Best way of knowing pool leak

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in the UK]

Yes pool vacuums/robots do remove patches if they are getting old but what about plain old evaporation? Have you done a bucket test?

[Phillbo]

Fill the pool up to the proper level, place a 5 gallon bucket on the step and fill it with water to match the level of the pool. Observe the water level in the bucket compared to the pool. If they both drop at the same rate you are losing water thru evaporation. If the pool level drops more than the bucket level, you have a leak.