SERIOUS liner issue! Pics included! HELP!!

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thefloatqueen

thefloatqueen

Bronze Supporter
Dec 24, 2018
1,377
Columbus, Ohio
Pool Size
8000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Y’all, I’m having a meltdown! So, over the winter the bottom of my pool got quite a few wrinkles that were not there last summer. I assume this is due to the poor water drainage in my backyard. I’ve been brushing, running robot, and using higher than usual chlorine amounts (never over SLAM level except I brought it exactly to SLAM level two times, but never higher!) to get the pool ready for swimming! Yesterday after brushing, I look around and notice a bunch of (mostly) vertical “tears” all over the liner and ONLY on the bottom. Here is the weird part….so far, knock on wood, I have not noticed any water loss and I’ve been checking it obsessively. Ground isn’t wet either.

The pool installers used a gorilla pad on the bottom last summer when they installed it. I bought the pool, liner, and gorilla pad from The Pool Factory. I am so confused how this could happen! The liner is ONE YEAR OLD!!!! Folks on this forum SLAM their pools using lots of chlorine + vacuuming + brushing. I don’t recall being too rough with the brush or anything? WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHAT SHOULD I DO?! These are just a few of MANY tears/lines that look like this. The MIDDLE of the pool looks terrible and I haven’t even been able to inspect it yet since the water is only around 70 degrees. I’ve been brushing pollen daily from the bottom of the pool where the wrinkles are. I brought it to SLAM levels a couple times during the past month in case I’m mistaking it for dead algae. That isn’t the case.

I am devastated about this and praying I didn’t ruin my pool and all the hard work I’ve been putting into it. I can live with the wrinkles….I cannot live with tears ALL OVER THE FLOOR OF THE POOL! Help meeee!! Sorry for the typos — I’m in tears and will edit them later lol

- The Troubled Float Queen 😭

P.S. No animals or humans have swam in the pool yet. It literally looks like someone took a knife and slashed it. But still no water loss and only on the bottom? What in the H E double hockey sticks is going on here?

Not sure if this matters, but it is a 25 gauge unibead liner.
IMG_5901.jpegIMG_5900.jpegIMG_5902.jpeg
 
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I know with the dark blue with white swirls pattern is not helping at all, but I tried to capture the first one I noticed. If I have to drain and replace the liner, fine! But I do not want it to damage the actual walls and structure of the pool (rust, etc.)
I need a pastor or an anxiety pill right meow!

Oh, and if you look at my PoolMath, be prepared to be entertained because I put a lot of notes in there in case I ever need it when I ask for help in here. I’m crazy but it might help. LAWD HAMMERCY!!
 
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Sorry but I don't see any tears. Liners are very resilient as long as they don't become brittle from poor water chemistry. On my old liner (which was already 7 years old), I had some animal dig under my pool through the fall/winter and when I opened it, there were 2-3" deep tunnels throughout one area of my pull where the liner sunk into. However, it still held water and no tears formed. Like I said, liners are very resilient and can move around and stretch. Given your liner is only from last year, I would suspect those are just areas where the liner has shifted/shettled and nothing is actually torn. If these were tears, you would see significant amount of water loss quite fast.

Do you think these are located at a seam where 2 under pads come together? Honestly, stuff like this happens, and when it does it sucks and there is not much that you can do about but nothing I see there warrants replacing a 1yo liner.

The only downfall is if you have crud or algae in your pull, it tends to aggregate in those areas. If if you keep your pool clean and maintained nothing should grow there.
 
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Is it bleached in those spots? (I see white)
I guess ground water could have caused the gorilla pad to bunch up underneath some but it’s hard to see the extent of what you describe with the pattern.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
Is it bleached in those spots? (I see white)
I guess ground water could have caused the gorilla pad to bunch up underneath some but it’s hard to see the extent of what you describe with the pattern.
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It is not bleached. I assumed the white is from the gorilla pad underneath, but I could be wrong. Does anyone know if these liners have “layers” to them? I’m wondering if it didn’t tear the entire liner. Ugh, I need a glass of wine. Yesterday was a really bad day lol
 
Krulligo said:
Sorry but I don't see any tears. Liners are very resilient as long as they don't become brittle from poor water chemistry. On my old liner (which was already 7 years old), I had some animal dig under my pool through the fall/winter and when I opened it, there were 2-3" deep tunnels throughout one area of my pull where the liner sunk into. However, it still held water and no tears formed. Like I said, liners are very resilient and can move around and stretch. Given your liner is only from last year, I would suspect those are just areas where the liner has shifted/shettled and nothing is actually torn. If these were tears, you would see significant amount of water loss quite fast.

Do you think these are located at a seam where 2 under pads come together? Honestly, stuff like this happens, and when it does it sucks and there is not much that you can do about but nothing I see there warrants replacing a 1yo liner.

The only downfall is if you have crud or algae in your pull, it tends to aggregate in those areas. If if you keep your pool clean and maintained nothing should grow there.
Click to expand...
I hope you’re right! Thank you for your response. It gives me hope and calmed me down a little at least for the moment. I’m going to continue keeping an eye on the water level inside the skimmer.
 
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I know low pH can also cause wrinkling. My fill water has a very high TA. I’ve had to drop the pH no lower than 7.0 and aerate a couple times to drop the TA to where I want it. Is 7.0 ppm really a low enough pH to cause wrinkling? I’m just thinking out loud here. The wrinkled areas do get brushed more frequently since that’s where the dirt and pollen tend to settle.
 
VinnyinNJ said:
What I think I see is a wrinkle with stuff accumulated around it. It may look like a tear or stretched but not seeing a tear.
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Y’all are making me feel so much better lol. If those were true tears all the way down to the gorilla pad underneath the liner, would I be losing water at a fast pace? So far, I have not noticed any water loss. I didn’t notice the “tears” until right before sunset and it’s been overcast all day and water is cold, so I don’t think there has been much evaporation the past 2 days. Water level in the skimmer is the same height as yesterday and the rain hasn’t started yet other than a little sprinkling earlier.
 

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I am just a fellow TFPer perusing threads. I have no above ground pool experience but with my old eyes, all three images show a seam in the liner. With no water loss. And patience until the water gets warmer to do a close inspectio, I’d monitor it.
 
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PoolStored said:
It looks like the liner has faded in that area. Cause? Do you add chemicals that could have sat in that area?

Does the white go away when you brush?
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Nope. I use liquid chlorine which I slowly pour in front of the return jet and then swirl it around a little with my leaf net thing. The white does not go away when I brush and I’m terrified to brush right now because I’m so scared I’ll make it worse.
 
an1vrsy said:
I am just a fellow TFPer perusing threads. I have no above ground pool experience but with my old eyes, all three images show a seam in the liner. With no water loss. And patience until the water gets warmer to do a close inspectio, I’d monitor it.
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Two of the three pics are of the same rip. One is just zoomed in and the other isn’t. They are all around the bottom of the pool tho and it appears lots in the center. As far as other chemicals (powdered or granules) go, they are very slowly dispersed on the surface of the water around the perimeter of the pool and then I take my brush and mix it up and do a little “circle” of brushing around the pool right where the chemicals were added, even if there were no clumps falling to the bottom. Obviously, CYA is the exception. I use the sock method for that. I’m referring more to things like dry acid (yeah, yeah…I know), baking soda, things like that.
 
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OH NO !!!! On the plus side, rips would empty the pool. Low PH (like in the 5s for a long time) would wrinkle it like a fingerprint with 50 bazillion little lines all over.

So maybe it was runoff water or draining issues underneath.

A toilet plunger may help when you can get in there. I advise using a new one but you do you. :)
 
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Are any of these in the seams?
I have lots of wrinkles (my liner was hung too loosely & I have water issues too) & some of the ridges of the wrinkles are lighter. Also some of my seams are lighter (like the pattern has worn off) on both sides of the seam.
there’s whiter spots but they’re in the middle of the pool where it gets full sun & I can’t really get good pictures IMG_6265.jpegIMG_6266.jpegIMG_6267.jpeg
 
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