HELP!! Pool leaking water 6 inches in 2 hrs!!

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holtawl

holtawl

0
Jun 15, 2014
7
This is the 4th summer we have had a pool and it's been a nightmare every summer!! We have a Garter in ground cement pool.
2 years ago we would lose almost a foot of water overnight when we would shut the pump off. It was fine when we left it running.
Last summer we lost zero water and did nothing different....now this summer we replumbed all of the Pvc in the pump house. We were trying to get rid of air bubbles coming in which we have had for 4 years. We realized all we needed was a new oring and some lube. For the past 3 years we thought our pump was running right until yesterday after we replaced the oring! It actually primes correctly now and we no longer have air bubbles!! We were jumping for joy at how well the pool was running! We shut the pool off for the night and this morning it still was holding the level fine...we started the pool back up and let it run for about 4 hours. we shut the pool off because we were leaving for a while. upon coming home and looking outdoors 2 hrs later we realized once again we had lost water!!!
And I'm 90% sure we were also losing water while the pump was running today also. Only because we had it running for 4 hours and the water hose was on the entire time with no raise in the level of water.
There is no visible signs of water. When I openend the cover to the pump I could hear lots of water moving and gurgling?!
Any input??
Hydrostatic valve stuck open??

Thanks in advance for any help!!

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Welcome to TFP!

Someone will be around shortly to help you.
 
Can anyone help?? We have ran the pool for continually since Monday afternoon. We lost no water overnight I left around 11:30 am and the pool was fine. My husband got home at 4pm and the water was just barely above the skimmer. So once again in a matter of hours we lost several inches of water.
Why would this be happeneing sporadicly??
Also just a little info on our pool....we have a 18x36 in ground cement pool made by garter of grand rapids Michigan.
We have a main drain at the bottom of the pool which also has another spot on the bottom which looks to be capped off.
Also below our slide we have 2 openings 1 of which is a secondary skimmer/vacuum the other we have no clue.
And in our pool house we have 3 shut off valves which were labeled when we moved in as skimmer, main drain, and under pool. We have no idea what the under pool is??
Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!!

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Something must be changing to let the water leak....it has to.

An unintended siphon....is there a hose in the pool?

The first thing to check is the last thing you did before the problem started.

I would start troubleshooting to rule things out.
If it's leaking with the pump running you can probably rule out the suction side (the pipes running from the main drain/skimmer to the pump). Those leaks let air in the system....they don't let water out.
You could also turn off the pump and let it leak until it stops. Your leak will be at that level. Caution though: if it's really low you could lose a lot of water and risk damaging the pool. If I were you I wouldn't let it get below the returns or the light if you have one. Those are common places to leak and there's not usually anything lower other than the main drain.
If you keep isolating different parts you will get closer to the cause.

Sorry for the randomness...trying to brainstorm.


Good luck!
 
holtawl said:
Can anyone help??
Click to expand...

We probably can. However you need to help us by telling us what equipment you have. Filter type, pumps, heaters, backwash drains, etc.

There is no visible signs of water. When I opened the cover to the pump I could hear lots of water moving and gurgling?!
Click to expand...

This statement tells me there may be something going on with some valveing in the pool pump system. Possibly something not closing all the way. Maybe post some pictures of the equipment pad so we can see what you have.
 
Here are a few photos of our pool and pool house. It's a work in progress this year. We want to fix our at least try and fix our leak before we paint and re tile. We are hoping to get that done next spring!
I have just shut the pool off and also closed all of the valves on the pool to see if that helps us from losing prime and water.
We did lose water over night with it running.

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You have a backwash pipe attached to the filter. Where is it going? If to the outside somewhere, check to see if there is water coming out when the pump is on.
 

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Ok so I had turned my pool off earlier today and also turned all of the valves off....we then lost power for most of the afternoon so I am just now turni g the pool back on. Before doing so I tried the food coloring test and nothing happened with that. Before turning the pool back on I opened each valve. The first one I opened was labeled drain I heard a rush of water so I closed it. I then opened my skimmer and heard nothing and also the valve labeled under pool and heard nothing. So for now I am running the pool with the valve labeled drain closed to see what happens.

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Can we get a picture of the whole pool.

I have my doubts its on the suction side. It could be but those usually introduce air.

How many returns do you have? Drains? (at least 2 plus skimmer)

I suggest next time you shut down plug all the returns. if the pool leaks, its not the returns.

I'd also redo the color dye test all around the skimmer, light niche, returns and drains. that will tell you if its in the grout around those items.
 
You need to trace every opening in the pool back to one of the pipes in the pool shed. That under pool one sounds like a suction drain for hydrostatic pressure - someone else on here had a setup like that and it was only intended to be used if draining the pool so as to suck out water from under the pool coming up from the water table. Do you ever have that valve open?


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So the pool has been running for 24 hrs with no water loss! That is with the valve labeled drain closed. We will hopefully be able to shut the pump off tomorrow. We will then see if we lose water with it off (which was our problem 2 years ago)
This year we were losing when the pump was running and when it was off.
Carlscan26....I'm thinking the valve labled drain is exactly that....at least that is what we are hoping for!
 
The valve labeled drain is most likely for the main drain. Under pool is most likely a well point type setup, the only time you should open that is if water table gets high or you are draining the pool. Skimmer is skimmer. If it was the main drain pipe you would see water loss most likely all the time. If you are only losing water when the pump is running I would suspect the multipart valve on your filter, or the return line.
 
Fellow Garter pool owner here. My pumphouse plumbing looks functionally identical to yours. The "underground" valve is indeed to drain water from under the pool before draining the pool below the water table and to keep the water table low while the pool is empty. Without that you'd have a concrete "boat" that the water table would try to force out of the ground.

Even though I'm a little late to the party, I wanted to chime in regarding the "mystery hole" next to the vacuum/suction port below your slide. I have one in my pool too! However, mine is terminated in the pumphouse but is capped off. If you don't have an extra line near your pump that is capped off, that port might terminate under ground or something. What you might want to do is put a plug in there, but be sure to use teflon tape on the threads to ensure a good seal.

I'm very puzzled as to what the original intention of that line is. Since I'm not the homeowner that had the pool installed, I have no idea. And I understand they're out of business now so I can't exactly ask them. Weird though that they installed it in at least two pools! I'm planning to use it as an additional return when I replumb my setup to increase turnover.
 
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