Water Evaporation or Pool Leak

[lunzfam]

1st I have to say I love this site!!! for the last 2 weeks I have found some great advice.

My husband and I are at a stale mate. Our pool has been filled and in operation for exactly two weeks. When we filled it up we made sure that the water was in the middle of the suggested two lines on the skimmer. Today I went out to check the chemicals and noticed that the pump was acting funny. After investigating I noticed that the water level had dropped below the suggested line. It was about a 2.5 inches of loss water. There are no wet spots around the pool. For the last 3 days, the weather has been mild to cold with no rain. We have not been in the pool in two days because of the weather being so cold. We also run the pump 24hrs. Until today our chemicals have always been great.

Can you pool lose that much water of 2 weeks. Do you periodically have to put more water into your pool? and do you need to run the pump for 24hrs or can you just run it for 8 or 12 hrs

Any guidance is appreciated

 

[reebok]

pool school has some good information on both of those issues. the link is in the top right of every page.

pool-school/

pool-school/leak_detection

pool-school/pump_run_time

 

[lunzfam]

Thanks for the info

My DH and I went back out and looked all around he pool and under the deck. I am 98% sure we don't have a leak.

Is it common for you to have to add more water to the pool after 2 weeks?

 

[dravenone]

2 weeks doesn't sound like a problem to me. Here in So Cal I'm adding water at least once a week! I think that's just evaporation, but you can do a bucket test to know without a doubt.

 

[Buggsw]

Don't know where you are but here in Phoenix, we can lose 1 to 3 inches in one day from evaporation in the summer. In the winter I lose maybe an inch every week or 2.

 

[Bama Rambler]

It's not unusual to loose that much water due to evaporation.
The bucket test is the best way to tell that it's evaporation.

Take a bucket and fill it about 2/3ds full of water. Sit it on the top step and either mark the water level or measure it precisely. Then mark or measure the water level in the pool. The next day measure how much the level in the bucket and the pool has dropped. Compare the two and they should have the same amount of drop. Don't run fountains or such during this time.

I did ours for two days. The funny thing is that the bucket lost 1/16" more water than the pool did.

 

[jjdurrant]

I am in MN.. very humid.. I lose 2-4 inches a week.