Leak vs splash out with coverstar cover

[Green Goblin]

My pool is about 2 months old. It's a gunite pool with a coverstar cover built in under the coping.

I keep it covered except when in use, so it's covered about 22-23 hours per day. I've been noticing the water level drop quite slowly in the pool-- perhaps 3/4 inch per week. The drop seems to be more than I'd expect from evaporation alone-- before this pool I had a basically an identical sized pool without a cover that seemed to lose less to evaporation, and I wouldn't expect evaporation to account for much in my current covered pool.

If you're familiar with built in covers like this you know that the well for the cover requires the tile to be shorter at the well to allow the cover to retract into that space. This also means that basically one end of the pool has a short wall, and thus when people swim, play, and create waves the splash out occurs mainly at this short wall with water going into the well for the cover. My kids swim in the pool for about an hour every day at present.

What I can't seem to figure out is if I'm just losing water as splash out into the cover well, or if I'm actually leaking water out elsewhere. Does anyone know of a clever way to figure this out?

I know about the bucket test, and I haven't done it yet for a few reasons-- it's somewhat impractical with the cover on. I can leave the cover open and do it of course, but we use the cover as a safety mechanism that I'm a bit reluctant to leave off, and I'd also have to keep everyone out of the pool for a few days which isn't a popular decision these days.

thanks for any thoughts

 

[ajw22]

@YippeeSkippy do I remember that you have a cover?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

My cover is deck mounted so I don't have the well.

Last week in GA was hot as all get out... you'll lose water then for sure to evaporation.

I would open the pool and do the bucket test for as many days as you can manage to keep the kids out. Or just suck it up at the point and refill as needed until the fall when you can try to see if it alters things or ou can look further to identify any problems?

Doesn't your cover well have a drain also? So it is hard to monitor for splash loss as it won't build up there...... I certainly can imagine that the kids make wave motion or splash out some.

Maddie

 

[smoses]

I have the exact same situation you have. Auto cover with tiled shorter wall to well.

I’d measure the water line upon closing the pool for the night. When you open it next, check the mark. Possibly even use a yard stick, measuring depth of water at steps at closing / opening the cover. Should have no loss, then you know your answer.

My pool is entirely splash out, it doesn’t take much for the water to go over the well wall.

Shanna

 

[Green Goblin]

Thanks Shanna, and others for trying to help too.

I think it's just spill out-- as it's a new pool, and my first time with an autocover/well, I think I'm just not used to it. We're supposed to keep the water up pretty close to the top of the short wall to support the cover (that's what the cover people say), and that means if we get a bunch of kids jumping in and out, I can lose almost an inch of water (~270 gallons) in a few hours. You don't really see it happening too well-- it just disappears into the well.

If no one swims though, it seems like the drop is minimal.

Time will tell I guess.