Leak - Driving me nuts

[Siamese]

Hi everyone.

Pool has been leaking since I opened it this year. Currently losing about 1.5" per day. :x

I thought the problem may have been with the gaskets around the stairs, Yesterday I used the A-B epoxy putty to seal up the entire area where the liner and stairs meet. Confirmed no leaking there with a dye test.

Last night, I plugged both skimmers, the main drain, and both returns. Lost .5" in 8 hours. None of this loss was through evaporation, the level in bucket did not change.

Am I right in thinking that this has got to be a liner leak? In the deep end, there are some wrinkles that look like they have some water underneath. But they are rather small and I can't imagine I'd be losing 1.5" of water in a 40x20 pool through those, considering the water also has to get through the concrete under the liner.

Any ideas on what I'm missing? What size hole/tear should I be looking for to be responsible for so much water?

 

[DWSPool]

A couple of years ago we were experiencing significant leakage through our aging vinyl liner, mainly at the corner where the vertical steel wall meets the vermiculite-bottomed slope in the deep end. It was difficult to see the leak because of the speckled liner pattern. Turns out it was slightly more faded than other areas, probably because when pouring bleach in the pool, more concentrated in the leak area and faded the spot over a long time.

All that to say, doesn't take much of a hole to lose the amount of water you are talking about, especially if there is 3 or more feet of water above it. How old is your liner? After several vinyl patch jobs, we finally broke down and had a new liner installed.

 

[duraleigh]

considering the water also has to get through the concrete under the liner

The bottom is likely not concrete but sand or vermiculite which is very porous. That said, the bottom of the deep end is usually not the most common place for a leak.

Have you let the pool leak down a ways to see if it will stop receding?

 

[Siamese]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

I haven't done a very thorough job of scanning the deep end for tears, thinking that the stairs were the problem and not thinking that the water could get through the concrete easily. I'll do a more thorough search and see what I find.

The liner is about 10 years old and I actually have a new one, but hoping we can make ot another season or two and defer the $3500 installation costs.

I've let the pool drop to about 2 feet in the shallow end with no noticeable slowing of the leak.

 

[duraleigh]

You could probably let it go a little more than that if water is cheap enough. I think the consensus here on the forum is to make sure the water stays 6 inches deep in the shallow end.

It's really hard to do but if you persevere, you will find it.