Evaporation or Leak on a new pool?

[MelFla]

Good Morning Everyone,

As the title suggests, I am wondering if I have a leak or if the sheer waterfalls create a lot of evaporation.

I am a new pool owner in Melbourne, Florida. I have a concrete pool with plaster and six inches of one inch tiles in height around the pool. I have two sheer waterfall features. I have a Hayward variable speed pump that has three settings (low, medium, and high). The plaster was completed at the end of March and the pool was filled by Friday, April 1st. The pump runs about 12 hours during the day on high and 12 hours at night on medium. I am losing about 3/4" of water per day. When the pump is on high, the sheers are pushing a substantial amount of water out. When on medium, it is eventually reduced to a trickle. I also have a spill over hot tub (about four people can fit). There is a black cage over the pool. My backyard is fenced in. There are two large oak trees that consistently shade about 1/4 of the pool.

I have done the bucket test where pool water is placed in the bucket, marked, a weight (paver) is placed in the bucket to hold it down, and then the bucket is placed in the water. The bucket evaporated much less than the pool. However, the bucket doesn't have two aerated sheers.

I am looking for some guidance from others in a similar situation to see if this is a normal evaporation level or a leak. Are there any other tests you can think of? I can't turn the sheers off yet. The pool isn't entirely finished.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post.

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! :wave; With a brand new pool and having completed the bucket test, you have reason for concern. While I'm not so sure it's related to the sheer descents themselves, your builder should perform an on-site visit to investigate. Pressure testing and/or sensitive listening devices are helpful in this regard.

On a side note, you shouldn't need to run the pump on high or medium for such a long period. I would say most of your run time can easily be on a low rpm, then kick it up to medium or high only for a time required to perform cleaning or purge the pump pot/basket of any trapped air. Low should be plenty to move water continuously.

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[MelFla]

Welcome to TFP! :wave; With a brand new pool and having completed the bucket test, you have reason for concern. While I'm not so sure it's related to the sheer descents themselves, your builder should perform an on-site visit to investigate. Pressure testing and/or sensitive listening devices are helpful in this regard.

On a side note, you shouldn't need to run the pump on high or medium for such a long period. I would say most of your run time can easily be on a low rpm, then kick it up to medium or high only for a time required to perform cleaning or purge the pump pot/basket of any trapped air. Low should be plenty to move water continuously.

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

Thank you for taking the time to respond. The pool company came out yesterday and turned off all equipment and performed the bucket test. They also made adjustments to the skimmer area. There was very little evaporation in the 24 he period in both the bucket and the pool.

Maybe the sheers are causing a large amount of evaporation? I will update this thread in about a week.

Thanks for the tip on the pump. The pool company wants it in high or medium for the first thirty days to help cure the plaster. Whether that is legit or not, I am doing it to not void the warranty.

 

[1poolman1]

Any water feature can cause a water loss due to evaporation. What are usually called waterfalls are, generally, rock faces that the water travels over exposing one surface of the moving water to air and a small fall to the pool. Air moving over water will cause evaporation. Water moving through air, same thing. A sheer descent fall has both the front and back of the water surface exposed to the air as it moves, at a generally higher rate to get the effect, increasing the evaporation rate. Here in drought-prone California, all water companies virtually beg us in the industry to have pool owners turn off any water feature that causes evaporation; waterfalls, sheer descents, laminar jets, fountains, etc.

 

[tstex]

Welcome to TFP

One other variable to consider is wind? We are having high winds almost every day and it's elevating evaporation. When you perform the bucket test w a 5 gal bucket, make sure you fill it to almost the top so the upper surface is exposed to the wind.

Finally, water features cause both evaporation and raising of pH. since you are curing your pool w a new build, make sure you keep your pH in check, mainly on the lower side to avoid Calcium build-up of curing gunite. follow the PB pH guidelines. And yes, if you have water features w high winds all day [and into the evening too], your pool will experience an accelerated evap rate, esp the warmer it becomes too. Good luck

 

[1poolman1]

Ditto, tstex. Don't know the weather there. I've seen my pool, which doesn't leak (yet?) lose an inch of water in a day (our average is 1"/week) when we get some North winds that come screaming down the Sacramento Valley.

 

[MelFla]

Thank you everyone for the input. I believe the sheers were contributing substantially to the water loss. I have trained then off and performed the bucket test several more times. There appears to be very little water loss, almost imperceptible, when the sheers are off and the pump is off.

I am a proud new pool owner and am thankful for this forum and it's contributing members. Thanks again everyone.