New Liner Pinholes; From Robot?

[Cluniac]

Hello,

My vinyl liner pool installation was finished in April 2021. It's a 36x16 lagoon shaped with 8 ft deep end, chlorine generator. Pool has now been used for 2 seasons (2021, 2022). We live in New England, so our season is really May - Sept max, last year we closed in Sept.
Recently I noticed I was losing 2in. water/day, started about 1 week ago. Prior to that I noticed no discernable leakage, it started happening suddenly. Pool company that built it came out promptly after I told them what was happening, used the machine for leak testing, and found 7 tiny pinholes in the liner, all along the bottom edges where floor meets side walls (4 in deep end, 3 spread out closer to shallow end. My pool has an 8 ft deep end). They also found one larger hole near base of the stairs, so 8 in total. They patched all of them with vinyl patches and it seems to be holding fine now. The guy who fixed it kind of brushed it off that "it happens" and didn't seem all that alarmed by it.
With my liner and pool construction being so new I'm naturally worried - what did I do wrong? Did the pool company do a bad job on the grout under the pool and they dont want to admit it? Is my robot vacuum the issue? Do I have termites under the liner? The guy who was here fixing it told me it was likely my robot, and I should not use it more than once a week (I had been using it probably 3x/week).
My wife is out for blood, thinks there is no way this can be our fault since it's so new and we need to push hard on pool company/robot company. Any thoughts? We have many friends who use their robots almost daily for 5 years straight and have not had this problem, so that is also why we were suspect that is the only cause of the problem.

 

[Texas Splash]

I've not heard of too many robot-related issues like this either unless the liner was really old and in bad shape. If the pinholes are tucked-up right against that edge where the wall and floor meet, I'm not even sure the robot can get into that area. Does seem odd to me, but let's see what other members, especially those with robots and liners have to say. We have tons of them here. I'm going to modify your thread title to try and grab more attention as well.

 

[Homebrewale]

My robot never put a hole in my liner (last pool).

 

[Lanzz]

Had all kinds of issues with the previous liner - but damage from robot wasn't one of them. If there are that many pinholes, I wonder about a manufacturing defect... I know warranties generally only cover seams, but it might be worth a discussion with the manufacturer to see if a warranty claim would be honored.

 

[Cluniac]

Ok, Pool company already told us liner warranty wont cover it, but we are going to try and push them anyways to see what the options are.
They are quick to point the finger at the robot - but I am not convinced, as one of you said, when the holes are in the corner between floor and wall which most of them are, the robot doesnt really put much pressure there anyways. There are 2 of them which are more on the sidewall, like 1 inch above the floor.

 

[Lanzz]

For the robot to do that, I would think there would be an exposed sharp edge or some other issue with the tracks or brushes. I check my robot all the time for anything that could harm the liner - other than rubber tracks and brushes, there is only plastic coming in contact with the liner and I don't see anything sharp. So - yes, I am sure they will blame the robot, but I am just not sure how it could create pinholes.

 

[johnnydot]

For the robot to do that, I would think there would be an exposed sharp edge or some other issue with the tracks or brushes. I check my robot all the time for anything that could harm the liner - other than rubber tracks and brushes, there is only plastic coming in contact with the liner and I don't see anything sharp. So - yes, I am sure they will blame the robot, but I am just not sure how it could create pinholes.

I had a robot put two holes in my liner. I have an above ground 18x33 pool and I bought a robot that cleaned the bottom and went halfway up the walls on the recommendation of a friend. The above ground pools have an area where the pool walls are bolted together with a 1 inch x 1/4 inch steel reinforcing plate that the round head bolts and nuts are fastened to through the pool wall. The installers are supposed to cover this area with multiple layers of duct tape that will protect the liner. My installers did a crappy job and the bottom part of the steel plate was exposed with sharp edges and when the robot hit the wall in the area to climb up, it caused two holes. Had to put on my snorkel gear and patch them under water. Then sold the robot on Ebay and went back to my low impact Hayward Aquadroid suction cleaner which actually works better than the robot.