My Pool is Leaking

[Brantly04]

I woke up this morning and my pool water was 3/4 gone.

It's a smaller in ground pool, about 5 ft deep (lap pool).


I bought this house a couple months ago and noticed it always had a small leak, I'd have to put the hose in it once a week for about an hour or two.

I looked at the light and it's pretty loose. I'm waiting to go back home and see if the water is lower than the light (where the conduit connects for power in the back).


Any other suggestions?

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

With that large of a leak ... find where the ground is wet and your leak must be nearby.

Please add your pool details to your signature and location to your profile as described HERE as it will help us help you.

 

[Brantly04]

Hi,

I've added the information that I know..I bought the house a couple months ago (it was a short sale, pool abused).

Most of the water I saw (above ground) was on the backside of the light, which made me think it was leaking from the light area, along with the light being loose. There is a spot for 5 screws and there's only one in there. I'm going to buy a couple new screws and probably throw some epoxy on the edges just to make sure.

 

[jblizzle]

Most pool lights only have 1 screw holding the fixture in the niche ... and the niche is what should be water tight, so a loose fixture would not matter.

 

[duraleigh]

probably throw some epoxy on the edges just to make sure.

That is certainly your call but epoxy may end up causing you far more issues and not fixing any leak.

3/4 of your pool drained overnight?

 

[Brantly04]

Yes. Overnight. I actually filled it last night.

 

[linen]

Any chance you are pumping to waste? 3/4 of a pool is a huge leak. If your pool is 10000 gallons (what are the dimensions?), that would 10 gallons a minute. The hole would have to be quite large (I think probably larger than typical conduit). If it is a leak, where the water level stops, is the level the leak is at.

 

[Brantly04]

 

[linen]

Using those blocks beyond the pool in your picture, and assuming they are 1 foot in width, it looks like your pool is 9ft in width, and maybe three times that in length (hard to tell from the picture)? If the whole pool is 5 ft deep that would make your volume ~9000 gallons...so still a high leak rate at about 9 gpm.

Has the "leak" stopped now that the water is at it's current level?

 

[Brantly04]

The leak has slowed down it looks like. But let me check when I get home in a couple hours.

 

[Brantly04]

Ran the skimmer for an hour last night as well.

 

[Brantly04]

Do you think it would be smart to fill the pool and not run the system to see of that's what is pumping it out? How should I proceed?

Thank you for your input so far.

 

[zea3]

Check and see if your main drain in the floor of the pool is leaking. Get in the pool with the pump turned off and squirt some food coloring next to the drain. If the color gets drawn into the drain then it is leaking. Also can you post a picture showing the light in the pool?

 

[Brantly04]

I measured the pool and it is roughly 12'W and about 27' long.

I put some red food coloring on top of the drain and it looked to just dissipate towards the top of the pool, not looking like it was getting sucked down. Here are some pictures to show:

Here's the food coloring.

Here's the outside of the light.

The inside of the light

The way the pool looks as of now.

This is where the ground is completely soaked about 5 ft from the pool (where there is no concrete).

The water is directly across where the light is in the pool as well.

 

[duraleigh]

Why did you take a picture of the pool when it was full?

Why is your vacuum hooked up?

What position is your filter valve set at?

Very, very puzzling. You will not be able to fill the pool fast enough if you leaked out that much water.

 

[Brantly04]

The full pool picture is from a month or so ago. It was a progress picture, when I was able to get it looking nice. This was a short sale house and it sat for a bit.

The vacuum is hooked up to one of those bottom suckers that bounces around, zodiac barracuda? I leave it hooked up all the time so when the system clock turns on it bounces around.

I don't know what position the filter valve is set at? How do I find that out? Sorry I'm new to pools.

Thanks for your response.

 

[duraleigh]

I don't know what position the filter valve is set at? How do I find that out? Sorry I'm new to pools.

I understand now about the pic of the full pool.

About your filter valve, I am trying to figure out a way you may have set up a siphon and are sucking water out of your pool through that cleaner and up through the filter with the valve set on backwash. I know that sounds complex but take the cleaner out of the pool and see what happens.

That's a long shot but I just can not imagine a leak of that magnitude suddenly appearing in ANY pool.

 

[Brantly04]

So you want me to take the cleaner out of the pool and turn it on? There's only a couple feet of water, will that hurt anything?

Do you want me to take some pictures of the setup maybe?

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[duraleigh]

No. just take the cleaner out of the pool and set it on the side of the pool. Then check to see if your pool is still "leaking".

 

[Brantly04]

Ok. Should I try to put water in it if it doesn't "leak" after a little while?