Leak expert is as baffled as I am.

[mikeingeorgia]

1. Pump off = no water loss
2. Pump on = 1" per day loss

So it's return side right??? Then why in the world does it not lose any water if I close the skimmer basket suction lines?

 

[ccp4321]

Have you got separate skimmer and main drain lines all the way to your equipment pad?

 

[mikeingeorgia]

Yes. And I've ran it for two weeks with the water level at the base of the skimmer basket with skimmers off and main drain on with no additional water loss.

 

[mas985]

So it's return side right??? Then why in the world does it not lose any water if I close the skimmer basket suction lines?

Does the filter pressure drop when you do this? Usually it does. Lower Pressure in the return lines could mean that the leak is pressure dependent which most are. I am assuming you don't have any water around the pad.

 

[Isaac-1]

Sounds like a leak in a return fitting that only leaks under additional pressure, chances are it will get worse over time and then will be easy to find.

 

[ccp4321]

Only thing that occurs to me is that there could be a leak in the skimmer plumbing that is above the pool water level. ie at the equipment pad where it comes out of the ground. When the skimmer is running this pipe will be full of water and so could leak if the flow was low. But, this would normally show up as a suction side leak with air getting dragged in.

 

[mikeingeorgia]

I just checked and it does drop pressure when I close the skimmer lines.

There is no water at the pad unfortunately.

 

[mikeingeorgia]

If that were the case, I should be able to isolate the leak by measuring water loss after closing off each return valve (I believe I have one that controls 3 returns and one that controls an individual return) Does that seem right?

 

[mas985]

Yes, that is correct.

Have you looked around the yard to see if there are any obvious wet spots where the leak might be?

 

[mikeingeorgia]

I have thoroughly looked and see nothing. However we are on a slight slope into the trees and a leak could be masked by a lot of stuff.

I wonder if my thermal imaging camera thing for the iPhone would pick up where the water is coming up. Probably not, but I'll try.

 

[mikeingeorgia]

Interesting result last night!!

I have always assumed that the leak is on the skimmers because it ceased when I turned them off.

However I just ran the pump for the past 24 hours with no loss having the suction only from the skimmer and return only to half of the returns.

I am testing tonight to see if the other half of the returns will also cause no water loss.

I'm not really sure what it means, but the fact that the skimmers ran without losing water gives me some new info at least.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

I am a leak geek... I do leak detection for many pool builders in Connecticut.

Besides the electronic & sonar toys - my chief tenets of leak detection is "if it water touches it - consider it"

Plugging is the first step to isolate pips from the vessel..

My first ? Is always " trouble holding a prime?"

Ray

 

[mikeingeorgia]

That is a great point. Should have plugged the whole thing since we are just now concluding that it is a pipe issue due to water drop only when it's running.

It holds its prime just fine.

When Isaac mentioned that it may be pressure sensitive I began trying to test that theory by running it 24 hours at a time while only utilizing the skimmers. Day one resulted in the skimmers+ half the returns losing no water. Tonight I'm testing the other half of the returns.

I'll post tomorrow what the result is. Don't know what the heck it will mean either way, but I'll pass it along.

 

[mikeingeorgia]

1/2 inch loss overnight using skimmers and the other half of the returns. This return section is 1 jet in the wall and 1 in the stairs. Any thoughts on how to identify the location?

 

[JohnKrupp]

Unless you are prepared to dig up the pipes, youll want to just let your leak guy find it with all his nifty tools.