Is Your Pool Leaking?
5 Steps You Should Do Before Calling a Professional Leak Detector:
www.LeakSquad.com
1: Do a Bucket Test
Fill a bucket with water about 1" to the top and place it on the first step in the pool. Keep your dogs away, they will drink out of the bucket. Mark the water level inside the test bucket and then mark the pool level on the OUTSIDE of the bucket. Your bucket test should look like this:
The idea behind the pool bucket test is that the water inside the bucket will evaporate at the same rate like the water in the pool. So if your bucket loses 1/2 inch of water and your pool loses 1/2 inch - There is NO leak!
If your Pool loses 1 inch and the bucket 1/2 inch of water column then you have a 1/2 inch leak. You can multiply this by the surface area of your pool and find out exactly how much water you are losing in a 24h period.
A bucket test is always expressed in inches of water over a 24 hour period of time. All evaporation rates are in inches/time.
Make sure that your automatic water filler is turned off. Your equipment should be in normal running mode.
2: Turn Off your Pool Pumps and Do Another Bucket Test
After you have completed your bucket test and confirmed your pool leak, turn off the equipment and do it again over 24h. Remove the ON pins from your timer or turn off your digital timer. You should turn your breakers OFF too just in case.
a: If the leak rate is the same, most likely your leak is not related to the pool plumbing and it will probably be in the shell or vinyl.
b: If the leak rate is less with the equipment off, your leak is in the pressure side plumbing or in the waterfall or any spillway you may have.
c: If the leak is bigger in the second bucket test you have a leak on the suction side of your plumbing.
3: Dye Test
Get a syringe, some food coloring or dye, diving mask and your shorts. Dye test the following areas first: Skimmer opening, around all pipes, around all lights, conduits, pool vinyl or fiberglass or any other fittings in your pool. You do this by gently without stirring up the water injecting very little color close to a suspected possible leak (within 1" from it)
4: Check for Cracks
Slowly look for fine hairline cracks usually running up and down the pool wall. These cracks often start from the tile grout and go deep down into the pool. It is important to check Tile by Tile. Take your time. Cracks in pebbletec are extremely hard to spot, so really take your time. Plaster cracks are ease to see.
5: Dye Test for Pipe Leaks
If you determined that you have a pipe leak during your bucket test you can dye test your pipes to narrow the search down to a single pipe. Start with the skimmer pipe by slowly injecting dye near the pipe opening. Watch the color for 10-20 seconds and see if you can notice any movement. Repeat this for each pipe. Your return lines come in sets of 2 or more. You can use a sponge to plug all of them but one. Dye test the unplugged pipe and see if it pulls any dye. Sometimes the pipe will suck the dye in and then spit it right out. This usually indicates that it doesn't leak. Once you found which pipe is leaking you can plug it and do another bucket test to make sure that you don't have any other pool leaks. Now you need to call a leak detector to locate the leak under ground. They will normally charge you less if you already know which pipe is leaking.
I hope this article was helpful. For more information about pool leaks visit LeakSquad.com
Also check my other articles on blogger.
Vic Leak
