I have a leak - think it's the skimmer but help please....

[dannyboy]

Hey all,

I wanted to ask people's thoughts on this issue. I have been losing about 1/2 inch of water a day over the last week and now starting to worry. At first I thought it was the sunshine, then realized that last weekend's weather was awful so I must have a leak. I scoured the pool with three lads and cannot find any sign of holes in the vinyl.
I looked this evening around the skimmer and have found two small hairline cracks in the bottom of the skimmer entrance.
My questions were:

Could these two cracks shown below be enough to lose 1/2 inch per day? It's a 25k inground so that equates to rather a lot of water...
Is this a DIY fix. I've read about the epoxy and making small indents either side of the crack but the crack goes all the way out to the opening so not sure what to do there.
If's it's not DIY - I have stamped concrete around the outside. Are we talking 1k+ for them to do the job.....(fearing the worst here)
It looks like if the faceplate was removed, is there another section and gasket before the weir flap? I heard there were two gaskets in skimmers. Is it one at the faceplate side then one just before the weir?
Adding photos to help. It's a SP-1082 A and I believe that means it's a hayward....

Any help greatly appreciated....Don't want any damage to my pretty surroundings and house.

Black mark on left shows how much it's dropped in the last 7 hours

This one below is the photo that shows that there may be a separate part before the weir flap....at the top of the photo or is this all one piece that has a lip in it?

Oh and I have rusty nuts at the top or is that nothing to worry about?

Thanks

Danny

 

[dannyboy]

I just tried the food coloring test and nothing got sucked in. Is this possible it would be far greater when the system is running as it causes a lot of sucking power to that area?

 

[duraleigh]

No, I don't think those are the leak source. YOu would see the food coloring go into them with the pump off. I think they are surface cracks anyway and don't penetrate the body of the skimmer.

I, too, think your loss is excessive to be just evaporation. Check the liner with the food coloring anywhere the liner is cut.....returns, light niche, etc. It's a painstaking process but I think you'll find it.

Lastly you can simply let the water continue to leak out until it stops.....the leak will be at the waterline.

 

[dannyboy]

Thanks Duraleigh.
Luckily it's warm today so I will spend the entire afternoon in the pool looking with a hose from the mouth.
I tried the food dye around possible sources and I'm draining the pool back to the line I know it dropped to. Will let gravity do the rest if I cannot find the hole...

 

[dannyboy]

case closed - found a 1/4 inch tear in the shallow end and patched..
Hopefully that was it. The food die shot in it so I'm guessing that was the little blighter!

Cheers Duraleigh

danny

 

[duraleigh]

Small liner holes take a lot of perseverance and patience....Nice work! :-D :-D