we have quite a large in-ground pool and we are loosing about half an inch of water over a 24 hour period, we have spent the last week trying to trouble shoot the cause.....without any luck.....we have 2 skimmers and 4 inlets plus the bottom grate suction.....last night we blocked all four inlets....both skimmers and the bottom grate and it still went down.....we also did the food colouring test....we checked around all the inlets, around the steps and around the skimmers and there didn't seem to be any leaks.....we have checked the liner and can't see anything....has anyone got any other ideas of wot to check other than get a pool guy in to check it with professional gear???

TIA

I'm not a pool owner so this may be a silly idea, but given the temperatures we've been having in southern ON recently, isn't half an inch in 24 hours a reasonable loss to evaporation? Maybe it's not leaking at all... is the pool covered when not in use?

I would also think evaporation. I don't own a pool either, but I do know how much a fish tank goes down...

its not evaporation.....1/2 " in a huge amount of water loss, as it is a huge pool, its loosing same at night as in the day......if it was evaporation it would have loss the same last year and the year before etc....this has just been happening the last few weeks...here's a pick of it!!!

Hi Monique

Surface area won't make any difference in fact a larger surface area will evaporate faster!

As a former pool owner in Southern US we always checked evaporation theory before calling the pool guy. One year we had taken down some trees near the pool, which then caused our pool to evaporate much faster due to an increase in wind (seriously!). I had no idea how fast evaporation could occur and the factors that caused it.

(If you haven't already) try the bucket test .... put a bucket (about 5 gal size) on the second step in the pool. Fill the bucket to the exact same level as the pool water. I can't see that you have any 'water features' but you will need to turn those off as well as any auto fill features. Take a look after 24 hours and check the levels. If the water level in the pool is below that in the bucket you definitely have a leak and should call in the pool people.

If you are not seeing any food colouring escape then it could be a leak in the liner (they can almost be invisible). You can also let the pool leak out to a point where you are no longer losing water and then you can isolate where the leak may be - this is a huge pain though if the leak is in the bottom.

There are a heap of things you can do to check yourself but if it is leaking as shown by the bucket test then it's probably better to get a professional in.

Good luck ... hope you get it fixed and enjoy using your pool over the summer.

J

I had a similar problem some time ago (by the way Jingle I like your bucket test idea, I never thought of that), but anyway it turned out the leak was underground in the return from the bottom grate to the pump.

Solution? Don't use the bottom return anymore (valve it off). It works just as well on the skimmer(s).

HTH.

<sent from the College Arms in Royston, UK>

thanks for this.....I did goggle "how to find a pool leak" and there are lots of videos about it, a few did show how to do the bucket/jar test.....we haven't done this as we have had this pool for 7 years and never had this kinda water loss in previous years....but also would the water loss be the same during the night as the day, as we are loosing a 1/4 inch at night and the same amount in the day???

Nice pool. Hope you find out what your problems are.

Its most likely a leak by the sounds of it, but it cant hurt to do the test...

In ground pools. nice to look at, but a pain to fix.: A friend of mine had to replace his liner due to a leak in the wrong spot. He did at least manage to do it himself with a bit of help, so that saved a bit of money, but it was a custom liner anyway, and not cheap.

Nobody pulled the plug out did they?

if they did, we put it back in yesterday.....was the funniest thing tho.....my hubby was diving down to the bottom (9ft deep) and I was holding him down with the pool vacuum cos he kept floating, so he could put the bung in the bottom filter!!!

I think that would indicate that you had a leak as it's consistent over a 24 hour period. They can be REALLY hard to detect. Unless you like to carry out scientific experiments I think it's time to call in the professionals!!

I had a chuckle when I saw your comment about holding your husband down in the water - hope you don't have nosy neighbors LOL .....

Good luck! J

Beautiful pool. I hope you get our pool problem fixed.

I must admit to a very big giggle having an image of you pushing your hubby underwater with a pool vacuum.