What Do You Do If Your Pool Is Losing Water?

Hotel swimming pool at GRT Temple Bay Resorts, Mahabalipuramhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram

Your pool will lose some water as a natural consequence of its use. For example, if you let the sun shine on your pool, you are going to lose some water because of the process of evaporation. Furthermore, if you are using your pool, chances are good that you are also going to lose some water because of splashing and similar causes. However, it is important to note that your pool should be losing no more than a small amount of water from such causes under normal circumstances, meaning that if you notice you are adding more than two inches of water to your pool on a weekly basis, you could have a serious leak that should be found and fixed as soon as possible. (1) After all, existing damage makes it easier for something to sustain further damage, meaning that you could end up having to pay more if you let the problem slide, particularly since it is coming attached to an increase in the cost of your utilities.

What Do You Do If Your Pool Is Losing Water?

Fortunately, there are a number of ways that you can use to check to see if your pool is losing water because of a leak. (2) While they are not capable of detecting all of the pool problems that can exist out there, they are nonetheless a useful way to see if you can fix the problem on your own so that you will know whether you should call in a professional or not. In other words, they are great for informing your decision-making, thus increasing the chances of better outcomes than otherwise possible.

Here are some examples of what you should do when you suspect a leak in your pool

Use the inches rule

You should start by making sure that there is a real problem with your pool because if you start searching for a leak but find nothing in the end, you are going to have wasted a considerable amount of time and effort in exchange for nothing whatsoever, which is not going to be either an efficient or an effective use of those resources. A particularly simple way to confirm the existence of a leak is to put a piece of tape to mark the water level in your pool before checking after a day to see how much the water level has fallen. As mentioned before, more than two inches is a definite cause for concern, but you should start searching for a potential problem if you see a fall of more than 1/4 inches.

Check likely places

Once you have confirmed the existence of a leak in your pool to your satisfaction, you should check the likeliest places where it will have sprung a leak. For example, you can start by inspecting the area around your pool as well as your pool equipment. If you notice patches of wet soil or even clear signs of erosion, that is a sign that you may have found your problem. Similarly, you want to inspect your pool equipment, which means looking at the filter, pump, heater and the pipe valves for signs of water leaking out where it is not supposed to leak. Finally, you should consider turning off your filtration system to see where your water level stops dropping in order to determine the location of the leak, though be warned that this is not an option for vinyl liner pools because of their particular needs. If the water level stops falling at the bottom of the opening to the skimmer, you could have a problem with either your skimmer or your filtration system. Similarly, if the water level stops falling at the light, you could have a problem with the housing for you light and so on and so forth.

Dye Test

Having found the location of the leak, you can double-check with the use of a dye test solution. In short, you can turn off your pump so that the water is still before putting in a few drops close to the location of the suspected leak. If you see the dye being sucked away, you will know that you have found something that needs to be checked right away.

There are some problems that you should be able to fix on your own. For example, if your skimmer has started to separate from your pool, you should be able to fix that problem with the copious use of putty to seal the leak. Similarly, if you have a leak in your vinyl liner, you can just use a vinyl liner patch kit to fix the problem.

When you should call a pro

In contrast, some problems are either too complicated or too time-consuming for you to handle on your own. If you find such a problem with your pool, you should contact a pool contractor that you can trust to take care of it for you. If you know no such contractor, you can go about solving this problem in one of two ways. First, you can contact your friends, family members, and other acquaintances to see if you know someone who can recommend a good pool contractor to you. Second, you can use a search engine or something similar to find pool contractors in your area. However, if you are going to choose a pool contractor, you should make sure to look up both the ratings and the reviews from their past clients so that you know what you will be getting into. Always research your options because while a contractor’s promise may sound nice, they may or may not actually be capable of living up to that promise.

Further Considerations

There are a lot of resources out there that you can use to help you with your pool problems. As a result, if you are not sure how you can find your leak or how to fix your leak on your own, you should check out YouTube for videos showing exactly that. However, if you are not sure that you can handle your pool problems on your own, you should not hesitate to seek out a pool professional for their expertise and experience, which should provide you with the best outcome so long as you remember to check their claims each time.

References:

  1. http://www.poolcenter.com/leaks
  2. http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Leak-in-Your-Swimming-Pool

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