Where’s The Leak?
Last week I received a phone call from a client with a 3 year old pool. They had cleaned the pool for spring and filled it up. The next morning they come in and found the water down over a foot. The first areas of suspicion where the underwater lights and the hydrostats. It is not uncommon for the conduit on the underwater lights to leak over time. Typically the fix is to seal the cord around the entrance to the conduit. The hydrostats can leak when they open automatically and then close. Occasionally a piece of debris can get caught in the seal. These were tested and eliminated.
They then emptied the pool and pressure tested all of the lines. (Air was used to pressure test the lines. It is our recommendation not to use air. Pressure testing with water is recommended and safer). All of the line held. Without a clear direction on the source of the leak, they let the pool drain until the water level stabilized. In this case, it was in the main drain basin just below the pipe. Over the winter a void had opened underneath the pipe in the concrete. This allowed the water to leak out of the pool. The fix was relatively easy with a hydraulic cement patch which the pool contract gladly addressed.
Having a little extra time during spring start up makes the unknown much easier to deal with. In this example, the leak was a three day issue, but it did not impact the opening.