Leak Investigation

[JVTrain]

Well... my Trouble Free Pool has been indeed trouble free for this whole season. Now it's only trouble free from a chemistry standpoint. Lately I've been losing about 1/8" (3 mm) of water per day.

So far, I haven't done any investigation other than a 12 hour bucket test where the pool lost close to 1/8" more than the bucket.

I know I have a small leak in the PVC plumbing between the filter and heater (darn screw in adapter fittings...) but this isn't large enough to explain this level of loss. I lose maybe 10 gallons per day at the most through this barely present leak.

My vinyl liner is in good shape but has several patches from previous owners. I'll be investigating the patched areas and skimmer/drain face plate areas first using food coloring test. I thought maybe even before that I'd cap the return lines and skimmer lines at the pool to see what is lost overnight.

I'm likely in for a long investigation unless I get lucky and pick the right thing to test first.

 

[zea3]

Previous patches are a good place to start, especially if any of them have loose edges. Natural openings around steps, skimmers, drains, and lights are also good places to check.

 

[JVTrain]

Added about 2000 gallons last night to bring the pool up several inches.

Bucket test overnight last night. Seems I lost very little. A bit confusing. Pump ran as normal for 4 hours over night. Planning on doing some dye/food color testing tonight.

 

[duraleigh]

Regardless of how it compares to your bucket, I would consider a 1/8" water loss daily to be very inconsequential. Start looking for it in some odd places and don't worry too much if you don't find it right away.

If you shut off your pump, and leave it off overnight, do you have air in the pump strainer basket the next morning or is it still all water.

 

[JohnT]

Check your waste line for water while filtering. A leaky gasket in the multiport can cause water loss.

 

[JVTrain]

Thanks for the suggestions. I realize now after more reading, perhaps my leak is not quite as significant as I thought. May be close to "normal." I'll still be doing some poking around. We had a very wet spring and early summer so perhaps I just have never seen "normal" water loss for my pool from evaporation, splash out and the very small leak at the multiport adapter fitting.

Regardless of how it compares to your bucket, I would consider a 1/8" water loss daily to be very inconsequential. Start looking for it in some odd places and don't worry too much if you don't find it right away.

If you shut off your pump, and leave it off overnight, do you have air in the pump strainer basket the next morning or is it still all water.

I run the pump twice per day. 2 hours starting at 11 am and 3-4 hours starting at 8 pm. Between cycles the pump basket is always full of water, perhaps with a small air bubble.

Check your waste line for water while filtering. A leaky gasket in the multiport can cause water loss.

I haven't checked this directly but I'll do so tonight when it's on. Usually my waste hose is always connected so I wouldn't notice if it were happening. I should take it off and store it anyway. Haven't had to backwash for over a month.

Also, in my pool 1" of water loss is 500 gallons so 1/8" water loss is only just over 60 gallons. Puts things in better perspective.

 

[JVTrain]

Also. I checked my CYA level several weeks ago. It was just over 40. If it's a leak, after refilling it should have dropped 10% if most of the water loss was due to a leak. 4 ppm however might be tough to detect. If it's reading in between 30 and 40 and not at or above 40, I'll know there's a leak. If it's still at 40, no leak. I'll see how it looks.

 

[JVTrain]

Finally got around to checking CYA. Been to busy to check in full sun. It's now at 30 versus 40 just over a month ago. Time to dig into finding leak.