Your pool will naturally lose some water to evaporation, some to splash out and some to backwash. You may also gain water from rainfall. Our rule of thumb is, if you’ve lost more than 1/2-inch during a 24 hour period, you’ll need to perform a pool leak detection procedure and apply pool leak repair methods to address any leaks in skimmers, return lines, lights and drains and/or cracks in the pool masonry and/or patch/replace liners.
Pools can leak through any of the fittings or accessories, plumbing or even right through the shell. It is important to repair pool leaks, not only to save water, heat and chemicals, but also to prevent undermining pool structural components, and washing away fill dirt.
Louisville Leak Detection detects leaks in your swimming pools by using state-of-the-art electronic leak detection technology developed by LeakTronics. With LeakTronics, detection of pool water leaks has taken a quantum leap ahead of traditional, time-consuming methods such as water dyes, divers and air pressure tests. We can pick up pool leak sounds using submersible waterproof microphones. All pool water leaks produce an underwater sound signature which we can find & monitor with our headphones. Our process is further confirmed by adding dye to the water immediately opposite the microphone position and visually observe the suction action of the swimming pool leak using a micro-video scope. As dye is injected into the water, the exact location of a swimming pool leak inside a line is easily identifiable as the video camera reveals the dye being sucked into the leak.
How to Determine If you have a Leak:
Other symptoms that may cause a spa or pool leak:
- Increased chemical demands
- Cracks in the deck resulting from settling earth
- Unexplainable evidence of water outside the pool
- Higher than normal water bills (if you have an automatic fill device)
A simple way to account for evaporation and confirm a leak is to do a bucket test.
Swimming Pool Leak Bucket Test
- Make sure the pool is full to the normal operating level (usually half way up the tile or skimmer mouth)
- If you have a Spill-over Spa let the pool run so the spa is full to the spill over.
- Shut the pool off.
- Fill a bucket to about an inch from the top with water and place it on the first or second step or a bench in the pool. You can weigh it down with rocks or a brick if needed so it won’t float away.
- Using a marker or pencil make a mark where the water level is on the inside of the bucket. Next, make a mark on the outside of the bucket where the pool water level is touching the bucket.
- Turn your pool back on and let it run normally.
- After approximately 24 hours shut the pool off if it is running (make sure the spa is full again if you have one) and check both marks. The mark inside the bucket approximates the evaporation for that day. The mark on the outside is how much your pool dropped.
- If the marks are down the same amount then any water loss is normal evaporation. If the pool mark shows excess water loss than give us a call to come locate and repair your pool leak.