Ahhhh. The joy of being able to dip into your backyard swimming pool. It’s a joy that quickly can be lost if your pool has a leak. What are the symptoms of pool leaks, and what can you do about them?
The first sign of a pool leak, according to Steven Nagel, owner of American Leak Detection, Tampa, is the need to fill your pool more often than normal. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t need to fill your pool more than twice a month. This will vary, of course, based on a couple of factors. Temperature and humidity levels can affect how fast water evaporates out of the pool, for example, whether the pool is heated and/or covered. When you check your pool water level, do it consistently (i.e., at the same time of day after the same amount of time has passed since the last check) and in the same way every time.
Nagel also says you need to be aware of evaporation rates. In areas where temperature is high and humidity is very low, evaporation may be up to ¼ an inch per day. But under normal weather conditions, the average pool will lose about an inch of water every 10 to 12 days. If you find that you are losing more than what is average for your climate and pool settings, you can suspect that a pool leak is the culprit.
The third symptom of a pool leak is the pool pump sucking air. Pool pumps are supposed to function with no air in the lines. Low water levels can happen if a leak is present, and sometimes, if the water level drops low enough in a pool, the skimmer lines can pull air into the pump. The intake plumbing also can be problematic. If you turn the pump off and get spurts, then the leak is probably at the intake.
The last thing to look out for that indicates a pool leak is air bubbles blowing back into the pool. When the water level is too low and air is pulled into the pump through the skimmer lines, air bubbles can result. Air bubbles also can be caused by leaks from joints that are loose in the piping underground, or even by insects that can tunnel through some piping materials. Also check the suction piping.
Nagel cautions that these are only a handful of pool leak symptoms. Algae growing back soon after the pool is chemically treated is another (algae thrive on the oxygen introduced to the pool water through the leak), although this isn’t quite as dependable because algae growth may fluctuate anyway on the algae’s period of bloom. Other symptoms include pool settling, mushy areas or standing water near the pool, and failing tiles and deck cracks.
If you have one or more of these pool symptoms, then Nagel recommends using the bucket test in order to confirm the presence of a pool leak. To do this test, you simply fill a bucket up to 3 to 4 inches from the top. Mark the water level on the inside and outside of the bucket after turning the pump off, then turn the pump on and wait a day. If the water level in the pool has gone down more than in the bucket after 24 hours, then your pool has a leak. The concept behind the test is that since water should evaporate from the pool and the bucket at the same rate, the water levels will go down at the same rate; deviations from this result indicate a problem.
Pool leaks don’t have to spell the end of your swimming enjoyment. Even if you have pool leak symptoms and confirm the leak through the bucket test, American Leak Detection and similar companies have the equipment and trained professionals to get your leak fixed fast. The key is just taking care of the problem before it gets any worse.
