Water Leak? Losing 2 inches of water daily

[cbodie]

I started to notice that the filter was sucking air and discovered the water level was low so of course it would do that. What I didn't get was why was I losing so much water. I turned all the equipment off and ran the hose for several hours allowing the water level to rise. Started all the equipment back up and the same thing the next day. So I did the same thing and now I know I have to really overfill the pool. So for 2 days now I have really watched the level and I'm losing between 1.5 and 2 inches of water. It's a gunite pool, fully re-plastered in 2018. Skimmers are the original 25 year old skimmers. I don't see any bubbles anywhere. No moisture on the grass around the pool. I live in Maryland and the weather has been in the 70's except today got into the eighties. The pool is heated and has the Summer cover on it and this time of the year the water temp is about 88 to 90. Yeah I know we like it warm. However I still don't really beleive it's evaporation or could it be ? 2 inches daily?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Pentair Intellyflow/variable speed pump
Pentair sand filter
Raypak gas heater
About 24,000 gal
Liquid chlorine

 

[mknauss]

What are your overnight temperatures?
Does your summer cover really cover the pool well?

 

[an1vrsy]

I have a 25k gallons pool. An inch of water with my pool volume is approximately 600 gallons. Imagine if I lost 2” every day? Your 2” of water loss a day seems extreme without more information. Marty is looking for one piece of info. Overnight lows and an uncovered pool with 90 degree water, you would probably see a fog over your pool. That fog is evaporation. What other trouble shooting steps have you taken?

 

[cbodie]

Thank you all for your responses. So Pool company tech came over and we blocked the Polaris wall return and lowered the water below the skimmers. Placed a piece of duct tape to mark level. NO water loss. for over a week. He came back and switched all the equipment to filter through the drain and blocked the skimmers completely. So far no loss of water. The next step is to refill the water level to normal and he told me to unplug one skimmer at a time and allow it to run with only one skimmer at once to see if we can determine which skimmer is leaking. I am in the process of initiating that. An1vrsy is so right, it is a LOT of water!!! I was having to refill daily!!!! The upcoming plan is also for a pressure test to determine which skimmer or if both are leaking. They open and close the pool every year and I was told that they can determine whether the pipes are leaking due to frozen busted pipes over the winter, in which case the repairs are on them. The worse part of the whole ordeal is that the return lines are on the pool floor, meaning they are under the pool!!! My understanding is we can continue to run the pool either without use of the skimmers or with only 1 skimmer and wait till September and do all the repairs then and not loose the Summer without a pool. If it's not frozen pipes don't know if homeowners insurance will cover cost, pool is under homeowners insurance.
The other thing I'm wondering is even if it's only one line, and the skimmers are already 25 plus years old if at that point it's worth just busting all the lines out and making it whole again and not risk another issue down the line. If the pool company screwed up the closing and didn't clear the lines properly no amount of repairs is going to fix that issue. We had re-plastered just 3 Summers ago so this is definitely a big downer.

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[cbodie]

I have a 25k gallons pool. An inch of water with my pool volume is approximately 600 gallons. Imagine if I lost 2” every day? Your 2” of water loss a day seems extreme without more information. Marty is looking for one piece of info. Overnight lows and an uncovered pool with 90 degree water, you would probably see a fog over your pool. That fog is evaporation. What other trouble shooting steps have you taken?

You're absolutely right. Never had this much water loss in 25 plus years. I hate to see the upcoming water bill. I'm sure it will be astronomical. I think we really have narrowed down to a skimmer, hopefully not both. However the repair will be painful in many ways.