I need help... fast. The drain line coming out of the side of the pool started leaking somewhere inside the white circle. I'm loosing water fast and can't stop it. I tried tightening the white thing down tighter and I tried epoxy putty. There's no shut off or any way to stop the water, and there's a cover over the drain on the other side so I can't even get a plug in there. It's leaking fast and I'll have no water left in the pool in not very long, my liner and cover will be ruined.

The main problem is I'm afraid the leak is where the pipe goes into the pool (I'm not sure how the seal between the pipe and pool itself works), so even if I could somehow plug the pipe, it's still going to leak. What's my options here? Is it time to call in professionals?

To slow it down a bit, put some Saran wrap over the fitting on the inside! Th water pressure will keep it in place while you try to figure it out. Any better pics possible? I can't even really see what you are referring to.

I tried a plastic bag, but it's still leaking. That black pipe goes into the side of the pool. To secure it in place, there's a white screw-on ring that compresses some washers/gaskets. I don't know how exactly the pipe passes into the pool itself, but whatever kind of seal is there, that's what's leaking. I'll get some better close-up pics tomorrow.

Better picture:


The water is leaking inside the white ring, along the side of the grey thing. It's also leaking on the outside of the white ring to the right.

I think it may be time to bite the bullet and call in someone who knows what they're doing...

Have you tried tightening the white ring a little? That may be all it takes to stop it.

It's tightened down as hard as possible.

Don't forget when tightening that ring you don't loosen that grey fitting. It doesn't look snug. Undue the ring loose and put jacks lube on the threads and re-tighten.

The grey ring is tight. I pulled back the cover a bit and looked in the pool, and apparently the drain is slightly seperated from the pool wall. So, I'll pay a lot for it, but the pool store is coming out to fix it.

If you change your liner some point in the future don't forget you can then decide to get rid of this troublesome drain.

just remove the old fittings
pop rivet a sheet of aluminum over the hole (with atleast 2" overlap)
duct tape the edges down to protect the liner from any sharp edges and to mask the appearance of any pop rivet or edges showing through.

You can decide to get rid of that line all together or you can just move it up higher and turn it into a side wall suction (personally though I don't like SWS unless you have a valve or safety system in place to prevent kids from getting sucked on them)

Funny you mentioned this today, because I went to check it today and the whole thing blew out from ice. It froze itself shut but what can I do to not loose all the water in the pool once this melts?

at this point i would try what the previous owner did and unhook the plumbing near the pump and keep that end of the pipe up in the air above the water level in the pool.

It seperated where the connection enters the pool.

rubber compression plug is your best bet then, even still it won't hold to well if it's just holding onto a thin pool wall.