Thank You to all of whom have answered problems about leaks.Of course none of them match my senario so here goes...We bought a house with a 20 x 40 inground sand filtered vinyl liner pool. we live in the chicagoland area. Last year we had no major issues. This year we have been losing water-3 inches per day.Our pool company has come out and pressure tested all returns. They found a leak in the fountain which we just disconnected and plugged temporarily. We are still losing water. In an attempt to find the leak we currently have one return in the deep end on along with the main drain on the bottom. Both skimmers are off since the level has dropped below the skimmer mouths. We have 2 other returns on the stairs which both work on the same line(according to the pool man).He had turned that line off.Since i was feeling ineffective i decided to again go around the pool with food coloring to see what i could find.One of the stair return "eyeballs" (which was off )sucked in dye. I capped it and continued around the pool.The return in the deep end that was on and pushing out a jet of water concurrently sucked the dye in too! what does this mean? i thought returns only pushed out water?! My waste hose does not seem to be leaking-could that be it even though the water level is below the skimmers?i am unsure how the circulation of the pool water truly works. As a nurse it seems the human body is simpler in this case...All insight would be truly appreciated.
I Think I am gonna cry...
- Thread starter dinamgreene
- Start date
to determine where the leak is do this.
- turn off the pool
plug everything, every inlet.. plug up every skimmer, return and main drain if you can (this actually requires some diving but is possible)
with everything plugged off do a bucket test (google it)
if you have a loss with everything plugged then there is a leak in the shell of the pool. If it vinyl lined an electronic leak detection will find the leak in the liner, the only other spots it can leak from when everything is plugged up is from the light niche or the step gasket if applicable.
thank you so much for your advice. we have done a bucket test already-we are losing much more than we should.i am following your advice and plugging up every return and skimmer.i need help of the "pool guy" to see about the main drain. Thanks again for your input 
Welcome to TFP!!
I hope you get to the bottom of this, soon
A read through Pool School would have netted this, which is pretty much what Kevin said
I hope you get to the bottom of this, soon
A read through Pool School would have netted this, which is pretty much what Kevin said
thanks so much for all of your advice-i hope to get back soon about what we have figured out
ok guys ...cleaned up the filthy water in the pool(from trying to see how far down the water would go)and found a 8" long split in a seam in the deep end. patched it myself-without benefit of scuba gear-to the best of my ability. there are a few bubbles under the patch that i could not get out-should i worry about them?the pool guy says that when we stopped the initial leak and the ground dried up it sucked down the liner and it split.i guess i have to worry that this will happen again huh?any idea how expensive it is to remove this pool and call it quits?...thanks!
How old is the liner? Seam separations are typically a warranty issue; although the warranties are typically pro-rated.