Constantly Losing Water

[JesseSchmidt]

So this has been my first full season with the pool and I have had to put a couple of inches of water in the pool every week. And there were a few weeks there where it was a couple inches every 4 days. Does this seem a bit crazy? Anyone else in the northern Cincinnati area experiencing this kind of evaporation? I was keeping the solar cover on at the beginning of the summer to heat the water and it also kept the evaporation down but once the water temp made it to mid-80s I took it off. Temp still ended up getting to 90 at one point without it but the evaporation is killing me. I'm tired of putting water in the pool!

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[wjr75]

Sounds like you may have a leak somewhere. You can try doing the bucket test by filling up a bucket of water placed in the same sun exposure as the pool and compare the evaporation from the bucket to the pool. If they are the same it is due to evaporation if the pool is greater probably a leak.

 

[JesseSchmidt]

I had the same problem at opening and tried the bucket test, bucket kept blowing off the step into the pool. I was thinking I had a leak back then and starting trying to find it but putting the solar cover on minimized the water loss. So I'm pretty sure it was and is evaporation.

Can I sit the bucket on the concrete next to the steps and get the same results? I was told to set it in the pool on the steps when I tried it before.

 

[duraleigh]

bucket kept blowing off the step into the pool.

?????? How can it blow off if it is full of water? You are missing something.

The bucket test compares the water in the bucket to the water in the pool. The closer they can be together, the more precise your comparison can be. How did your bucket blow off?

Back to OP's question. If you are losing more than 1/4 " daily, you can suspect a leak for sure. Performing the bucket test will confirm or deny that.

 

[JesseSchmidt]

With the water at close to the same level, the bucket is close to neutrally bouyant. I get a lot of wind as I'm at the top of a hill with no trees close enough to have any effect so my water is usually a little choppy. The bucket falls off!

I guess I could put a string on the bucket handle and lay a brick on the string next to the steps to keep it from sliding away! Not sure why I didn't thing of that before now!

 

[jwhop3]

Use a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with pool water. That way, you have 40+ lbs of weight (wind blows that over, you should be in the basement and not worrying about evaporation), and by using pool water, you are comparing apples to apples.