How often are you adding water to your pool?

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kikiganz

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May 7, 2016
92
Atlanta, GA
I am starting to get nervous about the amount of water we are adding to the pool. We add pretty much every day but at least every other day. We do live in the Atlanta area and have been experiencing 85-95 degree weather so it could be evaporation but it still seems like a lot. Just curious what others, especially in the hot climates, experience.

Thanks!
Kristina
 
Do a bucket test and see if the same amount evaporates from a 5 gallon bucket. That will help you determine if you're dealing with normal evaporation or not -- use pool water in the bucket so it at least starts the same temp ;)

Baseline normal is roughly 1/4 inch per day, location dependent, fwiw. I fill more but have a sand filter and backwash and have a very heated pool in a clime with cool nights and no cover. So I typically overfill once a week (eg to upper screw on skimmer plate) and get back to about normal operation level/arrow on skimmer plate a week later.
 
Looking at my log over the past couple of years, I top off about once every 7-10 days during the hottest part of the summer. If you have a lot of kids in the pool on a regular basis, you may add more often due to splash-out. If you are concerned about a possible leak, you can try the bucket test. Fill a bucket with water, mark the level of the water in the bucket, set it on the stairs/ladder or in a way where the water line in the bucket is level with the water line in the pool. In about 24 hours, compare the water loss between the pool level and the bucket level. This takes evaporation out of the equation. If the level of water in the pool drops faster than the level of water in the bucket, that it an indication of a leak. For more info, check out this article: Pool School - Leak Detection
 
Average summer days 90-100F, fairly humid - if there's no rain, we lose about an inch or a little more a week with normal adult swimming/soaking and a bit of play 3-4 days a week with the grandies.

With a kid's birthday party, or just lots of kids any day, it can be almost an inch in one day.
 
I also live in the Atlanta area. Because of the amount of rain we get here, it kind of varies. I'd say that about once a month I have to top off when we have a week long dry spell, but I also have to drain about once a month when we get so much rain that it overfills the pool above the top of the skimmer opening (I like to keep the water level about midway between the top and bottom of the skimmer opening).

About a week or so ago we had a pretty good afternoon storm come through where I had to drain. I haven't refilled since.
 

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No surprise. We have a leak. We are only 15 hours into the test and we can already see a noticeable difference between the water line in the bucket and the pool.

My instinct is to start calling pool companies to come out and access. Anybody have any advice on what to look for or ask?
 
Look for typical trouble spots around fittings (returns, lights, skimmers). Look for cracks in your gunite. When I had a leak in my new install, it turned out to be a screw at the light the was not tight enough. I found it by filling a syringe with blue food coloring and methodically squirting small amounts at suspect areas. I finally saw the dye get slowly sucked into the screw hole. It's surprising that what appeared to be such a small leak ended up accounting for 3/4 inch of water per day.

Of course, it could also be in one of the pipes. Depending on your valves, you can seal off 1 return/suction pipe at a time and see if the leak stops.
 
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