I know I have a leak, How bad is this gonna hurt?

So, I’ve been suspecting a leak for a while but haven’t done a bucket test or anything because I live around Houston, TX and it gets prety hot here during the Summer. I figured an inch and a half in a day wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibilities. I have had my pool light out of it’s niche for a while because when I removed it to replace it I didn’t realize how much a replacement bulb for Colorlogic was (WOW).

Fast forward to my son and his girlfriend using the hot tub one night and not setting the valves back correctly running the hot tub almost out of water and the pump pretty pissed off when I walked outside the next morning. It took hours but eventually got a prime again but I seem to really be losing water faster now. Although it gets prime and runs, if I wait even a few minutes and go back out and open the air valve on my filter, it’s emptying air out. The pump never really gets to the point when I let air out where there’s no bubbles like it used to. I did notice my lid wasn’t as tight as it could be so I tightened it. Also noticed that if I turn the pump off the bowl eventually empties and I see little bubble coming up while it’s doing so form the suction side.

Any ideas on what this catastrophe could be and how much someone is going to try and charge me for finding and fixing it? I already am gonna be out a grand to fix the dang light. Ugh!

The pump running dry could have ruined some of the seals on the pump and possibly damaged the impeller. The cost could fluctuate depending on what needs to be fixed. You’ll have to pay a service call plus whatever items need to be replaced. A service call could be $75-$100. We’d recommend checking out the following content regarding air leaks and pressure.

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I think you’re possibly spot on on the seals as the air leaks are crazy.  Literally 15 minutes or less after I bleed the air the filter is a 30 second bleed from blowing out water.   On the leak portion, I do have that light niche empty so I guess I “could” be losing some through there.  I’m planning on getting that repaired on Friday so that’ll be closed back up.  As I said before, I’m in Houston and it’s HOT most of the time.  Yesterday morning I filled the pool up and accidentally let it get to the very top of the pool.  This morning I measured and it had dropped 2.5 inches in that 24 hour period.

I’ve been thinking about replacing my pump with a variable speed pump anyway so this could be the push I needed.  “Supposedly” a variable speed pump will save me $$ on my electric bill but I’m sure marketing departments are going to say that when they want to sell me a pump.  LOL

It definitely sounds like you have a leak. 2.5" in 24 hours is more than what evaporation would cause.

There is no doubt that a variable speed pump will save you money. The amp draw is reduced dramatically when you lower the rpm’s.

I’ve heard the light niche is one place where you can lose water.  Any truth to that?  I do have that out and I don’t recall having this issue before I took it out…  Could be coincidental though.

The light niche is a common source of a leak. The leak is usually around the conduit for the wire. You can use a leak detection kit or the phenol red from a water test kit and search for the leak. Put a couple of drops inside the niche. If there is a leak, the dye will be pulled in.

Thanks!  I didn’t run the pool at all yesterday after I took that measurement and it’s down another 2" this morning.  The hot tub on the other hand doesn’t look like it’s dropped anywhere near as much.  So, the good news (maybe?) is that it looks like the leak most likely isn’t in the piping hopefully as I wasn’t looking forward to that mess and most likely expense of diggng it all up.

I’ll try the phenol red tonight and see what I can see!  I guess if I don’t have an “expensive” leak to fix then I can direct that money towards a variable speed pump and lights replaced.  Those freakin colorlogic bulbs don’t last for crap.  Pool is 6 years old and the lights weren’t even ran that much and the pool one has been replaced twice already.  Pools… Ugh