The ACTUAL Best Way to Know If Your Pool is Leaking
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- Опубліковано 25 гру 2024
- In this video, we'll show you how to know if your pool is leaking. We'll walk you through the simple steps to check for leaks as well as how not to check for leaks.
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This is crazy. A bucket test properly done _does_ tell you if you have a leak. Full stop.
I dont understand the need to comment. The video explains very clearly why and when it wouldnt apply. But because this seems to be such a hot button issue, let me just refer back to basic science classes.... a larger surface area exposed to wind will evaporate at a different rate than a smaller one. Ill take 900+ pool experience on that. Regardless of whether you agree with it, you still wont find chlorine occuring naturally around a pool. You are not helping anyone by arguing a scientific impossibilty. Keep on bucket testing to find pool leaks!
For the last 16 years I have been finding leaks in pools, I agree that some customers confuse evaporation with a leak but the bucket system does work and I have check the results against Anderson electronic leak detector.
OK, if it works for you keep doing it!
Love your advice and it helped me to show that I did have a leak. Thank you.
You're welcome!
I don't get the differences in chlorine. Does this work for a vinyl pool? I never heard term of a sump pump in pool. Is this just in the filter/skimmer?
Hi Loren, let me try and help answer your questions. In most pools, chlorine is added regularly for water maintenance. Chlorine does not appear in ground water naturally. So, therefore there should be some measurable amount of chlorine in the pool, but no chlorine in any water on the outside.......unless the pool is in some way leaking to the area surrounding the outside. I have seen some vinyl liner pools with sump, and I have seen many without. I have also seen many fiberglass pools with sump and some without. Depending on the installation and ground surrounding a vinyl liner pool, the installer may or may not have included it. Without question, the fiberglass pool installation should ALWAYS have one. It is always a great idea with any non-earth formed pool to have a water evacuation protocol. The sump pipe is that protocol. You should be able to tell if you have anything like that on your pool as it would be accessible through some opening and likely go to the depth of the pool. This will be a seperate attachment than the skimmer.
In my skimmers, I have the the suction hole and another that is plugged. Is there something to remove in order to test its water chemistry?
Hello nice video do I have to put product a empty d the water of the pool??!
Never drain a fiberglass pool! The dirt and peastone surrounding the shell will warp your side walls if there is no water in the pool to push against it.
I have a concrete pool close to DFW airport-not sure if I have a sump or not…. I am losing about 3/4-1” a day. I have a spillway on my hot tub. Haven’t tried the bucket test anyway. I’ve ordered a leak detection kit so I can test all the areas mentioned. Seems like a lot of loss for evaporation, but… we’ve had weeks of solid 100-degree-plus days without a drop of rain, so… not unthinkable. It’s lost like this consistently foryears…I just put some water in every day or two. I’ll try measuring the loss and see if its a consistent amount, then measure with the pump turned off for a day to see of that makes a difference.
Hi gregzoller9003! Believe it or not, it is not unheard of to lose that amount daily with the combination of breeze from the airport, crazy hot temperatures, and a spillover. Spillover and water features evaporate a considerable amount of water when running and can be alarming when excessive temperatures occur (especially for sustained periods like we've had in summer '23). You are going about the diagnosis right in our opinion. I would also be interested to see if the spillover was stopped for a day with the pool running, how that may slow down your water loss. Please report back for everyone's information!
@@CrystalEdgePools So… I did the bucket test for fun-understanding that it’s not of much value, and indeed all it confirmed is that I’m losing about 1-1.25”/day. I got a leak detection kit and went around with the dye and tested each ‘hole’ in the pool, skimmers, etc, with the pump off. Did not test bottom drains tho. I found one “jet” on the side of the pool, where recirculated water comes back into the pool when the pump runs, that gently but clearly sucked the dye in. Just the one-others were fine. So-good chance that’s my leak! Now-what to do about it…
@@gregzoller9003 are you a gunite pool?
Never mind I see that you are from the first comment....when only one jet is drawing dye its typically a broken return as a line leak will often (but not always) pull water from the entire recirculation plumbing....all be it slowly. I would start by accessing that jet for replacement. It's an ugly job that often results in sawcutting. I recommend hiring a contractor to do the job who is familiar with the process and can likely do it as clean as possible. Sorry man, that is truly frustrating.
What would be cut into? We just had new tile and coping installed but kept the old pool surface. It is wearing, but has a few years left in it under ideal conditions. We also just did the deck with a lime coat. What if I just corked up the return jet, LOL? I have a couple others feeding the pool.@@CrystalEdgePools
Do all pools in TX have sumps?
All fiberglass pools should have a sump. There has to be a way to drain water from around the shell. If it's built right.....it has one.
Great tip I only tell a customer the pool is leaking based on pool chemistry as well!
What is a sump? I have a drywell that the pool back washing into is that the same as the sump?
If you have a fiberglass pool, it should have a sump to drain the outside of the shell in case any water is able to infiltrate somehow around that backfill. It is a proper and necessary item for a fiberglass pool. If you have a gunite you will not have one as it is an earth formed pool.
Expert leak detector with 27 years experience here. Good video but you a incorrect about the bucket test regarding rate of loss and surface area. Done correctly and understanding what you are looking for, a bucket test is perfectly accurate. Surface area only matters when you are comparing LIKE volumes of water and the rate at which they COMPARATIVELY evaporate. i.e.- the same volume with the larger surface will evaporate FASTER than the one with less surface area. In the case of a normal bucket test, you are only concerned about the evaporative rate of loss, not the volume of loss. A 1/4" per day loss in both is the same evaporative loss but the volume between a 1/4" in the bucket compared to the pool will be much much less. Another way of "seeing" this is to fill 2 five gallon buckets with water, leave one full and then pour the other five gallon bucket of water into a trough or bin or whatever so that it has more surface area and watch. Both will drop the same amount every day (this is evaporative loss and what your are concerned about) you will just simply dry up faster in the larger vessel due to larger surface exposure and therefore the rate at which THAT 5 gallons evaporates is "faster". Hope this helps, I understand it can be somewhat confusing.
Good information to help explain further. You are correct under controlled conditions. It is important that wind over larger surface areas is considered heavily. Ultimately, we find the other approaches are quite revealing. I'm sure happy to have more information for people than not. Thanks for contributing!
Wrong. The bucket test is easy and a sure way to know how much you are leaking. I put a bucket in every pool I fix and come back the next day to make sure its good. Its easy for people who think they might have a leak and can tell them if its evaporation or not. Dont give bad advice.
Thank you.
Back at ya!
I think this is a great video, but from personal experience as of about 10 hours ago, I do have to say the sump pipe technique above did not work for me. Testing showed no chlorinc in pipe and yet there was a leak in the light conduit. Furthermore bucket test showed different water levels during leak (Much different) and a perfect match once the leak was plugged. I am NOT saying this video is wrong, in fact I think all of these techniques are useful, what I AM saying is that the bucket test also has a place. OP goes out of his way to mention Texas is a specific issue and I have no doubt this is true. I am in Missouri. My only point is do not have an either / or attitude.. You may need a number of solutions to tame this beast.
Hi Jay! Sorry to hear of your leak. We are very glad you were able to narrow it down and repair it. Not sure where your chemical results landed in the pool, but if there is no or very low chlorination in the pool then yes, you will not see any chlorine in the sump. This test approach of course is the first step in determining a leak and not the only one. While extremely reliable for initial results, there are many steps to determining and narrowing down possible leaks. When these tests have failed to produce chlorine results in the past, we usually find that there is very little in the pool. This is why the side by side comparison immediately is so important. It should be noted that strips begin to change colors within about a minute after initial dip producing inaccurate results FYI. You are correct that a true pronounced leak in a system will drain water faster than evaporation ever will. We thankfully have not had customers attempt to compare pronounced leaks with the bucket test, it's more questions of evaporation over time. The tape test is far more revealing than trying to compare evaporation rates when determining water loss in a pool. Again though really glad you were able to find and repair your leak.......that's always a good day!
@Paul Gnandt wow! Sorry to hear of all your leaks!
Dam my man so concentrated on levels, your ph level is whacked in that pool.
Good job noticing! I know that this video had nothing to do with that, but it is always good to pay attention to chemical levels. For those interested in information on that subject, check out our posted video on that!
The area evaporation rate should be similar in a bucket to a large pool surface. as long as they are getting similar wind and sun. Your conclusion is incorrect
To speak to this unusually weird defense of the bucket test, if you're trying to evaluate the loss of water in a pool in a given time frame, a duct tape line is far more effective and scientific than putting a bucket next to a pool. I appreciate all y'all die hard bucket testers and support your owning those feelings, but a tape line and a measuring tape is far more effective and unchangable by any elements. Please stop telling people that a tape measure is not effective. Nearly every engineered structure, vehicle or project has utilized them throughout history.
My pool doesn't have a sump.
Then nothing to worry about with any sump advice. Earth formed (such as traditional gunites do not have them)
Never heard of a sump. My pool definitely doesn't have one.
You likely have an earth formed pool