I'm a new pool/home owner, and after spending a bit of time getting to know my pool system I've noticed that the ~3/4" - 1" of water I loose per day seems to be high, even for central FL with a solar heater (pool/spa is smallish, ~11,000 gallons according to the SW model I threw together). So I dove into some reading on identifying pool leaks (thanks to many on this forum already...) and have noticed a few things:
1) There are some bubbles finding their way out of the pool jets, my understanding is that this usually (always?) indicates a suction side leak. However, I'm also understanding that a suction side leak isn't necessarily the source of noticeable water loss, just a suction side leak.
2) If I shut the intake valve for my main drain and only run the skimmer intake, I don't see any bubbles coming in through the jets, or any bubbles in the pump basket. If I reverse this (open the intake on my main drain and shut the skimmer) I see a consistent stream of small bubbles coming out of the jet, and the pump basket has a steady ~1" of bubbles swirling around the top. This leads me to believe that when I pull a large amount of suction through the main drain line, it is pulling more air into the leak, and the leak must be somewhere on that line. Note that this is all independent of the large amount of air that comes out of the system when I first start the pump (since there's a vacuum release on the solar roof heater). The pump also primes almost instantly.
3) Some of the tile and grout around the skimmer box is in need of some repair. I'm not sure if this is just a red herring, but there's enough gap ~1/8" in the grout/concrete that I could see a noticeable amount of water escaping there, even with little/no pressure. Given the drought we currently have in central FL, the sandy ground that I presume is under my concrete sucks up water like a sponge.
So my question is... Is it worse to run the suction through the main drain with the air leak that I suspect, to diagnose a possible water leak at the skimmer? Or should I focus on diagnosing the possible air leak at the main drain by running the skimmer only and ignore potential water loss at the simmer intake?
Or am I way off in all of my concerns and diagnoses?
1) There are some bubbles finding their way out of the pool jets, my understanding is that this usually (always?) indicates a suction side leak. However, I'm also understanding that a suction side leak isn't necessarily the source of noticeable water loss, just a suction side leak.
2) If I shut the intake valve for my main drain and only run the skimmer intake, I don't see any bubbles coming in through the jets, or any bubbles in the pump basket. If I reverse this (open the intake on my main drain and shut the skimmer) I see a consistent stream of small bubbles coming out of the jet, and the pump basket has a steady ~1" of bubbles swirling around the top. This leads me to believe that when I pull a large amount of suction through the main drain line, it is pulling more air into the leak, and the leak must be somewhere on that line. Note that this is all independent of the large amount of air that comes out of the system when I first start the pump (since there's a vacuum release on the solar roof heater). The pump also primes almost instantly.
3) Some of the tile and grout around the skimmer box is in need of some repair. I'm not sure if this is just a red herring, but there's enough gap ~1/8" in the grout/concrete that I could see a noticeable amount of water escaping there, even with little/no pressure. Given the drought we currently have in central FL, the sandy ground that I presume is under my concrete sucks up water like a sponge.
So my question is... Is it worse to run the suction through the main drain with the air leak that I suspect, to diagnose a possible water leak at the skimmer? Or should I focus on diagnosing the possible air leak at the main drain by running the skimmer only and ignore potential water loss at the simmer intake?
Or am I way off in all of my concerns and diagnoses?