Water Loss?

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tfrazier

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Sep 4, 2007
6
My wife says I fret too much. I have only had water in my pool for a week now and I've already asked a couple of chemical questions. This one is a little different. When the pool was put in the back filling process broke lose a pipe. I was just standing around watching the process and innocently asked one of the installers why they had lowered the water in the pool. He looked at me and said they were not lowering any water. Immediately they dropped what they were doing and began frantically looking for the reason for the water loss. They applied several pressure tests and within an hour had found the culprit. They fixed the problem and things have held together (I guess). Now I'm nervous (remember new pool owner) and noticed today that the water level is down about 3/4 of an inch. It's been 91-92 and full sun the past few days. Should my pool lose 3/4 of an inch in 5 or 6 days? We used it minimally during the labor day weekend, but that's all. Does anyone think this is excessive or am I being a nervous nellie?

Terry
 
It depends where you live. In hot dry climates you can sometimes lose 3/4 of an inch a day. To be sure you can put a bucket with water at the same level as the pool water and see if the pool goes down faster than the bucket (leak) or they stay the same.
 
Hey Jason,
About 20 minutes ago I sent you a qustion about your Dolphin Dynamic. Did you receive it? Also, live in Richmond, VA. Hot and Humid!!! So probably 3/4 of an inch in 5 days could just be what it is, huh? After one week of being pool owners, my wife and I both agree building a house was much less stressful.

Terry
 
I was out of town over the weekend. Came home Monday and the water was to the top of the skimmer. Didn't swim that day, but went out the next day and the water was 1/2 inch below the skimmer. I think it is a reasonable amount of loss. Keep an eye on it, but I wouldn't stress out just yet. :) Enjoy the new pool!
 
With temps that hot you'd be suprised how much water you can lose to evaporation. I worried about the same thing with my new pool this summer but its normal in a hot sunny climate to lose water to evaporation when you haven't had any rain.
 
tfrazier, i live in virginia beach, va- about a 2 hour drive from you and have roughly the same weather as you and i refill my pool about once a week , just to keep it at half way up the skimmer, but i swim everyday to do my laps and some time we have the neighborhood kids over to swim who splash, i wouldn't worry, does your lawn seem wet where ever the pipe was.
 
tfrazier said:
My wife says I fret too much. Should my pool lose 3/4 of an inch in 5 or 6 days? Does anyone think this is excessive or am I being a nervous nellie?
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Hi Terry,
I was also worried about almost everything as a new pool owner, including water loss. You can certainly use the bucket method to put your mind at ease. It's a tried and true method to determine if you have a leak. You can also see my comments regarding pan evaporation in this thread...http://www.troublefreepool.com/viewtopic.php?t=2830. Knowing what is typical evaporation in your area of the country can also help put your worries to rest so you can go out and enjoy that pool!
 
I would try the bucket test but I don't know what that is. And thanks to everyone who will give me a good night's sleep. As I say, pool was just filled 9 days ago now, and I need to catch up on the sleep! I just have visions of them tearing up the pavers. I know, I've got to see the glass as half full, right? :lol:
 
tfrazier said:
I would try the bucket test but I don't know what that is. And thanks to everyone who will give me a good night's sleep. As I say, pool was just filled 9 days ago now, and I need to catch up on the sleep! I just have visions of them tearing up the pavers. I know, I've got to see the glass as half full, right? :lol:
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Under the same conditions (wind, heat, sunlight, etc) water evaporates at the same rate regardless of the size of the body of water. So if a pool loses 1/4" a day to evaporation, the bucket will also lose 1/4" a day.
Fill a bucket with water. Measure and record how much water the bucket is losing each day. Do the same for the pool. If the pool loses water faster than the bucket, the pool probably has a leak.
 

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As Firstpool says. In fact, if you use a white bucket, it is pretty easy to fill the bucket to the same level as the pool and then you don't have to mark anything as you can see both the bucket and pool levels right through the bucket. I am doing this right now as we have been losing a lot more water this year than in the past, even though we cover at night. So far, bucket and pool are in sync (workin on day 2), so likely no leak.

We upped our solar heating capacity last year and now keep the pool at 89 all the time, so I think we are just losing a lot due to evaporation (no rain in about 3 weeks). The only thing thing that has me a bit concerned is that my salt level has declined (when I filled the pool last week). Since any water loss due to evaporation should raise the salt level, I would have thought we would stay about the same on salt. So, even though I'm convinced I don't have a leak, I am still running an extended bucket test.

Another thought -- my water is already down to the lower lip of the skimmer, and I didn't start the bucket test until then. It is *possible* that I have a leak in the skimmer basket somewhere. The water drops the 3 or 4 inches due to the leak, then stops once it gets below. My current bucket test won't show this. So tonight, I'm filling and then going to retest.
 
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