Pool fills with water every spring before opening?

[MProcun]

2yrs ago we began using the Closing Tips found here and added draining our IG pool to our winterizing procedure. That year and this past year we drained, as recommended, 18in below the returns.

The following spring, for opening, we anticipated filling quite a large amount of water back into the pool. No big deal. We figured the partial drain would actually assist with the Opening. And we were kinda excited about dumping our hot tub into the pool to get a jump on warming up the pool.

Weird thing is, each spring the pool is full -past the skimmer - as if we had never drained it!

Can anyone explain this?

I realize this sounds like a dumb question. The obvious answers are: snow, rain...right? Ohio averages 36" of precipitation a YEAR, not 36" in 6mos. The first winter was a dry one, too. So...what gives? How is that much water getting into our pool?!

Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[duraleigh]

Well, if you drain 18 below skimmer and get 18 inches or more over the winter......sounds close to normal.

Is there a chance your deck is sloped incorrectly and water is draining into your pool?

 

[MProcun]

We drain 18in below the returns.

The deck is correctly sloped (away from the pool).

It's just such a huge amount of water. Even in heavy winters - where we've gotten 18in of snow - the conversion of snow to water would not equal 18in of water. In recent years we've seen more ice than snow and the standard conversion is 50%. It takes twice the amount of ice to equal the same amt in water.

It also begs the question: why doesn't our pool ever overflow with the heavy spring rains? We are stumped.

 

[chem geek]

I assume any auto-fill was turned off?

 

[MProcun]

No auto-fill feature exists.

We've wondered about seeping in of fluid via the pipes or new liner (channel or seams?) but ruled this out; otherwise we would be seeing slow drainage during the swimming season. Right?

The pool level stays below the steps for most of the winter and then seems to gain all this volume about a month or six weeks before opening in late April. Our yard is not super-saturated. We don't have our own weather system hovering over the pool. We don't live near a stream or over a water table/natural spring - even if we did - how would it get in?

It's just got us completely stumped.