***Please help. Diagnosing underground leak. Fear $10k+ repair.***

[headrec]

Hey

I've had my pool/home a few years. Opened it up this year just fine. No leaks or issues. About a month into running everything I started to notice I would wake up and my pool had pumped below the skimmer thus running my pump dry (my main drain at the bottom was eliminated by the previous owner so only have one skimmer for sucking). Basically I've discovered my water level drops significantly but only when the pump is running. If I fill it to the top of the skimmer box its about to the minimum (running dry) after running for 8-10 hours.

I have a leak detection company coming out to help diagnose the leak next week to the tune of $500 minimum. Wondering if there is anything I can do myself to help find it myself? No water is coming through my concrete when the pump is running. Outside of losing a lot of water I see no signs of a leak. Basically I'm just trying to minimize the damage I'm about to receive. My buddy is a plumber by trade and had no idea how you would do it without fancy sonar equipment. Even then I'll still have to bust out the concrete and dig down and fix the repair.

My liner (concrete pool vinyl liner) was brand new when I moved in (3 years ago) so I don't think that's leaking but its possible. It's only when I run the pump does it actually drop beyond evaporation levels. So I'm thinking return jets or possibly skimmer line. Again can't see anything that would indicate its coming up somewhere.

Just throwing myself at your mercy. Wondering if anyone has dealt with this and can give me some advice? I just keep seeing ending up demo'ing my fence to get a mini back hoe into my back yard to dig it all up and seeing the bill rising with each little bit.

 

[jblizzle]

Is your backwash line hard plumbed to a sewer or something so you can not tell if it is leaking water out that way when it should not be?
Should would be nice if it was just a leaking spider gasket.

If the leak is much more when the pump is running, then that would not be a suction (skimmer) leak. It would need to be on the pressure side (between the pump and the pool).

 

[headrec]

Is your backwash line hard plumbed to a sewer or something so you can not tell if it is leaking water out that way when it should not be?
Should would be nice if it was just a leaking spider gasket.

If the leak is much more when the pump is running, then that would not be a suction (skimmer) leak. It would need to be on the pressure side (between the pump and the pool).

It's hard piped to the front of my house by my driveway/street gutter. There is a tiny chance some is leaking out there but nothing noticeable. I just replaced the multiport last year.

There is a section of concrete that looks like it has been torn out and repaired before leading to one of the return jets. I'm starting to wonder if that's where the issue lies. I figured it was a pressure section but I know stranger things have happened.

 

[OldPoolMan]

Make sure you double check the be line, that was a good suggestion. Pretty much, a leak when the pump is running only is probably a pressure side leak. Is your leak detection company going to pinpoint your leak? That would be important to know.

 

[headrec]

Make sure you double check the be line, that was a good suggestion. Pretty much, a leak when the pump is running only is probably a pressure side leak. Is your leak detection company going to pinpoint your leak? That would be important to know.

The be line? I have a little site glass on my multi port and no water is flowing through it. Their ads show them using sonar equipment over concrete by a pool so I assume so. I'll double check with them before they come.

 

[headrec]

Bump

 

[jblizzle]

Bump

For what?

Please do not bump your when you have not added any more info.

 

[OldPoolMan]

Sorry, I meant backwash line,just to make sure the water was no going out there. I was also saying that it seems that you have a pressure side leak and usually most leak detection companies promise to pinpoint the leak. It already looks pretty sure that you have a pressure side leak and if they're only going to confirm that then, then you're kind of still in the same place. And our $300 or so.

 

[Isaac-1]

My only thought is $500 seems high for leak detection, but I guess it depends on where you live (you don't have your location information filled out), here the leak detection guy charges $375 and has to drive here from about 100 miles away (I have used them twice to find below concrete leaks). You might try calling around to pool stores, etc. and ask about lead detection as there are often people that will do it for less, but are not certified leak detectors, and only do certain types of leak.