Do I have a leak?

[mikef612]

My pool was finished about 18 months ago. I have an in ground floor cleaning system and for the most part it works great, but wanted a little more coverage, so I bought a cheap robot, Apier Seagull about 8 months ago for about $200 to help with some of the dead spots. I have been noticing a bit of white sand in the robot basket almost every time I use it. If I go longer without using it (say a week), I notice more sand. Note that I do not have a sand filter. I have a cartridge filter. This is a gunite/pebble tec pool and I am pretty sure it is not related to that - the sand looks to be the same sand the masons used for all the stonework around the pool. How likely is it that I would have a leak in one of the pipes which would pull in sand from around the pipe? My pool builder claims that the pressure in the line would push the sand away, not let it fall in. Also note that the equipment is about the middle of the water line, so it is always under pressure, even when the pumps are not running.

Any thoughts on this? Is the only way to confirm this by having someone come out and do an ultrasonic test? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

 

[1poolman1]

My pool was finished about 18 months ago. I have an in ground floor cleaning system and for the most part it works great, but wanted a little more coverage, so I bought a cheap robot, Apier Seagull about 8 months ago for about $200 to help with some of the dead spots. I have been noticing a bit of white sand in the robot basket almost every time I use it. If I go longer without using it (say a week), I notice more sand. Note that I do not have a sand filter. I have a cartridge filter. This is a gunite/pebble tec pool and I am pretty sure it is not related to that - the sand looks to be the same sand the masons used for all the stonework around the pool. How likely is it that I would have a leak in one of the pipes which would pull in sand from around the pipe? My pool builder claims that the pressure in the line would push the sand away, not let it fall in. Also note that the equipment is about the middle of the water line, so it is always under pressure, even when the pumps are not running.

Any thoughts on this? Is the only way to confirm this by having someone come out and do an ultrasonic test? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Are you losing water? Is there a lot of air being pulled into the system? Were the pipes buried in sand?? Not likely sand is coming in from buried lines. More likely from the stonework.

 

[mikef612]

Thank you @1poolman1 for the quick response. I may be loosing water, but it is a bit hard to tell. I have a vanishing edge so I did test a month or so ago - outside temp was max 70, so I would expect evaporation to be minimal. To test this, I shut off the autofill and turned off the vanishing edge schedule (to ensure none was spashing out). I lost about 1/2 inch a day and after a couple days it seemed slow down or stop. My guess is that with the vanishing edge, it doesn't take much wind to blow it over the edge, until it gets lower.

I have noticed a little bit of air bubbles on and off, but they always seem to come from one return line (this is the return to the pool, not sure if that is referred to as supply). Again, there are not a lot of bubbles and I woudl say I only see it for about 5 minutes and then it stops. I don't watch it all the time, but do only notice every few days.

Regarding the stone work, I do have stones on the back side of the vanishing edge, so I guess water could be running over that, bringing it into the basin and then circulating it back to the pool. I would just think that after 18 months this wouldn't still be happening. Note that I run the vanishing edge about 2 hours a day and then whenever we are in the pool (which wasn't much during the winter.

 

[1poolman1]

Thank you @1poolman1 for the quick response. I may be loosing water, but it is a bit hard to tell. I have a vanishing edge so I did test a month or so ago - outside temp was max 70, so I would expect evaporation to be minimal. To test this, I shut off the autofill and turned off the vanishing edge schedule (to ensure none was spashing out). I lost about 1/2 inch a day and after a couple days it seemed slow down or stop. My guess is that with the vanishing edge, it doesn't take much wind to blow it over the edge, until it gets lower.

I have noticed a little bit of air bubbles on and off, but they always seem to come from one return line (this is the return to the pool, not sure if that is referred to as supply). Again, there are not a lot of bubbles and I woudl say I only see it for about 5 minutes and then it stops. I don't watch it all the time, but do only notice every few days.

Regarding the stone work, I do have stones on the back side of the vanishing edge, so I guess water could be running over that, bringing it into the basin and then circulating it back to the pool. I would just think that after 18 months this wouldn't still be happening. Note that I run the vanishing edge about 2 hours a day and then whenever we are in the pool (which wasn't much during the winter.

Try a "bucket test" to determine leak or evaporation. Good 1-minute video:

 

[mikef612]

Thanks again @1poolman1 - my only concern is that with a vanishing edge pool, it doesn't take much water movement for the water to get pushed over the vanishing edge. But I will try it this weekend.