Deer in Scuba Steve's pool

I have a 16X32 inground vinyl liner pool. The liner was replace in 2003 as a result of a deer getting into it. This year I have had three deer in the pool. The first two times I was lucky. No loss of water. After the third deer it started loosing water. About 1 inch per 24 hours. I did a dive with a mask and found three spots that looked like they could be punctures and patched them. Water still leaking. I had a local diver that inspects pools in my area take a look at it. He goes in with scuba gear and looks over every square inch of the pool. He found one small puncture and patched it. He also tells me that my patches were not covering leaks. Still leaks! About the same rate. Scuba Steve the diver is confident that there are not puctures in the liner and thinks that I have either a plumbing leak or a leak at one of the through vinyl fittings - two inlets and one side skimmer.

So now I'm in the position of deciding the next step. I could leave it and see where the water stops hopefully indicating the area of the leak. my concern is that it is about time to put on the winter cover. If I do that and the water level continues to drop ofter the cover is on the snow builup will pull the cover into the pool without water to support it. I guess that another option is to just leave it uncovered this year and deal with the mass of needles and leaves in the spring.

I could buy the theory of a leak other than a liner puncture from the deer but since I saw the deer come out and started measureing water drop immediately after it seems highly unlikely that some other type of leak started at the same time.

I have no leaks at the pump or filter. The pool ran all sumer with no water drop other than what you would expect from evaporation.

Appologies for the rant. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

david

Welcome to the forum David. First off you need a fence, not for safety but to keep the hooved rodents out. It is easy to plug the returns and skimmer pipes just to vindicate those as possible leak points. A lot of times it is almost impossible to visually find a leak in a liner depending on the pattern. You can try measuring the level accurately to determine the loss rate. When I had a problem I used a ruler to measure to a known point like a specific spot on a step, top of the skimmer opening, etc. so the measurements are repeatable. Record the level and time and work the loss rate. As the level approaches the leak point the rate should decrease. Mine showed no change and that was because the leak was at the deep end. Under these circumstances I would definitely leave the cover off. Why risk ruining it. You can always clean up the water. An inch a day is a lot but I've been faked out many times by very high evaporation rates because of relatively warm water and cool, dry nights with a breeze. You would be surprised but as I said, an inch a day seems too high for evaporation. You could use dye around the return jet flanges and the skimmer opening. Another frequent leak area is the liner pinch around the steps.
Best I can suggest now unless you want to spend bucks and get someone with an electronic leak detector.
Keep us posted. Others will chime in too.
Al