My leaky cauldron

[nodo1985]

So I'm losing water faster than evaporation. Found 1 small hole in the vinyl liner above the level of the skimmer (perhaps 1/2 a cm in diameter) which may be losing some water. Any suggestions about the best patch or putty to fill it in?

So I think most of my water is being lost behind the liner at a bad junction between the liner at the skimmer. It was previously caulked/puttied and this seems to be cracking a falling out. Any tips on the best silicone or waterproof filler? Eventually when I've put some more dollars away I imagine the skimmer will have to just be replaced (it's set into the concrete surrounding the pool), but I'm just trying to keep the pool going before closing and think it should be good through the winter. Water loss is about 5 inches in 48 hrs.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! If you could post a picture of the problem area that will help us to find a solution. You will need to patch the vinyl if that is where the hole is located. There is usually a metal or wood wall behind the liner, and you can't really caulk on the wall and expect it to seal the gap.

 

[nodo1985]

So the 3rd picture is my pool draining. I'll send another reply with the small puncture in the liner, but that's obviously small potatoes because the pool is dropping about 2 to 2.5" daily down below that hole. Same thing with the skimmer. I had thought maybe I needed to seal around the face of the skimmer because some putty from the previous owner had fallen out of there, but even below the skimmer it keeps dropping as fast. Finally, I decided the most likely candidate for such a large water loss was the staircase. I think I may need to seal around the whole thing. The pool is down half it's depth so I could get some dye and test for holes at the bottom too. There are some soft spots but no obvious holes to the naked eye. I had a pool guy look at it but he hasn't called me back and he was pretty unprofessional in general so I'd like to just do this myself. If you agree with the sealing around the stairs could someone tell me the best product they've found for doing so?

 

[gwegan]

You can let it drain down until it stops leaking. That has serious issues in a liner pool. If it's then below a return then you know it's that return. If it's not then it's the stairs.

 

[nodo1985]

So I just learned the food coloring trick. Didn't see any go out around the bottom of the stairs. It had leaked below the jets by the time I learned to use food coloring so I'm filling it back up just up to the jets to check around those. Otherwise I'm not sure what I should do to find the leak. Best to follow the seams I guess? I couldn't find any leaking along the few bottom seams I tested. I tried over the 2 old patches that were visible too and there was no obvious leak. Grrrr. The mystery remains.