Leaking pool light suspected

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G

Gibbs

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Jun 27, 2012
27
Our Sylvan in ground pool leaks about an inch of water per day and after fixing and ruling out several other possibilities we believe the leak to be in the recessed Sylvan light fixture. I saw some pictures of the Sylvan light in another thread and was wondering if the leak is determined to be where the wires penetrate the pool wall (with a food coloring dye test) how best to plug and seal the leak?

I was thinking of leaving the wires intact and applying epoxy putty around them at the wall should that be the location of the leak.
 
The light itself doesn’t turn on and trips the GFI which happens to be the switch we use for on/off. I’m suspecting some type of wiring corrosion assuming a blown light bulb itself isn’t enough to trip the GFI. The bulb has never been changed and we’ve never removed the light from the niche so this will be the first time in 37 years.

I was in the water today with a scuba mask checking the light out and this looks like it’s going to be a little project. First I need to use food dye to see if the light is where the leak is and if not I will be happy just to leave it alone. Getting the light out of the niche and up onto the deck shouldn’t be too hard. Applying the epoxy putty inside the back part of the niche where the wire penetrates the pool wall might be tricky because we have water in the pool. Not impossible though.
 
Back in the water again and discovered that by wiggling the light with two fingers it just pops right out. No tools needed. It looks exactly like the Sylvan light in the pictures in this thread pool-light-for-old-sylvan-pool-t45374.html . I used a big wad of epoxy putty to seal the gap around the electric cord so that the light can be used again at some point in the future after the burned out bulb is replaced.

This operation was very time consuming as it was performed underwater and holding my breath. Afterward I made a note of the water level and, knock on wood, it will be the same level tomorrow morning. We’ve been losing about ½ inch of water per day so if the leak still persists it will be obvious.

If all goes well I still have to jam 4 feet of electric cord back in the niche and pop the light back in the fixture.
 
After 48 hours we’ve only lost about 3/8” of water and I’m attributing this to normal evaporation combined with wind and swimming the past few days. Next task is to replace the 2 pool light bulbs.
 
It’s been over 3 weeks since I last added water to the pool and I can say now with certainty that the leak has been repaired. We’ve lost almost as much water in the span of over 3 weeks that we used to lose every 4 days.
 
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