Evening, all. I'm brand new to pools, and I've been lurking and leeching off your collective expertise on the chemistry side for a couple months. Now I come with something more specific:
I bought a house in the winter with a ~35,000 gallon, in-ground, L-shaped vinyl pool. It held water over the winter, but once the weather got warm (i.e., 90's) I noticed a leak that has gotten worse over the past few weeks. Now, I'm probably losing 1"-1.5" a day.
Yesterday, I noticed this big wrinkle below one of my skimmers. Pardon the night shots, but using the directional illumination of a flashlight was the best way I could find to highlight the texture.
I can't find anything else that looks suspect, and it leaks at the same rate regardless of whether the pump is running or not. I'm not sure how old the liner is, and I don't know what kind of construction the underlayment is. I'm in north Alabama (Rocket City, USA!), so we didn't have very bad freezing over the winter, and it's leaking down to below where the winter water line was anyways.
So, questions:
1.) Does that wrinkle look like it would cause a leak that bad?
2.) I'm going to try a dye test tomorrow. If that is the problem, is there any hope to fix it?
3.) Out of curiosity, how do I figure out what is underneath my liner non-destructively?
4.) I've read that it can be dangerous to allow a vinyl pool to drain too low...depending on the construction. Does that sound right to y'all?
Thanks for you help!
pbsry
I bought a house in the winter with a ~35,000 gallon, in-ground, L-shaped vinyl pool. It held water over the winter, but once the weather got warm (i.e., 90's) I noticed a leak that has gotten worse over the past few weeks. Now, I'm probably losing 1"-1.5" a day.
Yesterday, I noticed this big wrinkle below one of my skimmers. Pardon the night shots, but using the directional illumination of a flashlight was the best way I could find to highlight the texture.
I can't find anything else that looks suspect, and it leaks at the same rate regardless of whether the pump is running or not. I'm not sure how old the liner is, and I don't know what kind of construction the underlayment is. I'm in north Alabama (Rocket City, USA!), so we didn't have very bad freezing over the winter, and it's leaking down to below where the winter water line was anyways.
So, questions:
1.) Does that wrinkle look like it would cause a leak that bad?
2.) I'm going to try a dye test tomorrow. If that is the problem, is there any hope to fix it?
3.) Out of curiosity, how do I figure out what is underneath my liner non-destructively?
4.) I've read that it can be dangerous to allow a vinyl pool to drain too low...depending on the construction. Does that sound right to y'all?
Thanks for you help!
pbsry