Are you worried there might be a leak in your pool? We’ve got a simple procedure you can try yourself before calling in a technician to determine if your pool is actually leaking.
Generally, it is considered common for a pool to lose ~6mm of water over 24 hours due to evaporation. If more water is lost, a leak is very likely. If you suspect that there is, in fact, a leak in your pool, it’s in your best interest to analyze whether or not you’re losing more than 6 mm of water. If a significant amount is being lost, the state of your pool can be affected negatively. You may be forced to spend money on restoring the chemical balance and in severe cases; you may even be required to repair/replace your pool equipment to restore your pool to a functional state.
A quick and effective way to determine whether or not your pool may be losing water can be done by performing a bucket test. This is a simple that can easily be done by the owner of the pool without further tools or preparations. The pool must be tested during a period of non-use.
The procedure is as follows:
- Place a bucket on a step of the pool, and fill it with water to the exact level of the surrounding pool water.
- Mark the outside and inside of the bucket with a permanent marker at the water level.
- Allow the bucket to remain in place for 24 hours, with the circulation system active.
- If the water level in the bucket and the water level of the pool remain the same, there is no leak.
- If the water level in the bucket is above the water level in the pool, there is a leak. Repeat the test with the circulation system turned off.
- If the two water levels remain even, then there is most likely a leak in the circulation system.
- If the pool level drops even with the circulation off, the leak is most likely present in the pool structure.
If you have determined that the swim pool’s water loss is due to a leak, here are some additional steps you can follow to narrow down the problem:
- Inspect around the filter pad for obvious leaks.
- Look for damp spots or drips. A steady drip can result in a lot of water loss over time.
- Check if your pool leaks more with the filtration system running vs. not running
If none of the above seems to affect water loss, you’ll need to call a pool company that can perform more sophisticated testing to locate leaks in a pool and takes the necessary measures.