Our strangest melt off ever - WHAT THE???? a leak maybe?

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NWMNMom

NWMNMom

TFP Expert
LifeTime Supporter
Apr 8, 2007
1,616
Waaay NW MN
Pool Size
17450
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Our 18x33x52 saltwater AG pool is 4 years old. This spring has been extremely early and heated up fairly fast. Last year at this time I still had a lot of snow on the ground and we were just starting to fight our floods in the valley. Thats all done and over for weeks now. While the nights are still often very cold (lower 20s) the days sometimes are getting into the upper 50s and even hit 60. Our 18' round never had odd melts and neither has this pool, but then melt off has always been SLLLLLOOOOOWWWW - like starting to melt at the end of April so there is a single big floating chunk in the center of the pool at the end of the melt. So you are aware - we have a flow through Arctic Armor micromesh winter cover so water can flow through the cover both ways - IT IS STILL ON THE POOL EXCEPT IN ONE CORNER THE CABLE CAME OFF AND IT HAS PULLED DOWN AND AWAY FROM THE SIDE

To make a long story short - my pool was drained about 12" below the skimmer and return last fall so there really only was about 2' of water or so in there at closing. I drained it that low as we often get soooo much snow or ice storms that fill it up and it was quite full in January. WELL my pool has melted IN THE CENTER and left a ring almost 2.5'-3' wide x 3' tall all around the edges - there is only about 3" of water on the bottom in the center - what the ???????? I know it's been really windy and warm during the days - could my water be evaporating out?? Do you suppose there is a leak dead center or somewhere in the middle? I don't see wet areas anywhere on any side of the pool - it's all very dry groiund around. I am at a loss - I've had pools for 16 years and never seen this, but then we have never had a spring like this in recorded history either - any thoughts???? Thanks
 
Anyone? Any guesses even??? NOBODY else has ever had their pool melt from winter like this? EVER???? Really???
 
I don't understand what you are describing.... Are you saying there is a large block of ice that is melting in the center but there is no water left behind?

Can you post a pic? It's really unclear to me what you are asking, I'm sorry! :oops:
 
I think I understand what you are explaining - if so here is my theory cause it happened to me.

When my air cushion in the middle popped one year, a heavy chunk of ice formed in the middle and it being so heavy pushed down basically "under" the water line and pushed water up and out of the sides of the pool gradually. As it got heavier it'd sink a little at a time and the water would just ooze over the edges and you probably wouldn't notice it, as well as the ground probably absorbed it and that's why you never saw puddlling.

Just a thought, happened to me one year, lost almost 2ft of water.
 
I'll have to get pix tomorrow. What I am saying is there is NO ice in the middle - only around the perimeter. In the middle there is 2-3" of water - around the perimeter the ice "ring" is 2-3' high and about 3' wide - like a great big ice ring in a punch bowl, but the shape of the oval pool.

Unfortunately, nothing went over the sides. The ice level in the pool never got up to the top of the rails as I had drained it very low last year - a full 12" below the skimmer/return. The pool melted ONLY in the center and is a great big "ice ring" all around the edges. Where the open part is in the center there is only about 2-3" of water.
 
Thanks. And don't you think it's odd that it melted in the center rather than around the sides, leaving a big chunk in the center like it has in the past? Just sees too strange....... The center floor is a strange place for a hole or rip since most of those happen on the sides or at the cove, but anything is possible, maybe a root or something pushed up from the underside...

I'm considering putting the hose in, adding water to see if the amount of water goes down. Obviously with the amount of ice remaining, there should be around a foot of water once it melts, but I need to be sure before I sink $500 into a new liner. Anyone thing that's something to try?
 
I'm no expert, but if you have only 2-3 inches of water at the center of the pool I'd be suspicious that the rest leaked out through a hole 2-3 inches up the sidewall. How far down the side is your 'doughnut' of ice? To the bottom?

But like I said, I'm just guessing. Hope that it is just a strange freeze-thaw phenomenon and no leak. Here in eastern Iowa we had a cold, snowy winter and I had a pretty solid ice mass all the way to the edges of my pool (growing up in Wisconsin, I know that our winters in Iowa in no way compare to yours in northern Minnie.

Ironically, I'm having the opposite experience to you. I think I have a leak in my cover since my water level is 12 inches higher than when I closed, plus a lot ran out through the skimmer (I take most of my plumbing inside for the winter). My pool ice finally melted a few weeks ago.

Kelly
 
The "ice ring" is about 2.5-3' high and almost 3' wide all the way around. It could be a substantial amount of water when melted. I wonder if I should remove the black winter cover and let it get some sun to melt?
 

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This is a picture from the side - I pulled the mesh winter cover up and you can see how the ice is around the sides and melted in the center.
 

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I can't explain the melting (although I do know that water freezes from the outside in), but I agree that if you have only 2-3 inches of water in the middle, then you may have a leak under the ice.

Another possibility is that something (snow?) pushed down on the cover, but having a harder freeze around the edges it was only able to push down in the center and possibly break through the ice there and / or displace some (or most) of whatever water was still liquid.

If it's still getting down to 20 at night, there probably isn't much you can do about the ring of ice until the weather warms up, then take a look and see if the melting ice has any effect on the water level.
 
My boys did leave a pile of leaves in the center of the cover (not more than 20# worth or so) and when the melting started, everything as far as ice and snow slid to the center of the cover since it was lower than the sides of the pool. I'm not sure that would fully explain it but I'm gonna watch the water level in the center.
 
My totally unprofessional opinion: if the pool freezes from the outside in, perhaps it did not get frozen as solid in the center this year, and when the water leaked out, it left a thinner area of ice in the middle, which subsequently melted, leaving the thick ring.

jm2c
 
Yes, the seam came apart at the top of the cove in a few spots and there were some pinholes in the cove as well. The liner is out of warranty so we had to buy a new one and decided to go whole nine yards with foam cove and Gorilla Floor Pad and wall foam. In the middle of working on installing it all now.
 
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