Leaking pool

Got our new pool in July. It's been one problem after another. It was supposed to be a 20 x 34 Kafko Tahiti, but the builder messed-up and it's something like a 16x34 "custom." Neither the builder nor Kafko will give us the dig specs for a 20 x 34 Tahiti. It's been leaking since it was opened in July and the builder never responded to our calls, letters, etc. - Sunbuilt Pools in Austin. Now I've been told by BBB that he's out of business.

I thought the leak might be in the skimmer line but it passed the skimmer and kept going. Loses about 2" a day. Should I let it keep leaking out? Incidently, I can't seem to find a pool company willing to look at it. How do I find the leak?

What kind of pool? Gunite, plaster, liner? Main drain or not? A lot of people including myself have no idea what those pool names are. When we get more info we'll be glad to help. In the meantime you can do a search of this forum for 'leak' and you should find a bunch of hits.
Al

It's actually a money pit in the backyard disguised as an in ground vinyl liner pool by Kafko. It has two drains about 2 feet apart, one skimmer, four returns and two lights. It was installed by a professional pool builder, Sunbuilt Pools, but he blew us off near the end and was apparently aware he was going out of business. I think he also realized he screwed up the pool and had to custom order another liner.

The pump is malfunctioning, the heat pump doesn't work, and it loses about 400 - 500 gallons of water a day. I don't know where it's leaking from, but it doesn't appear to be related to the skimmer or skimmer plumbing. I can't find anyone in the Marble Falls, Texas area willing to come look at it since they didn't build it. I have no idea where the leak could be and it's way to cold to get in the water. I'm letting it go down, hoping it will stop so I can see where the leak is. I'm afraid to let it drain out completely so if it passes the returns and light niches, I'm going to start putting water back in.

One thing is certain, if I could do it over, I would not get a vinyl liner pool!

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Liner pools really are pretty good and have some distinct advantages. Chemically inert and when they really get bad looking replace the liner and the pool looks new, and they are more tolerant of slight settling. But..they are prone to punctures, critters, and tears and that's why public pools are not vinyl.
On your plan to fill when it passes the returns and light....wise. I mentioned in a post a long time ago that knowing the change in leak rate can give an indication of the depth of the leak. Using a ruler or something similar, measure the water level to some known and repeatable reference like the top or bottom of skimmer, a specific point on a step, etc. Measure as accurately as possible every few hours. If the level is approaching the leak point the leak rate will slow. If the leak is at the bottom, like mine was, the rate won't measureably change. Once I knew mine was at the bottom of the deep end it didn't take long with dye to find the tiny slits that were leaking about 50 gal/hr.
Al

Thanks for info! I'm watching it close and it seems to be leaking at about the same rate, but it hasn't fallen below the returns, lights or stair bottom. I put some food coloring in around all the suspect places but it didn't seem to be drawn in at any of those places.

How could this much water leak out the bottom of the liner with the pool crete there? Wouldn't the water get pooled between the poolcrete and liner?

Also, since I've lowered the water I noticed there are 3 rust spots around the pool where the liner is attached to the coping. The rust seems to have blead through. Could this be rusting screws below the coping? Is there a safe and effective way to remove the rust stains?

As I mentioned, the pool is only a few months old, but I guess I have no warranty since the pb is out of business.

Im sorry you are having a problem...but i have a Kafko brand liner pool and mine is fine. We didnt even close it for the winter. It was done in August of this year. The only 2 problems we have had was with the polaris pump leaking, and the timer box didnt work right. This is our second liner pool. Our pool is 16 X 32 Oasis model. 1 skimmer, 1 drain, 3 returns. Took 7 weeks to get done.
We had a hard time with our installer as well. I think they got real busy and just sorta blew our pool off because it wasnt a gunite or as expensive as some of the other pools they were doing....I got into so many arguments with the owner that he didnt even turn the pool over to us. A worker did.
This is the company we used..http://www.fun-n-sunrecreation.com/

What a coincidence. We we're going to get the 16x32 Oasis, but decided to switch to the 20x34 Tahiti. Only problem, the pb messed up and put in the wrong pool, then called it a "custom." We think he realized the mistake sometime during the installation, but tried to play it off until we started asking about dimensions.

Did you get a copy of the dig spec's with your Oasis? That's the engineered drawing that shows all of the dimensions. We couldn't get ours, either from the pb or Kafko.

Thanks.

We got our dig specs..i have them somewhere....
I have been pretty happy with our pool so far....knock on wood.
Our pool bottom is not the smoothest at the break when the light is on at night, but oh well.
We have polaris fountains that i can turn on to move the water so you cant notice it at night unless everything is off and the light is on.
I have the medievil tile mist liner. We have a round gray step and a gray swim out step. No ladder or hand rails.

Do you know if your pool is actually 16' at the widest point? We too have the same liner.