water level dropping

[cleancloths]

Block off the skimmers and see if it still leaks with the pump shut down, if it does then it is most likely the liner or main drain. If it does not it is either a leak in the skimmer, the return lines or the feed lines. Close one off at a time and run the pump for 24 hours and see which one causes the water to drop. I recently had a problem like this and found it was the pressure line feeding my polaris that had a crack in it under ground.

[carolynn]

OK, We had a big rain storm last night so all my measurements are wrong on isolating each pipe. I'll start that again. At least I got some free water !
Al, Do you have a picture of the red dye contraption you made?? Your pics on the link for the patch were very helpful!
Thanks everyone for all the info, It is such a help to be able to find help!

[Poconos]

Carolyn,
I don't have any pics of that thing but I could take some. Tied up today so maybe tomorrow I'll do it. Considering the cost factors of finding the leak, fixing it, etc I just bought a $20 1 gallon sprayer at Home Depot or someplace dedicated to this leak finding task. For the vacuum line hose attachment you can blob silicone seal to the sprayer thing and let it cure for a day. I always keep a few caulking size tubes of that stuff around. Also, I never worried about the dye staining the liner. Seems like it might but never had a problem because it disperses relatively fast and the chlorine will get rid of the color.
Al

[carolynn]

STILL Need HELP! We did get something to work to get the dye to the bottom, Thanks, Al. I have put dye at all of the skimmers and inlets, all around the seams where the wall meets the bottom, and the bottom drain. with nothing that I can tell is leaking. I have taken measurements and seem to be losing about 1 1/2 inches a day, seems to be the same with the motor on or off. This seems like a lot to me, and that it should be pretty obvious when the dye gets close, Am I right? The filter and motor are 2 feet higher than the deck of the pool and I am not loosing the pressure in the filter, if that makes any difference. I am going to turn the filter on with just the bottom drain now and see what happens. My next ????? is Where is the next most likely place to be leaking and what else can I do??? HELP!

[Poconos]

That rate of 1.5" a day is about 2 quarts per minute so that should be detectable if it's a single leak. I'm wondering about that bottom drain. If it's leaking out of a pipe then you probably won't find it with dye unless you can inject at the pipe opening somehow. Don't have one, never saw one apart, so don't know if getting to the pipe is possible.

Anybody out there know about this?

There are companies that use electronic leak detectors to find pinhole leaks in liners. Not sure exactly how they work but they rely on the leak forming a conductive path between the water in the pool and the outside world.
Only other suggestion I have is to let it drain and every 6 hours or so make as precise a depth measurement as possible and see if the leak rate changes. I let mine drop about 1 foot I believe, and in my case the rate didn't change so I figured it was a deep end leak. As the water level drops and approaches the leak you should see a decrease in leak rate. This can give you an idea if it's at the shallow or deep end and at least may narrow the search some.

Unfortunately I'm out of more ideas at this point.
Al

[rbonin]

Do you have a light in the pool? I have heard that vinyl liner pools often leak around the lights. Might be worth trying a dye test there.

~Rick~

[carolynn]

Well, I gave up and called someone to find it. It was a liner leak in the corner of the deep end where the wall meets the bottom. He even pointed it out in the first few minutes without getting in the pool! It was very obvious even to me. I guess we just missed it, or I really wasn't sure what I was looking for. Cost $225!!! but, I think I really liked him, And would use him again for anything we couldn't do ourselves. He looked over everything else while he was there and didn't find any other leaks, seams were good, and everything else is in great shape. He thought my PH was a little off and asked if I use CHlorine. I said yes--- well I do, but I just didn't want to say it was Bleach. He tested my chemicals and said everything was PERFECT! Couldn't be any better. Of Course I knew that. He told me Sams has a 100lb bucket of granular 99 % chlorine with no added fillers for about $100-- $1 / lb. Sounds good, but I am sure bleach is still cheaper and I am sold on the bleach method.
Thanks for all the help, and now I have my dye contraption all ready for the next time.