Pool losing water after closing!

[KSpoolguy]

I had a local pool company close our pool last Thursday. I wanted to close this year, but really wanted to see first hand how they blew the lines and will be doing myself next year. But back to the pool leak. Four days later, Monday, I noticed the under track cover was laying on the water differently so I opened the cover and noticed that the pool had lost about 2 inches of water. I started panicking and looking in the pool for any obvious tears and didn't see any. It is very strange, because the pool is only about a year old and during the summer I never have to add more than 1/2 inch of water per week, maybe a tad more if I backwash. So after finding no obvious holes or tears in the liner, I looked in the skimmer. The skimmer gizmo has a little cap on top of it, so I removed the cap and noticed it was full of water with a antifreeze smell to it. The water in the gizmo was the exact level of the water in the skimmer. I checked the gizmo and was able to turn it three times with ease. So my initial thought was they didn't tighten the gizmo all the way. I filled the pool back up on Monday. The water level in the gizmo appeared to be lower than the water in the skimmer when I was done refilling the pool. I checked it again today (three days later) and it still lost about 1 inch of water. I just checked the gizmo, and the water level in the gizmo is again at the same level as the water in the skimmer.

My pool equipment is about 75 feet from the skimmer. Is it possible that water leaking into the 75 foot or so skimmer line could account for that much water loss?

They obviously didn't seal the gizmo correctly or there wouldn't be any water in it. However, my fear is I have a two fold problem.

Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide!!

 

[samt]

I don't think that 75 feet of pipe can account for that much water loss. You have a leak somewhere. It doesn't take a big hole or lose plugs to drop the level that much in 3 or 4 days.

I had a small hole less than a 1/4 inch, and over 3 days in would drop the level about 2 in.

I would call back the people that closed the pool and tell them the problem and have them redo it.

Your pipes are now full of water again and need to be blown out.

 

[The Cabana Boy]

I would also find out what they used to blow out the lines and how much pressure they used. Hopefully they didn't apply too much pressure and cause a pipe joint to separate and leak.

 

[mmcgovern]

If the gizmo is the leak source and they left some pipe disconnected at the pad the water could be running into the skimmer line to the pad and draining out at the pad. The outlet would have to be lower than the skimmer though. If that's it, it's an easy fix. I hope that's all it is. It's very suspicious that this started at/after closing.

 

[KSpoolguy]

Well, after I tightened the skimmer gizmo and refilled the water a second time, it's been 5 days and I have only lost less than 1 inch of water from what I can tell. I'll have to open the cover to be sure but by looking in the skimmer, that's about what it looks like. Is it possible that evaporation can account for that amount of loss, even with a cover on it?

The pad is about 4 to 6 feet above the pool, so no water is coming up to the pad. The company is coming back out tomorrow to re-blow the skimmer line and put a new gizmo in. They did indicate that the gizmo could be bad and that if it is still leaking, it is possible the leak is in the skimmer line. They are going to pressure test the skimmer line to be sure while they are here. I just hate to pay them for more indepth leak testing if evaporation could be the culprit.

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It's weird though because during the summer with the heat and the cover being open during swimming and with splash out, I never lost more than an inch in a week. I just have a feeling it is something else.

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TheCabanaBoy, that is one my concerns. They use a machine called a Cyclone or something like that.