AX.  We were able to cut up a spa using only two of these blades.

When we went to the store to get more of these the next time, we decided to take advantage of the incredible deal they were promoting, and purchased 30 packs.  That many blades are probably going to last us a few months to half a year, and if there were more I would have bought more.

Pros: Incredible performance on par with the AX
Cons: Expensive when not buying on discount

What We’ve Learned

We’ve learned that not all blades are created equally.  While the AX and the similar blade from Diablo performed similarly, it was no question that the Diablo had promotions that made it the clear winner.

Important blade specs to keep in mind:

• 12 inch blade
• carbide teeth
• pruning style teeth

With those three specs satisfied, you probably can’t go too wrong!  Thanks for reading, and reach out if you have any questions or want to give us free blades to test!