Before anyone drains anything
Pool leak: the equipment pad, or the pool itself?
Two very different jobs hide behind the same symptom. Telling them apart first is what stops a deck being opened, or a pool being emptied, for nothing.
Start at the pad, because you can see it
The equipment pad is the one part of a pool system that is in plain sight, and it is where a surprising share of water loss turns out to live. Every one of these is visible if you are standing there while the system runs:
- the pump lid o-ring, and the shaft seal behind the impeller;
- the filter body o-ring and the clamp band;
- a multiport or backwash valve weeping quietly to waste;
- valve stems, unions and the fittings either side of them;
- heater connections, and the first stretch of pressure line off the pad.
Why a dry pad proves nothing in June
A drip onto hot concrete in a Phoenix summer is gone before you get there. The pad can be bone dry and still be the source. So look while it is running, not afterwards.
The mineral trail is the tell
A persistent drip washes dust off the concrete and leaves minerals behind as it dries. A clean, pale, slightly crusted patch under a union or a pump is the most useful thing on a dry pad, and it survives long after the water has evaporated. Follow it upwards to whatever is above it.
The pump-on, pump-off test
After the bucket test has confirmed the pool really is losing water, this is the most useful thing a homeowner can do. Run the test once with the equipment running, and once with it off. Compare.
Worse with the pump running
Attention moves to the pressure side: the line from the filter out to the pool and the return fittings, which only carry pressure while the equipment runs. A small failure there can be undetectable when everything is off.
Worse with the pump off
Attention moves to the suction side and to the structure. A suction line with a fault can draw air rather than lose water while it is running, and then let the pool drain back through it once the pump stops. Gravity, meanwhile, works on the shell all the time.
The same either way
That points at the structure and the fittings: the skimmer throat, the light niche, cracks at the tile line, the main drain, the steps, or the shell itself.
Where the water stops
This one is worth more than all of the above. If the level falls and then holds at a particular height, that height is the leak. Stops at the bottom of the skimmer mouth? The skimmer throat. Stops level with the light? The niche or its conduit. Keeps going below every fitting? Now the shell and the main drain are the candidates.
Why this fork is worth settling first
Because the wrong first move is the one that is hard to undo.
Draining the pool
An empty shell has nothing holding it down against water in the ground, which matters after monsoon rain and on flood-irrigated lots. Plaster that has been underwater for a long time does not enjoy days of June sun either. Draining should be the consequence of a decision, not the first step towards one. In practice, locating a pool leak almost never requires it.
Opening the deck
Travertine, pavers, cool decking and stamped concrete do not go back invisibly. Cutting one to chase a leak that turned out to be a pump seal is the definition of needless work.
Replacing equipment
Equally, a pad component that weeps gets dealt with at the pad. That is its own small job, and it does not touch the pool, the deck or the shell.
Can it be both?
Yes, and more often than people expect. Two modest losses can read as one larger one, which is why a pad repair that does not quite fix the number is not a surprise and not a failure — it is a second answer waiting to be found. We work the property until the loss is accounted for rather than until something has been replaced.
What your answers change: a pressure-side result means we arrive set up to isolate and pressure test lines. A structure result means dye tracing and listening at the shell and the fittings. Either way, you have already removed a chunk of the visit. Next: pool and spa leak detection, and then pool and spa leak repair.
Questions we get every week
Straight answers
The pad looks dry. Does that rule the equipment out?
No. On hot concrete a drip evaporates long before you go and look. Check it while the system is running, put a hand underneath the pump and the filter, and look for the washed, mineral-crusted patch a long-running drip leaves behind on dusty concrete.
The water stops dropping at the tile line. What does that mean?
That the leak is at that height. Water falls to the level of the failure and then stops, so a level that holds just below the tile points at cracks in that band or at the skimmer throat. It is one of the most useful observations you can bring us.
Can the leak be in the equipment and the pool at the same time?
It can, and two small losses often read as one bigger one. That is why a pad repair that improves the number without fixing it completely is not a dead end. We keep working until the loss is accounted for.
Do you need to drain my pool to find out?
Almost never. Locating is done with the pool full: pressure testing on isolated lines, listening, dye tracing at fittings and the shell. Lowering water is something a specific repair may require, and if it does, we say so first.
The auto-fill is on. Does that matter?
Enormously. An auto-fill quietly replaces exactly what you are trying to measure, so it hides both the amount and the level where the loss stops. Turn it off before you run the bucket test or the pump-on, pump-off comparison, or nothing you observe will mean anything.
Where we work
Across the Valley
Pools across the metro, from Buckeye to Mesa and Anthem to Chandler.
Related pages
Start here
Send three photos and a sentence
The equipment pad while it is running, the water level against the tile, and anything wet around the deck. That is usually enough for a real answer.
Run the bucket test first?
Even better. Tell us the result with the pump on and with it off, and the visit gets shorter.
Send it in writing