Here is the scenario that I just went through. When I removed my mesh cover off of my pool a few weeks ago to start the season the pool was full to the top of the skimmer. After pumping the debris on the bottom of the pool to waste I proceeded to go ahead and put the multi-port in the recirculate position, as I wanted to circulate the bleach that I shocked the pool with. I put in about ten gallons of bleach, as per the pool calculator recommended. In the next 24 hours the pool proceeded to loose approx. 500 gallons of water!! I immediately proceeded to shut down the pump and went back to the pool and capped the skimmer and all returns to pool. The only thing uncapped was the bottom drain. Over the next 4 days the pool lost another 1000 gallons!! The following day we had a huge storm and the pool filled back up. It stayed full!! I left it alone for two more days and the water level maintained. I went ahead and opened pool back up and started filtering water. I am curious if adding that amount of bleach could have caused such a huge water loss. The weather here has only been in the upper 70s with low humidity. I live in the Louisville, KY area, and I am STUMPED!! Theories or opinions will be greatly appreciated.
Water Loss??
- Thread starter tnewton7
- Start date
iggy
0
I don't have an answer where the water went but you are telling us that you lost 1500 gallons of water in two days and you don't see any puddling? Is the ground base sandy? Is so then I can see where the water is going from a leak.
Inground pool, 8 foot deep end. I did not see any pooling water anywhere, which is why I am stumped. I checked around all inlets and outlet, except for bottom drain, with dye. No sign of leakage anywhere. I am CONFUSED!!
Is it possible that you are only losing water when the pump is running? If so you will be losing water again now that you have turned it back on. Other than that possibility I am stumped.
When you pump to "waste", can you see where the water goes? If so, check it out. I would suspect, since you moved that multiport valve twice, that somehow it did not get seated correctly and you are still pumping SOME, but not all, of your water to "waste".
I can see where my waste water is piped to. I had all ball valves turned off an had all returns and skimmer plugged. the only drain that was uncovered was the main drain, and it was shut off at the ball valve. The water loss had to be occurring in the pool itself, or in the piping between the main drain and the ball valve. I just cant imagine a leak that significant sealing itself. I cant believe that evaporation would explain this either. 1500 gallons. It just does not make sense. That is why I posted to see if anyone saw something that I did not see
How far down did your level go? I would think a couple of feet if you lost 1500 gallons? If so, I can't imagine that it filled back up from the rain unless it was one whopper of a downpour! I'm wondering if you have a leak somewhere and the rain temporarily saturated the ground enough to where water was leaking back into your pool. If so, when the ground dries out you will start losing water again. I would think that if water were leaking back in it would be muddy, but if you're still in the process of cleaning your pool you may not have been able to tell.
I will throw one more possible idea out. On my opening instructions for my pool it states to never operate main drain with leaves or Debris in the pool. It says it could cover the main drain and suck the hydrostatic valve open and you will have a leak. Just a thought I have never had this problem. I hope you find it soon.
I estimated my loss based on my pool size of 18x36 inground. The theory of the water table in the ground equalizing with the water level in the deep end was one that I also thought was a possibility. We have had a few periods of rain since and the ground is saturated. I would have thought Iwould have seen mud, or some other sign of this. I guess I will have to wait for dry weather and see what happens. Unfortunately the warranty on the install runs out in early July, so I was really trying to resolve this issue A.S.A.P. I am interested in knowing if anyone on here has hired on of the companies that use a diver and ultrasonic testing for leak detection. I am curious about pricing, success rate, etc.
I am having nearly exactly the same problem where I'm losing hundreds of gallons a week and, yet, the ground around my pool and equipment is completely dry. I am about to have a leak detection service come out to check things out for me, but I haven't had time to deal with it. I called an outfit that charges a flat $275 to find all the leaks. They guarantee they will find every leak for that price and they also provide a quote for fixing them, too. They supposedly also have equipment that can detect even the slightest drop in water level in only 15 minutes and will tell me the rate of loss from this test.
I'll post the results once I have them come out to my house.
I'll post the results once I have them come out to my house.
I just did the bucket test again (twice in two days just to be sure) and it seems I don't have a leak. I do have a lot of evaporation, I guess. From 9:00 this morning to 8:30 this evening, both the pool and the bucket lost about 1/2" of water. I had to make sure the bucket didn't have a hole in it.
Is that a reasonable rate of evaporation? I have to run the fill nearly 15 minutes a day just to keep the level steady and the water company is about to impose water rationing on all customers in my area.
Is that a reasonable rate of evaporation? I have to run the fill nearly 15 minutes a day just to keep the level steady and the water company is about to impose water rationing on all customers in my area.
iggy
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Well tnewton7
Was the water loss from evaporation or a leak?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Iggy
Was the water loss from evaporation or a leak?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Iggy
The jury is still out.Last week I shut the pump back down when forecast called for cool and cloudy temps. The water proceeded to drop about 6 inches over the next 3 days. According to my calculations that is almost 2000 Gallons!! The bucket test I performed while doing this showed nowhere near the loss that the pool had incurred. It went down to about 1/2 inch down on the returns and seemed to stop at that point. I found a 1 inch tear in the liner approx. 1 inch above where the water loss stopped in the side wall. It was right at the seam where the 4 foot fiberglass walls where bolted together, nowhere near a liner seam. Patched that up. Still leaking water, but at a much lower rate than before. I have had several rainy bouts this week and have not had a chance to perform a new bucket test. It has turned super hot here in Louisville. Combined with what I believe to be a pool with almost no CYA and hot temps I have been pouring the bleach to the pool. I dont know if this would increase the evaporation rate of the water to explain the loss of water or not. My tf-100 is on the truck for delivery as we speak, so I will have an answer to the CYA question soon. Would the increased bleach usage be a factor in increased evaporation, or is the water just using the bleach up to maintain the low level that I have? Whew, sorry to be so long winded, but I like to give full info when looking for answers.
iggy
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tnewton7 said:
So you still have a few leaks. At least you found one that was at a high level on the pool.
To answer your question ablout bleach and evaporation. Bleach will have no affect on evaportaion.
I cover my pool with a blue bubble blanket when not in use or a big wind storm is coming.
I think that helps my pool from evaporating away water.
Good Luck.
Iggy in Arizona