Help! Vinyl liner dry and cracking.

[rougarou]

Hi all,
We recently noticed cracking in our IG vinyl pool liner on the side of the pool that is South facing (all sun, all day). There is cracking in two places: a) at the top part of the liner where it goes into the coping and b) about half an inch below where the actual patterned part of the liner is bonded with the upper part (described in "a" above). This cracking continues for several feet along South facing side.

Having said all that, I have two questions:
1) Is there some kind of lubricant that needs to be applied to "a".
2) What is the best method for / best available materials for patching this type of cracking?

Here's a photo:

Many thanks,
Rougarou

 

[Bama Rambler]

There's usually nothing that needs to be added to the liner. Premature liner failure is normally due to chemical abuse.

A piece of liner and some Boxer glue is the best thing to patch it with.

 

[rougarou]

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure about the chemical abuse, as I am BBB and there is no problem along the other three sides. It looks crackly only on the side that is facing the sun.

 

[Bama Rambler]

How old is the liner?

 

[rougarou]

How old is the liner?

It's about 5 years old. I looked at it again today. It shows no wear, but for about half the length of the pool that gets full sun. All other sides, including corners, look great. Is it possible that we haven't had the water level high enough? Would this help prevent sun damage? Or, could this be a faulty liner?

Thanks.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sounds like it didn't have enough UV protection applied when it was made. I would contact the mfg and see what they think.

 

[X-PertPool]

303 aerospace protectant will protect the liner from the sun.

Keeping the water line scum free with a cleaner and using a scum bug helps too