when i drained mine i removed it. thier was another thread on this bout a month or so ago. some of the guys said they just pumped the ball to get a siphon going. i dont believe you can get it all that way. was real ez on mine. i just drank coffe and smoked cigarettes while my nephew and his bud busted thier rumps. it only took em about 20 minutes or so, start to finish. i then dumped it and then filled it about quarter full with water and sucked it out with shop vac. did that a couple times to get ALL the debri. put in water to float debris and keep it from blowing up.