Advice for very small leak in vinyl pool (picts)

[rjbeals]

Live in South Carolina, USA
24ft round above ground pool. liner is 2 years old. built the deck myself last spring (1 year ago).

All summer, pool was great. I covered my pool last September. Around November/December, I noticed the water level dropping. It was really slow. I couldn't tell from day to day if it was ever done. Around January, it stopped. I could finally tell. I uncovered a few weeks ago. Here's what I've done so far:

walked around the inside perimeter feeling slowly the whole waterline, where the leak has to be. Nothing. feels as smooth as a baby's bottom.

filled it another inch or 2 of water, tried dropping food coloring in around the perimeter. Nothing.

ordered special pool dye, with a real skinny long plastic dropper. Did that around the perimeter, Nothing.

The pictures below show: I filled the water again another couple of inches, and marked it with a piece of black electrical tape. This was Tuesday around 5PM. I took these pictures today, Thursday around 5PM. So 48 hours passed. The pictures don't show it very clear, but only maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water has leaked out. The leak must be really really small. You can see the pollen line from 2 days ago, and some leaves and stuff around the rim.

I've read about the "fix-a-leak" you circulate in the pool, and it finds the leaks and fixes them. I haven't really read, or could even find, any good success stories about it.

so.
* anyone ever use this "fix-a-leak" stuff?
* anyone ever have a teeny tiny leak that they've found and repaired? if so please help?
* considering contacting a professional, but i'm afraid the cost would be about half as much as a new liner.

Any advice or troubleshooting would help.
Thanks guys

 

[zea3]

You have to be very close to the hole to see the dye being sucked in. The most common areas to leak will be at the seams, and where openings are cut. Do you have a main drain in the pool? All the other plumbing can be ruled out since you are way below the skimmer and return. The current water loss looks like evaporation.

 

[rjbeals]

Hi Zea3.

The only opening is the skimmer, you can see straight on in the pict above, and the return hole, about a foot to the left, also seen in the pict above. The leak is way below that. I also thought that it could be evaporation, but it hasn't been that warm yet here. I haven't tried the "bucket test" yet, but I'm pretty sure it's a small leak. I have inspected the 1 seam so close. It seems to be fine.

 

[zea3]

You will have a seam where the bottom meets the sides and there may be several seams across the bottom of the pool. Any one of those spots could have a small hole that may be blocked by debris at this point. That could be why the water loss slowed. You might not be able to find the leak until the water is warm enough to get in and look closely.

 

[rjbeals]

I can't believe I never thought of that. I just assumed the leak was at the point where the water stopped, but the bottom seam could by all means have something blocking it. I will certainly make that my next target.

but still curious if anyone has any experience with that fix a leak product. I only ever heard of it just recently when searching for leaks.

http://www.fixaleak.com/pools.html

 

[rjbeals]

one last thing - If i siphon most of the water out, maybe leave just a bit so I can look for that pesky leak, do you think it will harm the liner? I know when they installed it, they used some vacuum pump to draw it in as the water filled up. ?

 

[zea3]

I don't have any experience with fix a leak, so I couldn't say if it would work. It doesn't look like more than 2' of water in there now. If you have any waders you could slosh around in there and test the seams. I don't know if draining more water would be a good idea or not.

 

[Isaac-1]

Over the decades I have fixed many vinyl liner leaks using patch kits, ranging from pin holes to a thumb size chunk that a teenage girl tore in the bottom of the pool mouth first after diving in from the diving board (she had braces, thankfully did not loose any teeth). Overall they do work, but it does help to have scuba gear when placing them as most I have used require they be held in place for 2-3 minutes before they will stick on their own, alternatively a couple of people doing breath hold diving taking turns holding the patches till the set up will work. Scuba gear also helps when searching for small leaks as it allows you to stay relatively still and not disturbing the water while slowly moving around the bottom of the pool dispensing drops of dye.

Ike

 

[Bama Rambler]

1/4 to 1/2" in 48 hours isn't much loss at all. You can lose that much from evaporation. I suggest doing a bucket test. However if you have a leak and it's plugged by something, it will start to leak again as soon as you clean it up.

 

[teapot]

Fix-a-leak is quite heavy and sinks to the bottom of the pool, ok if that's where the leak is. If it were a leak on the wall you would need to add fix-a-leak in a similar way as you did the dye with a dropper and hope it finds the leak and seals. I would clean your pool first and then see how much water your losing anyone of those leaves could seal a leak. As Bama said that's not much of a leak at the moment.

DO NOT RUN YOUR FILTER WHEN YOU HAVE FIX-A-LEAK IN THE POOL! only use recirculate.

Nothings guaranteed but otherwise its a call to the leaktrack guys.

Good luck