Leaking/Dripping sound under pool tension cover

[jewilki1]

I know I am probably being pretty paranoid, but I am worried I have a leak again in my pool I had my pool resurfaced about 2.5 years ago. However, my solid safety cover filled up with water the other day because my pump broke leading to 2 straps to rip on my tension cover . Fortunately there was enough strap left on both to put the cover back on.

I noticed right before this happened the pool cover was sagging way to far down and you could hear a dripping/trickling sound or a sound like a frog swimming in the water. I live in NC and we had 2 very large snow/ice storms almost back to back which is unusual for here and caused the cover to sag down really far. Is it possible all the water loss was caused by the weight of the cover forcing the water out of the pool? I feel like I lost 2 to 3 feet of water after this. I lost enough water that I was able to fill my pool up for 24 hrs straight today with a hose and the water is still not back up to the bottom of the skimmer basket yet. Just as an fyi I have a 20 by 40 ft pool which holds about 38,000 gallons when full. It has an 11 ft deep end, in it.


I say all this to say under my pool tension cover when you go outside at night now you can hear a dripping/trickling sound even after filling up the pool back near the bottom of the skimmer. The weird thing is, is it isn't a constant dripping sound it is sporadic, but if you stand outside long for about 3 or 4 minutes you will hear the sound like 2 or 3 times. I just had my pool resurfaced about 2 to 3 years ago and my system was pressure tested by a leak detection company and it wasn't leaking. Is my pool leaking again? A sound of water dripping randomly under the safety cover isn't normal right? It literally sounds like if you had a sink full of water and you hear a leaky faucet dripping a few times every now and then into the water. I am afraid a pipe busted. I was told by 3 different companies not to drain below my skimmer baskets just put a milk jug in the skimmer and no need to plug the returns that in North Carolina it doesn't get cold enough to bust the pipes.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? This pool has become a money pit!

 

[jewilki1]

Does anyone have any idea what the dripping sound is? This morning I went outside and there is frost outside and some ice. Is it possible that it is condensation dripping off the bottom of the pool cover? Or is there a layer of ice on top or something and it is the sound of ice melting? This morning/right now you can consistently hear the dripping sound all around it was not as sporadic as last night.

 

[AftonJeeper]

I would think the running or dripping water sound is water falling from your cover to the pool. I haven't heard of anyone reporting that they can hear their pool leaking.

You say that you feel like you lost 2-3 feet of water in the pool. If that is true I would suspect a leak as well. Is your equipment off and all valves closed?

You've probably already read this but here is a link to the leak detection article. Pool School - Leak Detection

 

[jewilki1]

I would think the running or dripping water sound is water falling from your cover to the pool. I haven't heard of anyone reporting that they can hear their pool leaking.

You say that you feel like you lost 2-3 feet of water in the pool. If that is true I would suspect a leak as well. Is your equipment off and all valves closed?

You've probably already read this but here is a link to the leak detection article. Pool School - Leak Detection

Thank you for the response back. Also, thank you for the link I am aware. The unfortunate thing about it is I won't be able to take the pool cover off till at least spring time unless there is a really bad leak that requires me to do so, I am not going to be able to likely determine where the leak is coming from till then or if it is just from all the ice and snow. I ran across a member on here saying it is very common from them to lose 24 inches of water every winter from ice and snow.

I definitely lost at least 2 feet of water. From empty my pool takes almost 3.5 to 4 days to fill back up again with a hose. It has taken like 1.5 days to fill the pool up to the skimmer level again. So, I am guessing I lost like 1/3 of the pool water. That is just a rough estimate though.

I am super paranoid now though because I won't know for sure if it is from the snow and ice or if I really have a leak. I guess I am just going to have to wait and see if the pool water goes back down in a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn't ice or snow during that time so I will be able to better tell.

 

[Neemer]

The dripping sound you describe is what I hear when condensation is dripping into the pool from the cover.