Hello! I have had a leaking pool light for two years that my pool company keeps trying to put bandaids on to fix the problem. I want to actually lower the pool water below the lights so a full evaluation and hopefully fix can be done. I have a variable speed pump. I understand I need to shut off the skimmer and pull water from the main drain to waste. Here are my questions. Do I need to cap off the skimmer or is just shutting off the valve enough? Do I need to cap off the jets as well to prevent their lines from filling with air? Note my pool equipment is several feet lower than the level of our pool so we have gravity working against us. Thank you for your help!
Need to repair leaking light
- Thread starter Dogdoc7
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,791
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome to TFP.
Show us pictures of your equipment pad so we can see what you are working with.
A submersible pump is often better to drain a pool then risking your expensive pool pump.
www.troublefreepool.com
www.troublefreepool.com
If your main drain works then turning all the suction to it should be all you need to do.
No, the air will be pushed out when you return to normal operation.
That can help with the draining.
Where are you going to dispose of the drained water?
Show us pictures of your equipment pad so we can see what you are working with.
A submersible pump is often better to drain a pool then risking your expensive pool pump.
Draining - Further Reading
www.troublefreepool.com
Submersible Pumps - Further Reading
www.troublefreepool.com
If your main drain works then turning all the suction to it should be all you need to do.
No, the air will be pushed out when you return to normal operation.
That can help with the draining.
Where are you going to dispose of the drained water?
If the light fixture has been leaking, there is little chance that it can be repaired. Unless the leak was at the lens gasket, it was at the only other penetration of the fixture, the light cord. You may get it out, dried out, working, but that is usually for only a short time before it starts to trip the GFCI (that you DO have in the circuit, don't you?).
The original light never leaked. After a year the light went out and they replaced it with a new light. The new light leaked with the water coming out at the end of the pipe carrying the wire near the junction box. They came out again and replaced the light a second time which also continues to leak. They did this all with the pool full of water. Then they just shoved a bunch of butyl rubber and silicon at the endpoint to stop the leak. But it is still leaking around that as well. I am wondering if it is a crack in the face plate around the light. These are Hayward color logic lights so not the type of light where it would be leaking at the cord.
Welcome to TFP.
Show us pictures of your equipment pad so we can see what you are working with.
A submersible pump is often better to drain a pool then risking your expensive pool pump.
Draining - Further Reading
Submersible Pumps - Further Reading
If your main drain works then turning all the suction to it should be all you need to do.
No, the air will be pushed out when you return to normal operation.
That can help with the draining.
Where are you going to dispose of the drained water?
Attachments
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,791
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
If one of those two valves on the suction side of the pump is for the skimmers and the other is the main drain then close the skimmer valve and put the MPV to WASTE.
So, it is not the light that is leaking but the conduit that is. Completely different situation.
Welcome to TFP.
Show us pictures of your equipment pad so we can see what you are working with.
A submersible pump is often better to drain a pool then risking your expensive pool pump.
Draining - Further Reading
Submersible Pumps - Further Reading
If your main drain works then turning all the suction to it should be all you need to do.
No, the air will be pushed out when you return to normal operation.
That can help with the draining.
Where are you going to dispose of the drained water?
If the constant leak is flowing out of the end of the conduit I would suspect the conduit is intact otherwise the leak would be underground. The failure has to be somewhere at the pool / light connection.
Pool light conduits are ALWAYS full of water, they do not seal. Where is the "end of the conduit?" If it is at, or below, water level and there is a bad joint, or a crack, you will have a leak.
Yes I understand there will be water in them. I have 3 separate lights each with their own conduits. The other two (and the original light that is now a problem) have some sitting water in them but do not have a constant flow of water coming out of the end point of the conduit. The problem light has a constant flow so much that we are having to add water to our pool every 3-4 days because that is how much water we are losing. They are placed below the pool’s water line. The end of the conduit is about 100 feet from the light and placed by all of our other pool equipment. I wish I could post a video but I don’t think this allows me to.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,791
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
load videos onto YouTube, mark it PUBLIC, and post a link to it here.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,791
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Is the water coming out the top of the conduit or leaking from the joint at the red line.
Where is the actual water level of the pool between the red line and the top of the conduit?
The other two conduits show rusting at the joints which indicate they have water at that level.
Where is the actual water level of the pool between the red line and the top of the conduit?
The other two conduits show rusting at the joints which indicate they have water at that level.
The water is coming out of the top, not the joint. The rust you see on the other two pipes is actual metal hooks screwed to the wood platform that are holding the two conduit in place. The pool water level is higher than the conduit by probably a few feet.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,791
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
That is the root of your problem and I think a code violation.
The conduit should have been run at least 6 inches above the water level to prevent that type of overflow. Even if it meant the wire coming out of the conduit ran down to the equipment from the conduit.
I would glue an extension to the conduit to bring it above the water line.