Urgent Help PLEASE!

I posted a year ago about our situation. We have an AG, vinyl lined pool with a deep end. A year ago, over winter, our pool almost completely drained because of some sort of leak. Last spring upon opening the pool, I followed instructions from the good people here and found the leak (so I thought). I patched it and thought all was well.

Unfortunately, over this past winter, the same thing happened. We opened to about a foot of water in the shallow end today (more in the deep end). We knew it was happening over the winter, but there was not much we could do in subzero weather.

So, I need to find any additional leaks. We suspect the main drain, but will need to do further investigation.

Our biggest question right now is that the liner shrunk. There are many areas around the top perimeter where the liner pulled out from the thing that holds it in place (don't know the technical name for it). The liner is 6 years old (it was a newly installed pool 6 years ago), and there is a fair amount of stretch to it. We are wondering whether we might be able to take the top rails off one at a time and try to stretch the liner back in place and try to get more time out of it or if that would be impossible. We have never replaced a liner before, and don't know what to expect when we start taking off the top rail. We don't want to put over a hundred bucks of water in the pool if we are just going to have to drain it and replace the liner anyway, but we are totally at a loss. No pool stores are open today, and we are kind of panicking I guess.

Any suggestions? ANY would be appreciated. If there is a chance to salvage the liner, that would be great. But if any of you know that it is impossible, then I'd just as soon know right away.

Thanks a lot!

Joe and Sandy Dittmer

Since nobody else has chimed in yet I'll give it my best guess. At 6 years you probably can't salvage the liner. Others that work on these for a living have better advice. As for the main drain, someone in another thread mentioned that main drains in an AG pool are a bad deal. The comment was that by sloping the bottom toward the middle the dirt will tend to settle in the middle and can be vacuumed out easily. Personally, I wouldn't have a main drain....period, in any kind of pool. Over the years on this site I have read a lot about all the trouble they can be.
Al
Edit: Here is that thread about main drains.
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=7288

Well, we determined tonight that is most likely NOT our main drain. We did the red food dye thing, and no dye would suck into the main drain at all. It just clouded up above the drain. I know what to look for, as this is how I detected the leak last year. We also determined that there was still a good amount of antifreeze in the main drain pipes, so we know that did not leak out.

Unfortunately, when I found the leak last year in the cove area of the floor of the pool, I did not continue looking for others. So many people said that a lot of water can escape even a pinhole, so I just ASSUMED I found the problem. So, now I guess I will just get the remaining water cleaned up real good and go leak hunting yet again. Still, we are not sure whether to try and salvage the liner or not.

Thanks, Al, for the reply. Anybody else with ideas, feel free to send them. We are rather discouraged at this point.

Joe and Sandy Dittmer

If you have pics of how much of the bead came out of the receiver, it would give us a better idea of what you may or may not be able to salvage.
I would think your leak will be at or slightly below the current water level, within about 3". Possibly near the stair location.
You can push the liner back into the bead, however, if there is a big gap between liner and receiver it may have shrunk too much.
Try some hot (but not boiling) water, it softens the liner and allows it to stretch some, possibly enough to get it seated again.
You can purchase liner lock if it continues to pop out.

Hi, I don’t recall mention of a beaded liner and since you did say something about removing top rails I will guess an overlap liner. If that is the case, by all means remove a few top rails. When we install an overlap liner we tuck the excess vinyl back into the inside of the pool so the over hang on the outside is an even 1 ½” or so. If the pool was done this way you may have plenty of extra liner to work with.

At 6 years you will have lost a lot of elasticity in the liner. Working on it and filling in high sun is essential. With still a foot of water in the pool it is doubtful it has done much shrinking and I would by all means try to save it. Depending on liner brand, thickness and pool care the liner could be shot anyway or serve you well for another 6 years.

As Matt mentioned, picks would be very helpful if further advice is needed.

Best of luck, Dennis