Hello All…
New to the forum and a relatively new pool owner. My wife and I purchased the house she grew up in (New Hampshire), and it came with a 44’x20’ in ground pool. I just pulled the original paperwork and here are the stats, hopefully i cover it all:
44’x20’ in ground (30,600 gallons) - original install 1995
Vinyl Liner (replaced 2001 - animal got in pool and ruined original)
Hayward S200 Sand Filter
Hayward 1.5 hp superpump
1 Main drain in bottom of deep end
1 skimmer
2 returns
So last year I started to try and get into the pool, with learning how to balance the water, which chemicals to use, etc. As i spent more time around the pool, i began to notice that i was “topping it off” pretty regularly. At first I thought it was evaporation, but when i asked my neighbor two houses down if he was losing water like me, he actually had the opposite problem. He was draining his due to the heavy rains we were getting.
So i jumped on line and researched some stuff on pool leaks. I did the bucket test and marked some lines on the skimmer and i did in fact have a leak. I called a local pool company and they came out and performed a leak test. They had some device that ran along the liner and beeped if there was a hole in the liner. As it turned out, there were several small holes in the liner that they repaired. However, a few weeks later I noticed the pool was still being topped off quite regularly. They came back and found a few more holes and patched them. By this point, it was late in the season, but i was still noticing the water going down. So we closed up the pool, and I set a note in my phone to contact the pool company early this year and get on the schedule to try and fix the leak again.
They returned this spring and leak tested one more time and found nothing. They also performed a pressure test and he indicated that there seemed to be a leak in the skimmer line. (They also sealed where my cord for the light enter the conduit in case that was an issue.) My pool is surrounded by 3’ of concrete, so the repair would entail cutting out the concrete and digging down to where the skimmer connects to the pipe leading back to my pump. To try and save some money, and having all the tools from work to cut the concrete, i removed a section behind the skimmer and dug down to where the skimmer connected to the pvc. This area was dry and not leaking, so it appeared that the leak was somewhere in the line. The next step would be to dig around the perimeter of the concrete deck and run a new pvc line to the pump (approx 60-70 ft run). BTW, the line run from my skimmer and drains in flex pvc. So, before I dug up my whole back yard, i wanted to make sure this was the final solution and there would be no more leaks. I put a plug in the skimmer line and continued to run my pool off the main drain. And a few days later, i noticed the water going down again!
I called the pool company, they came back and said they found a leak in a patch i did myself last year. They repaired that and hoped that was it. Last Thursday night, i filled my pool and left for the weekend. Before I left I taped a plastic ruler to the skimmer frame and recored the water level when I left. When I returned Sunday afternoon, barely 72 hrs later, my pool was down 2 inches. I just checked it before logging in here tonight and it is now down 3 inches.
Im at a loss! I actually really like the pool company and the guy who comes to work on the pool. They have always been honest and fair pricing with other work they have done and with closings. And they haven’t charged me for return trips on the issue and they seem committed to helping me fix my problem, but i just don’t know where else to turn right now. I feel its like trying to find a needle in a haystack. They have checked all the areas around the pump, and there are no leaks there.
Is there anything I could be missing? Anything else I can do on my own to possibly isolate the leak? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I fill from a well, so my water bill is not a problem, but every week that i lose 3 inches of water, that lots of money in chemicals flying out of my pool as well.
Thank you for your time.
Mark
New to the forum and a relatively new pool owner. My wife and I purchased the house she grew up in (New Hampshire), and it came with a 44’x20’ in ground pool. I just pulled the original paperwork and here are the stats, hopefully i cover it all:
44’x20’ in ground (30,600 gallons) - original install 1995
Vinyl Liner (replaced 2001 - animal got in pool and ruined original)
Hayward S200 Sand Filter
Hayward 1.5 hp superpump
1 Main drain in bottom of deep end
1 skimmer
2 returns
So last year I started to try and get into the pool, with learning how to balance the water, which chemicals to use, etc. As i spent more time around the pool, i began to notice that i was “topping it off” pretty regularly. At first I thought it was evaporation, but when i asked my neighbor two houses down if he was losing water like me, he actually had the opposite problem. He was draining his due to the heavy rains we were getting.
So i jumped on line and researched some stuff on pool leaks. I did the bucket test and marked some lines on the skimmer and i did in fact have a leak. I called a local pool company and they came out and performed a leak test. They had some device that ran along the liner and beeped if there was a hole in the liner. As it turned out, there were several small holes in the liner that they repaired. However, a few weeks later I noticed the pool was still being topped off quite regularly. They came back and found a few more holes and patched them. By this point, it was late in the season, but i was still noticing the water going down. So we closed up the pool, and I set a note in my phone to contact the pool company early this year and get on the schedule to try and fix the leak again.
They returned this spring and leak tested one more time and found nothing. They also performed a pressure test and he indicated that there seemed to be a leak in the skimmer line. (They also sealed where my cord for the light enter the conduit in case that was an issue.) My pool is surrounded by 3’ of concrete, so the repair would entail cutting out the concrete and digging down to where the skimmer connects to the pipe leading back to my pump. To try and save some money, and having all the tools from work to cut the concrete, i removed a section behind the skimmer and dug down to where the skimmer connected to the pvc. This area was dry and not leaking, so it appeared that the leak was somewhere in the line. The next step would be to dig around the perimeter of the concrete deck and run a new pvc line to the pump (approx 60-70 ft run). BTW, the line run from my skimmer and drains in flex pvc. So, before I dug up my whole back yard, i wanted to make sure this was the final solution and there would be no more leaks. I put a plug in the skimmer line and continued to run my pool off the main drain. And a few days later, i noticed the water going down again!
I called the pool company, they came back and said they found a leak in a patch i did myself last year. They repaired that and hoped that was it. Last Thursday night, i filled my pool and left for the weekend. Before I left I taped a plastic ruler to the skimmer frame and recored the water level when I left. When I returned Sunday afternoon, barely 72 hrs later, my pool was down 2 inches. I just checked it before logging in here tonight and it is now down 3 inches.
Im at a loss! I actually really like the pool company and the guy who comes to work on the pool. They have always been honest and fair pricing with other work they have done and with closings. And they haven’t charged me for return trips on the issue and they seem committed to helping me fix my problem, but i just don’t know where else to turn right now. I feel its like trying to find a needle in a haystack. They have checked all the areas around the pump, and there are no leaks there.
Is there anything I could be missing? Anything else I can do on my own to possibly isolate the leak? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I fill from a well, so my water bill is not a problem, but every week that i lose 3 inches of water, that lots of money in chemicals flying out of my pool as well.
Thank you for your time.
Mark
Most newbies to pools think any leak is in the underground piping.....it seldom is.
