Checking for water leaks in your pool

Oct 11 2023

Council water rates on Gold Coast and Brisbane are rising every year. Many suburbs on the Gold Coast have had the water table upset by over-development. This means spear pumps may need to be using town water. Councils do not reimburse households even when the cause is often too many development approvals (DAs). This makes it essential to ensure your pool does not have any leaks.

If you are adding more than 5cm of water to your pool every week, it is worth repairing the leak.

Leak detection, whether it is a bathroom or pool is often a process of elimination. With slow leaks being the most difficult to detect. The following steps can help detect slow leaks-:

1 Visual Inspection:

Look for any obvious signs of water leakage, such as wet spots, soft or soggy ground around the pool. Check for water accumulating in locations it normally wouldn't.

Ensure there is no obvious issue with your filter and pool pump.

2 Simple Water Level Test

• Fill the pool to its normal level.
• Mark the level with masking or electrical tape.
• Turn off your pool pump

3 Evaporation Test:

• Check the water level again after 24 hours.
• If the water level has dropped more than 0.6 cm from the marked level, it could indicate a leak.
• Turn off your pool pump

4 Ruling out evaporation with a bucket test:

• Fill the pool water to its normal level
• Fill a bucket with pool water to about one inch (2.54 cm) from the top (by filling the bucket close to the top you are ensuring that air movement over the surface of the bucket will be similar to that of the surface to that of the pool.
• Place the bucket on the first or second step of the pool. By placing the bucket in the pool water, you ensure that the water temperature of each will be similar. To keep the bucket from floating away place a brick or a few rocks in the bucket.
• Mark the water level inside the bucket with electrical or masking tape.
• Mark the water level of the pool on the outside of the bucket.
• Operate the pool for 24 hours with the pump ON and on its regular schedule.
• Operate the pool for 24 hours with the pump OFF.
• After 48 hours, compare the two levels. If the pool water (outside mark on the bucket) goes down more than the inside water level, there is probably a leak and it's time to get Professional Leak Detection (below).

source for bucket test: https://mikethepoolman.com/the-bucket-test/

5 Professional Leak Detection:

Professional pool leak detection uses the use of specialise equipment to listen for sounds indicating a water leak. They apply pressure to the plumbing, then use a listening device. If soil conditions do not allow the use of a listening device a helium device may be used.