Leak in Pool. Can a chlorinator damage PVC piping?

[Alexk401]

Hi Guys

Here is the issue I am having.....I have a 20k gallon fiberglass pool……pool has a skimmer and main drane, water then runs through a sand filter and then through the returns…for the returns I have one in the shallow end, and one in the middle, or I can run it to the two love seats jets, which are on the opposite sides of the deep end…

I have been experiencing water loss and finally got someone to address the issue. When I opened the pool for the season there was no water loss….so I know it had to be in the piping. The pool specialist basically isolated the issue to the piping on returns on the love seats as having a leak based on plugging the holes as well as some other tests he conducted. He basically explained to me that the damage was done because of the chlorinator, and that over time chlorine had damaged the PVC piping, and that this is very common.

My 2 options moving forward is either to plug the returns on the love seats, and just use the other 2, or I would have to break up the cement near the loves seats and do some digging and put new pipes in. In either scenario the chlorinator will not be part of the set up anymore and I was advised to just use a floater. I am going with option one to just plug up the returns on the love seats, as I don’t really care about that….but was hoping if someone can advise if it is true that in fact the chlorinator can damage PVC pipes?

I am a new pool owner so any feedback is much appreciated.

 

[duraleigh]

Chlorine, especially in the diluted ppm's we work with can not damage PVC. That's silly.

He is so far off base on his chlorine ideas, I would suspect he may be that far off with his detection services.

 

[wjr75]

I have seen some company's that claim to fill the pipe with the leak with some solution that then seals the leak. You don't need to dig up the pipe. I thought I may have had a leak on the pressure side in my pool so I had googled it. Not sure how well it works however.

 

[Alexk401]

Thanks duraliegh. Would it be possible if the previous owner had at one time used some sort of highly concentrated cholorine to cause the damage? Either way I was surprised to hear this as well, as a new pool owner I am just trying to make sense of it. He mentioned this is pretty common and he has seen this quite often and that chlorinators shouldn't be used on PVC pipe as it will break down over time.

 

[DanielP]

Would it be possible if the previous owner had at one time used some sort of highly concentrated cholorine to cause the damage?

Trichlor tablets is the most concentrated form that I know of and any damage is going to be done within the chlorinator itself as it slowly dissolves but water isn't flowing to dilute it. If the chlorinator was the problem, the PVC pipe just inches after the chlorinator would break before the pipe 20 feet away would. If you have a cracked pipe, it is most likely an issue caused by freezing or the ground shifting.