I bought my house last year. There was an above-ground pool installed in the backyard. It needed a new liner, so I had one installed about10 months ago. 2 weeks ago, I had to replace a cracked sand filter. Pump seems to be fine; it pulls nice and strong. I walked out this morning and noticed my water level had dropped about 3 inches. I checked all my hoses/fittings, and nothing suggested a leak there. I walked around the pool to look for water on the ground to see if I have a hole in the liner. The ground looks dry. What gives? If I had a hole in the liner, what would be a way to find it? I don't know much about pools yet since this is my first one.
Anything else I should check for? What should I do?

 

someone got really thirsty!!!

 

We do have some pretty big raccoons around here!

 

I have an inground pool, and it doesnt have a liner, but here is some info I found for you.

[ul][*] This may not be the answer your looking for, but we used goggles and just went around looking really carefully. It took a while but we did it! There were small air bubbles around the hole - actually we found four holes, but at least we got them! [/ul] [ul][*] We've had our pool for about 12 years (are in the process of possibly replacing it) and have had only one hole in liner in all those years. The way I found it (yes, the water appeared to be draining, first) was that the grass in an area around the pool was much greener than anywhere else. So, diving down around that area I found the slice in the liner, actually fairly quickly, and placed a wet patch on it, which held thereafter. [/ul] [ul][*] First check the perimeter of the pool for soaked areas or look at the sand cove and see if any craters have formed, as the water washes away the sand it will leave a ctater in the floor. For small leaks try this. Turn off your pump so the water is still. I put in a dozen os so 3" squares of paper towels scattered through out the pool. As the water leaks out it will drag a couple pieces of paper towels to the leak. This method has worked for me in the past for small leaks. [/ul] [ul][*] We were told to use red food coloring. When you drop it in the water, it will be pulled towards the hole. It can take awhile. [/ul] [ul][*] Use a rubber hose to listen for the leak! Fill with water, plug both ends and put one end to your ear, and probe around the liner with the other end. Make sure it's a quiet evening and beleive it or not, even a small leak makes a lot of noise. If you have some electronics background, a small microphone encased in epoxy and a good audio amp will make a excellent leak finder. [/ul] [ul][*] You sound like you are sure that you have a leak and the answers above cover that. I just wanted to offer a hint to anyone that isn't sure whether they have a leak or if the water is just evaporating. Fill a bucket full of water - level with the pool - and place it on the step - if it is evaporation - the level should drop about the same. [/ul] [ul][*] The most common way to locate a leak is to swim to the bottom of the pool with a bottle of food color. Squeeze a drop or two by seams or other suspicious locations. The leak will draw the water towards and out of the hole. It is helpful to wear a pair of gogles and to drain the pool leaving about three to four feet of water. [/ul]

 

I found 2 small tears in the bottom of my liner. I am positive they were caused by my vacuum head being stuck to the bottom because I had my pump on too high when I was cleaning last week. Doh!
So do they make patches that I can repair underwater? I really hope I don't have to drain the rest of the water to repair this.

 

they sure do, at any pool supplies place you should beable to get them. It is pretty easy to do.

 

yea they do and they work great i was cutting the grass and shot a pebble through the side of my pool and it was like 40 degrees out lol so i went to the pool store and got to go swimming in some nasty cold stinky water lol it was at the very bottom too lol.

 

You speak some spanish, don't you Tennessee? I love the spanish word for swimming pool (piscina). As in, "When I go for a sweem, I always piscina pool."

 

si, senor! HAHA! Anyway, I went to the pool store and bought an underwater repair kit. I patched up the 2 small tears, and am keeping my fingers crossed. I've lost about 2 1/2 feet of water since the leak started, so I'm in the process of fillin' her back up now. I hope this $6.50 fix works!