How to Tell if Your Swimming Pool is Leaking

How to Tell if Your Swimming Pool is Leaking

Our customers frequently come to us with a suspicion that there pool has sprung a leak. Frankly, we find that when a customer suspects his or her pool is leaking, it generally is, but there is a fairly easy way to make sure.

The Bucket Test

Wind, water temperature, and other things all affect the evaporation rate of a swimming pool. Thus the evaporation rate can vary significantly from one day to the next, or even from one pool to another. This simple test, commonly referred to as "the bucket test," can determine if water loss in a swimming pool is due to a leak or merely evaporation.

The bucket test simply exposes water in a bucket to highly similar conditions as those in the swimming pool being tested. By comparing the water loss in each, it is then possible to determine if the swimming pool is in fact leaking or if it is simply evaporating.

Performing a Bucket Test:
1.Bring the swimming pool's water level to its normal level
2.Fill a bucket with swimming pool water to a level about one inch from the top of bucket.
3.Place this bucket on the first or second step of the swimming pool. You may need to place a few bricks or rocks into the bucket to keep it from floating away.
4.Using a pen or marker, mark the water level inside the bucket.
5.Mark the water level of the pool on the outside of the bucket, on the pool wall, or skimmer face plate. If you are putting a mark on your pool, make sure it is with something that can later be cleaned off.
6.Operate the pool for a full 24 hours in the same manner that it had been operated when the leak was first suspected.
7.After 24 hours have passed, compare the two water levels (bucket vs. pool). If the pool water goes down more than the bucket level, there is most likely a leak.

Calculating Gallons of Water Leaked

First subtract the bucket loss, in inches, from the pool loss, to obtain the inches of water lost due (apparently) to leaks. The calculate the square footage of the water surface of your pool (length x width). Use these variables in the following equation to calculate water loss:

Inches of water lost x Area of Pool Surface (in square feet) x .62 gallons

For your convenience, below are some common pool configurations and the approximate (particularly with bean shaped pools) gallons of water per inch:

Surface Dimensions		Gallons Per Inch
12 x 18 Rectangle		134
12 x 18 (or so) Bean		120
15 x 30 Rectangle		279
15 x 30 (or so) Bean		250
20 x 40 Rectangle		496
20 x 40 (or so) Bean		450
40 x 60 Rectangle		1,488