Quick history. Moved into house with a pool. Previous owner had lived here for 40 years. Now finding that as they got older they let the pool slide and a lot of shoddy fixes. I guess this is fairly typical. Going in I knew zero about pools. I can't really afford pool service and maintenance so it has been a lot of learning.
Last summer was the first summer. Somehow I opened it, got it working and mastered pool chemicals - with this sites great help of course. This summer I have had it open a month and nothing but problems. Pretty frustrating to say the least. I now know way more about pools than I ever wanted to and feel like I am going ot have to know a lot more. It seems like all of my problems are very common but I am struggling.
1. Suction side air. Air under pool pump lid. Starts small and grows. Eventually I lose prime. I have a main line and 2 skimmers. the 2 skimmers join somewhere under ground. The main and skimmers come up from ground near my pump to a 3 port jandy valve. I had to replace the sand filter multiport (crack from screwing in pressure gauge too tight) so went ahead and replaces all of the above ground plumbing, the jandy valve and between pump and multiport and added some access ports. I got a new superpump lid and a new lid gasket and new drain plugs and silicone lube on gaskets.. Still air in basket. After all that I still feel it might be the lid. It's hard to tell. I will try the water pour over some more. I also thought it might be the pump inlet but with my new piping and telflon thread sealer it seems tight. But water pours over that too when i pour it over the lid so it's hard to tell. But i don't see the thread sealent getting sucked in there.
2. So the pool is leaking. about an 1 to 1.5 inches a day.I just let it go to where it seemed to stop. It seemed to stop after it got below the returns. Then I found out zero water is being returned to the pool. maybe a very small trickle at the return closest to the pump. So I plugged all the returns but 2 and jammed a hose in one with rag trick and water game out of each one and some leaves and gunk. I did this for each one so the plumbing around the pool seems fine. I did have them plugged over winter.
So the pump is pumping water. I can backwash or waste (from main drain since pool is low) and water flows out. I can unhhook the pressure side before it goes underground and water flows out. So it is pumping water. But water is def not getting returned to the pool. So maybe the liner isn't leaking and when I didn't know it wasn't returning it was just getting pumped into the ground. Hard to say at this point.
So with my above suction side air and the water not getting to the pool I dug down to the first joint to see if anything was going on there. Either water leak on return or air leak on suction. Had to dig down about 2 feet to where the PVC attached to some type of rigid but flexible pipe that they must have used for around the pool. It is about 2.5 feet under ground which is about how deep my returns are on the pool. In closing the pool last year i didn't have great access to purge the return lines. Was just hoping they were deep enough. But apparently I may have done some damage. I am unclear if the water is flowing out somewhere down there or the line is blocked or both. But the pressure on my sand filter doesn't continually increase when the pump is on so it must be leaking somewhere right?
I tried blocking all of the returns and using the the hose and that black rubber pressure balloon thing to seal the system and see if i could blow out a blockage. from the pump end and the pool end. But no luck.And it all made me a little nervous because that things builds up a lot of pressure and I am certainly no expert at any of this.
So with the pump on I don't see any water coming out at the first joints of my hole or leaking in so maybe the leak is farther away. All of this is kind of a nightmare I know it's prob time to call in the experts. Does anyone know a good pool repair and leak detection service in the Chicagoland area that is ok with fiberglass liner pools. The first place I called by me only did concrete.
Couple random questions.
A. In my testing one of the rubber seals behind the return was leaking. But for the life of me I can not see how to unscrew the part of the return that screws into the liner (the part you screw the eye into) to replace the rubber gasket behind it. Any ideas. Is their a special tool for this. I do see one notch inside.
B. Since 2/3 of the water is out of the pool i was thinking of doing two things. The tile at the water line is a mess. Pieces missing and falling out. I was just going to remove it until I could afford to replace it. It is the worst at the liner seams and most of the grout is missing. But some tile is still affixed pretty well. Do you think this will damage the liner. maybe I will just leave it. Looks terrible though.
C. Looking at the fiberglass liner seams there is some type of sealant in there that is old and cracked and missing and seems to be multiple types. Do the seams in a fiberglass liner need to be maintained sealed? If yes what do I use? Should I let out enough water so I can get access to them (there is a ledge around the pool), clean them out and seal them with some type of substance that you experts recommend?
D. Can I let out all the water so i can access the main drain for inspection, leak testing and possible repair? I have read the pool can come up out of the ground so I am loath to do that. But maybe it is ok? I just don't know. And the water is too cold and murky to work in it. And I can't really vacuum because of my million problems above.
Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. I wish I was back to just trying to get my water clear. Little did i know that was really the easy part.
Last summer was the first summer. Somehow I opened it, got it working and mastered pool chemicals - with this sites great help of course. This summer I have had it open a month and nothing but problems. Pretty frustrating to say the least. I now know way more about pools than I ever wanted to and feel like I am going ot have to know a lot more. It seems like all of my problems are very common but I am struggling.
1. Suction side air. Air under pool pump lid. Starts small and grows. Eventually I lose prime. I have a main line and 2 skimmers. the 2 skimmers join somewhere under ground. The main and skimmers come up from ground near my pump to a 3 port jandy valve. I had to replace the sand filter multiport (crack from screwing in pressure gauge too tight) so went ahead and replaces all of the above ground plumbing, the jandy valve and between pump and multiport and added some access ports. I got a new superpump lid and a new lid gasket and new drain plugs and silicone lube on gaskets.. Still air in basket. After all that I still feel it might be the lid. It's hard to tell. I will try the water pour over some more. I also thought it might be the pump inlet but with my new piping and telflon thread sealer it seems tight. But water pours over that too when i pour it over the lid so it's hard to tell. But i don't see the thread sealent getting sucked in there.
2. So the pool is leaking. about an 1 to 1.5 inches a day.I just let it go to where it seemed to stop. It seemed to stop after it got below the returns. Then I found out zero water is being returned to the pool. maybe a very small trickle at the return closest to the pump. So I plugged all the returns but 2 and jammed a hose in one with rag trick and water game out of each one and some leaves and gunk. I did this for each one so the plumbing around the pool seems fine. I did have them plugged over winter.
So the pump is pumping water. I can backwash or waste (from main drain since pool is low) and water flows out. I can unhhook the pressure side before it goes underground and water flows out. So it is pumping water. But water is def not getting returned to the pool. So maybe the liner isn't leaking and when I didn't know it wasn't returning it was just getting pumped into the ground. Hard to say at this point.
So with my above suction side air and the water not getting to the pool I dug down to the first joint to see if anything was going on there. Either water leak on return or air leak on suction. Had to dig down about 2 feet to where the PVC attached to some type of rigid but flexible pipe that they must have used for around the pool. It is about 2.5 feet under ground which is about how deep my returns are on the pool. In closing the pool last year i didn't have great access to purge the return lines. Was just hoping they were deep enough. But apparently I may have done some damage. I am unclear if the water is flowing out somewhere down there or the line is blocked or both. But the pressure on my sand filter doesn't continually increase when the pump is on so it must be leaking somewhere right?
I tried blocking all of the returns and using the the hose and that black rubber pressure balloon thing to seal the system and see if i could blow out a blockage. from the pump end and the pool end. But no luck.And it all made me a little nervous because that things builds up a lot of pressure and I am certainly no expert at any of this.
So with the pump on I don't see any water coming out at the first joints of my hole or leaking in so maybe the leak is farther away. All of this is kind of a nightmare I know it's prob time to call in the experts. Does anyone know a good pool repair and leak detection service in the Chicagoland area that is ok with fiberglass liner pools. The first place I called by me only did concrete.
Couple random questions.
A. In my testing one of the rubber seals behind the return was leaking. But for the life of me I can not see how to unscrew the part of the return that screws into the liner (the part you screw the eye into) to replace the rubber gasket behind it. Any ideas. Is their a special tool for this. I do see one notch inside.
B. Since 2/3 of the water is out of the pool i was thinking of doing two things. The tile at the water line is a mess. Pieces missing and falling out. I was just going to remove it until I could afford to replace it. It is the worst at the liner seams and most of the grout is missing. But some tile is still affixed pretty well. Do you think this will damage the liner. maybe I will just leave it. Looks terrible though.
C. Looking at the fiberglass liner seams there is some type of sealant in there that is old and cracked and missing and seems to be multiple types. Do the seams in a fiberglass liner need to be maintained sealed? If yes what do I use? Should I let out enough water so I can get access to them (there is a ledge around the pool), clean them out and seal them with some type of substance that you experts recommend?
D. Can I let out all the water so i can access the main drain for inspection, leak testing and possible repair? I have read the pool can come up out of the ground so I am loath to do that. But maybe it is ok? I just don't know. And the water is too cold and murky to work in it. And I can't really vacuum because of my million problems above.
Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. I wish I was back to just trying to get my water clear. Little did i know that was really the easy part.
