Pool leak - Isolate skimmer

[heffnejp]

Since the freeze of Christmas Eve of 2022 when my 15 minute rolling blackout turned into a 4 hour power outage, I’ve been fighting a slow leak that I believe is coming from one of my skimmers. I believe it’s coming from one of my skimmers because the pool level stabilizes once the water level is just even with the skimmer entrance. I would like to build a temporary dam over each skimmer, one at a time to see if I can isolate where my problem is. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this without damaging my tiles? I’m pretty sure Flex Tape would work, but I’m not sure if the glue on it would damage my tile. This is frustrating, every time I think I’ve found it and repaired it, I’m wrong. Attached is a photo of one of my skimmer entrances. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Texas Splash]

Did you come up with a solution? I suppose if you lowered the water level a little more, you could use a piece of plastic cut to size and silicone it on the tiles. Then carefully scrape it off later.

 

[SoDel]

I had a leak this spring and I had thoughts similar to yours about isolating the skimmers to try to pin things down. Could never find an effective solution that I “knew” absolutely isolated the skimmer openings. A couple suggestions that may help your situation: plug the skimmer suction lines in the bottom of the skimmer to see if it’s the plumbing or the skimmer itself. If it’s the skimmer itself, get some leak detection dye and a syringe from Anderson and watch their videos to get an idea of the best way to use it. It takes time and patience with just a tiny bit of dye at each spot you’re testing, and test every spot from where the skimmer meets the bond beam to everywhere inside. Use a mirror on a telescoping stick (Amazon or any auto parts store) for areas that are hard to see. If it’s a significant leak, you will find it. It may take several days of trial and error, but the dye testing does work well.

Dye Testers and Dye

Check out the deals in Dye Testers and Dye at Anderson Manufacturing Company, Inc.

www.leaktools.com

I was losing about a half inch a day, about 200 gals. if I figured it riight (which isn’t a big leak really when looking for it) and the dye testing process did find it. I ended up calling in pros but I watched what they did carefully and it really just boils down to being very thorough and patient. And one other thought — once you find it and fix it, retest the spot with the dye after the repair. Nothing worse than ruling out an issue that turns out to be the issue.

 

[heffnejp]

Did you come up with a solution? I suppose if you lowered the water level a little more, you could use a piece of plastic cut to size and silicone it on the tiles. Then carefully scrape it off later.

I shoved a bag of sand in the opening, it still let’s a little water in, if this doesn’t tell me something, then I’ll see about attaching a piece of plastic with some silicone. Thanks for the idea