I have a leak and need suggestions

[S1ngram]

I've had a string of bad luck with my pool over the last two weeks. I thought I was through all of it and I was going to be able to squeak out a few more swims before closing. Sadly, it now appears that I either did not correctly repair and 8" rip in the bottom of my pool liner, or that I have an additional area leaking and have no idea how to locate it.

I repaired the rip in the liner 1 1/2 weeks ago with a Boxer brand vinyl repair kit I purchased from the pool store. I did the repair using patches that increased in size for a total of three patches. I left it alone for much longer than 24 hours. Things seemed OK. I vacuumed the pool yesterday and added water from my hose and I was nearly to the recommended fill amount for my pool. I wanted to finish adding the water this morning, but when I pulled the solar cover back, I was discouraged to see the water level had fallen significantly. I immediately jumped in and checked the patch to find the one of the corners was loose. I used the patch material I had on hand and used three overlapping strips placed perpendicular to the original patch. I'm still losing water. I only had a 1 gallon ice cream bucket handy, but in 5 hours, I've lost 1/4". And that's with the pool cover covering both pool and bucket.

How do I do a dye test correctly? If that location is no longer leaking, how on earth will I ever find the leak?

 

[pooldv]

Bummer! Squirt the dye into the water near where you think the leak is and see if the dye is drawn toward the hole. We saw someone once who sent their kids in to swim around and look for holes and they found a few.

 

[duraleigh]

The dye test is VERY difficult! You must hold the dye "injector" within 1/4 " or so of the leak and if the water is moving at all (usually from you trying to get down to the leak), the dye will be whisked away before it can be drawn in.

Just playing the percentages, the leak is probably where you patched it.

 

[S1ngram]

Thanks for the responses! Yes Duraleigh, I agree with everything you said. I attempted the dye test and found the results less than impressive. I guess I could buy more patch material and go over it a third time. With my solar cover on, I lost 5/8" from 1pm yesterday until 7am this morning.

 

[pooldv]

That is definitely a leak, normal evaporation with no cover is 1/8-1/4" per day. Here is a page with some tips, Pool School - Leak Detection

 

[S1ngram]

Thanks pooldv, I saw a leak detection video on you tube using a syringe, food coloring, aquarium tubing and PVC. I think I need to do some shopping for supplies.

 

[S1ngram]

Finally, the leak is fixed. I looked and looked and found nothing. The pool store sent a guy out and he found one small one and a bigger one in 15 minutes. That was frustrating. He did say that I did a great job on the other patch so that was nice.