Hello! I have a 24' AGP. I live in Michigan. I closed my pool about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Pool was perfectly chemical balanced and the water temp was 40 degrees at closing. The weather here has been up and down since I closed...mostly in the low to mid-50s. Since closing, I've noticed that the water level beneath the cover has already dropped about 4" (I'm able to look through the skimmer opening and see the water level's shadow on the plastic Aquador skimmer cover). Is this normal or do I have an underground leak in my pool liner? Thank you!
Water loss during the winter
- Thread starter tseger31
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,885
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
You can lose some water to evaporation in the winter, but losing an 1" a week is concerning. Since your system is shut down for the winter (pump off and all suction/return ports closed), we have to assume you have a static leak. In other words it's not related to the suction or pressure plumbing. That would point to the liner unless you have any other way for water to leak outwards. Keep an eye on it to see if it continues to drop dangerously low. If it simply stops about 1-2 ft from the normal waterline you may be okay for the winter. You want to ensure enough water remains in the pool to keep the walls and liner stable.
Thank you for your reply! So when you say I may have a leak in the liner...what would suddenly cause something like that? It's an AGP so should I assume some type of small rodent managed to dig its way under the pool and up to and penetrating the liner? :-(
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,885
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
So hard to know for sure. Sometimes an owner does it by mistake during their final cleaning before closing. The brush or vacuum catches the liner and creates a tiny tear. Hopefully that's not the case with you, but it has happened. Perhaps a tiny tear was created on a wall by someone before the season ended and you're just now seeing it. So keeping an eye on the water level is a good thing to do now.
I know it's an older thread - but I have a similar pool in Michigan and my water level has dropped a ton this winter as well. When my solar cover is on in the summer, I have almost no water loss, but the mesh + super dry Michigan air + lack of snow or ice this season has meant it's just evaporating like crazy. I ran the numbers with an online evaporation loss calculator that takes a bunch of factors into account and if the wind is blowing and it's cold and dry outside, you can lose up to 50lbs of water *per hour* in a large pool. Don't fret too much until the spring, I suspect your pool is fine.