HELP! Chasing down leak.

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M

Magus

0
May 23, 2014
45
Ann Arbor Michigan
So...After reading all of the things folks were saying about leaks and how it is almost NEVER the lines themselves...the weak points are at the connections. So...I started digging and I found this.
View attachment 41150
Up until this point, I was losing about an inch of water in an 8 hr period.
I repaired it and now it looks like this
View attachment 41151

Now instead of losing an inch ever 8 hrs, I lost an inch over a 24 hr period...with some swimming done today. This still seems like a lot of water to be losing.

So after filling my pool up to the bottom of one of the skimmer screws. I plugged up both returns and the skimmer to see if there is a leak going on anywhere else.

Things that I do know"
The skimmer was replaced at some point.
If I leave the plug out of the skimmer, the water will drop into the skimmer line...without the pool being on.

I have no main drain...that was abandoned a while ago
that is also plugged with a black plug.

The original pool was built using black poly line.
The Return line in the picture is the return on the right hand side of the pool...there is also one on the left...that was also repaired at some point.
Both of these are tied to one line from my filter....located in the basement of my house.
being that the black poly is underground, I will assume that they are connected with a (T) type fitting...I also know that the pipes coming into the house..through the foundation wall are copper. ...so they had to go from black poly to copper at some point.

I do NOT know how deep the T connection is. The guy who built the pool 40 years ago said the return lines ran along or were embedded into the footing of the pool..whatever that means. ...so the lines could be 3 fee deep, could be 6 feet deep...dont know.

What else can I possibly do?
I am open to suggestions.
 
You need to do the bucket test to see if you still have a leak. I think you do.

The poly connections with clamps were never designed to have a 40 year life buried in the ground. Do you have air in your pump basket?

Is the pump lower than the pool?


I would look around the skimmer and the suction lines coming off of it. Fill the pool and do the dye test around the skimmer and in the skimmer with the pump turned off.

This is a fiberglass pr vinyl pool?
 
I have no air in the pump basket.
The pump is lower than the pool. Pump and filter are down in the basement. So from where the pump is, the return lines are about 7~8 feet above.

I did not dig on the suction side of the pool because I don't have ant air bubbles in the pump basket...but if the skimmer is left unplugged I will not find any water in it...it goes God knows where.


This is a 25,000 gal fiberglass pool with a concrete bottom.
 
6:00am Update. I closed off both returns and the skimmer with plugs last night at about 7:00pm. Still lost about an inch with no pump running and everything plugged up... Cluld it be the light fixture?
I went around the entire thing with marine grade silicone...?
 
Yes, keep them plugged.....for exactly the reason you propose.

I would not let the pool drain completely because of the possibility of groundwater dislodging it. I would start to refill if it gets down to 2/3 empty.
 

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As Dave suggested let it go down to about 2/3 empty keeping at least a foot of water in the shallow end. Then refill. If it stops that the level of your leak.

If it keeps going l would look closely at the joint between the concrete floor and the fiberglass sides.
 
So...It finally stopped at the bottom of the screw on the skimmer. I think it stopped because I used some atlas epoxy putty around the old return skimmer. After looking at it. it seemed that water could leak behind the plate.
There is also no place for the water to go...no seams...nothing.
View attachment 41211

So..Do I fill it up to the next screw on the skimmer to see if it holds? Do I unplug the skimmer and returns.

Update: Looks like it is still on the move, guess I will wait until tomorrow morning.
 
So...This is what it looks like I am dealing with.

This is with everything still plugged up.

What would be the suggestion.


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I had a leak a few years ago and I bought a syringe without the needle (don't remember where I got mine), and red food coloring from the local supermarket and fill up the pool with a couple of inches of water. Use your pictures as reference and slowly place some coloring at any suspicious locations. If you were losing that much water, the food coloring should tell you where it is.
 
So, I went back out to the pool and used some blue food coloring around both returns as well as they skimmer...NOTHING! The dye would not find is way through any leak, it would go one direction then another...but it would not focus into any one point. I put the food coloring into the skimmer and it did somewhat the same thing...except this went to the threads at the bottom where I have the green plug. It has not gone past this point. Also...there are no seams. I caulked each seam with vulkem 116...let that cure for 7 days, used epoxy primer and then went over it with epoxy paint..so all seams of the fiberglass wall are sealed.

- - - Updated - - -

The lowest it has gone is the top lip of the skimmer. There is even water holding just beyond the lip of the skimmer. Does the door of the skimmer come off? could there be a hole or a leak where the little trap door connects to the skimmer?
 
Since you responded so quickly, I have to ask.....did you put more water into the pool before doing this leak test? If you did, then at this point I would consider hiring a professional. A couple of years ago some of my furniture was blown into the pool because of a storm which caused 5 leaks. The water would stop right at the top of the return and I was so sure that's where the leak was but I couldn't find it. After a couple of weeks of searching, I hired a pro and they found them in a couple of hours. One of the leaks was on the pool floor on the shallow end, I would've never found that one, well, actually, I didn't find any of them.

Edit: none of the leaks were by the return.
 
+1 to adding a couple of inches of water above where it leaks down to. If it is already leaked down then I would not expect the water to leak or draw in the food coloring. Add a couple of inches of water and give it another shot.
 

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