At what point does a bucket test point to a leak?

[Perdidobob]

My low salt level caught me by surprise a couple weeks ago (had not had much rain recently, auto fill on), and caused me to wonder if I have a water leak. I did a 48 hr bucket test with auto fill off, keeping the bucket water level about an inch below the rim, and submerged about 2/3's of it. Each 24 hr period showed the pool lower than the bucket water level by exactly 1/4 inch. Weather was mild and mostly sunny, 45-60 F, water temp 57 F with wind fairly low 5-10 mph semi protected. Is this enough difference to indicate a leak? I cannot find anything on this site that calibrates the differential amount that clearly indicates a leak. Any suggestions or actual experiences would be appreciated.

 

[Jimrahbe]

P,

I would not think that 1/4" per day would be out of the ordinary for evaporation.

Did your actual salt level (K-1766 results) change or did the salt level reported by the salt cell change. If just the salt cell, I would suspect the cold water is the cause.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Perdidobob]

Jim, salt cell level and K1766 showed same results. To be clear, the bucket level dropped 1/8 inch per day, the pool 3/8 inch, which is the 1/4 inch difference. Conditions over the last month or two would cause relatively high evaporation for us here on the gulf coast, but I tried to catch a couple of very moderate days to do the test.

 

[Perdidobob]

And I might add the local fool store had the same results. I added salt and the cell operated normally. I also had low TC and CYA which aligned to the low salt and also suggested a potential leak. Unless a good down pour occurred that I missed! (but I'm at home most days).

 

[revitup]

Unless I’m misunderstanding the workings of the bucket test, evaporation should cause the water levels in both the bucket and the pool to go down the same and stay even with each other. If the pool level descends faster than the bucket, there’s a leak.

 

[wireform]

Unless I’m misunderstanding the workings of the bucket test, evaporation should cause the water levels in both the bucket and the pool to go down the same and stay even with each other. If the pool level descends faster than the bucket, there’s a leak.

I'm thinking with all the surface on the pool it might evaporate faster then on the bucket. Remember the bucket has a lip too so it being a smaller surface the wind may not be an equal factor. Not sure my thought process is correct.

 

[Perdidobob]

Dead of winter is probably a bad time to have posted this . But has anyone had actual experience in having a small leak and had "marginal" bucket test results? Thanks.