Every pool in Central Florida loses water. An uncovered pool here gives up about a quarter inch a day to evaporation, roughly an inch and three quarters a week. In July with low humidity and a breeze it can run higher. That is normal and it is not a leak.
The question is what to do when the number climbs past that and stays there. Before anyone opens up a deck, there is a free test that answers it in twenty four hours.
Run the bucket test
You need a five gallon bucket and a day without swimmers.
- Turn off the automatic water filler if you have one. This step gets skipped constantly and it invalidates the whole test.
- Set the bucket on the second step of the pool so it sits submerged but stable.
- Fill the bucket with pool water until the level inside matches the pool level outside.
- Mark both levels with a piece of tape, one on the inside of the bucket and one on the outside.
- Leave the pool alone for twenty four hours. No swimming, no backwashing, no topping off.
- Compare the two marks.
Both levels dropping by the same amount means evaporation is doing it and your pool is fine. The pool dropping noticeably more than the bucket means water is leaving somewhere it should not.
Narrow it down before you call
Run the test twice and you can hand your technician a real clue. Do the first twenty four hours with the pump running on its normal schedule. Do the second twenty four hours with the pump off entirely.
Losing more water with the pump running points at the pressure side, which is the return plumbing, the filter, the heater or the equipment pad itself. Losing more with the pump off points at the suction side or at the structure, meaning the skimmer throat, main drain, light niche or a crack in the shell.
If the water stops dropping at a particular height and holds there, that is the most useful clue of all. The leak is almost certainly at that level, and a return fitting or the skimmer mouth is the first place to look.
Other things worth noticing
Water level is the obvious sign. These are the ones people miss:
- Spongy or unusually green patches in the lawn near the pool, or grass that stays wet through a dry week
- Pavers or deck sections that have started to sink or tilt
- Air bubbles coming out of the return jets, or a pump that keeps losing prime
- A water bill that climbed without any change in household use
- Chlorine and stabilizer that never hold no matter how much you add
- Tile that has come loose or grout lines that have opened up
- Algae that comes back within days of every treatment
Clermont makes some of this harder to spot. The sandy, well drained soil on the ridge swallows a slow leak without ever producing a puddle, so the classic wet spot in the yard may never appear. On sloped lots, water escaping under a deck can wash out the fill and leave you with settling pavers long before you notice the water level.
What the loss is actually costing
Half an inch a day on a 14 by 28 foot pool is about 122 gallons, or roughly 3,700 gallons a month going into the ground. That is the least of it.
Every gallon that leaves takes chlorine, stabilizer and salt with it, so you are buying chemistry twice. Makeup water comes in cold, which means a heater runs longer and a salt cell fights a moving target. Water moving through soil under a deck erodes the base that deck is sitting on. A leak that costs a few dollars a month in water can cost thousands in deck and shell repair if it runs for a year.
How we find it
Guessing is expensive, so we do not. Our leak detection work in Lake County uses three methods, usually in combination.
Pressure testing isolates each plumbing line and pressurizes it individually, which tells us within minutes whether the suction lines, return lines or main drain are holding. Dye testing puts a small amount of colored dye at a suspected point underwater, where the current pulls it into any crack or gap. Electronic listening equipment picks up the sound of water escaping under pressure through concrete or soil, which is how buried line leaks get pinpointed without trenching the whole yard.
Our divers are certified, which means the pool stays full through the inspection. Draining a pool to hunt for a leak in Central Florida is both unnecessary and risky given how the water table behaves here.
What usually turns out to be wrong
Most of what we find is smaller than owners fear. Light niche conduit, a separated skimmer throat, a loose return fitting, deteriorated grout at the tile line, and cracked plumbing under the deck cover the majority of calls. Plenty of those are fixed the same day, from inside the pool, without breaking concrete.
Structural cracks in the shell are the exception rather than the rule, and even those are usually repairable without a full renovation.
Get it checked
If your bucket test came back bad, or you would rather skip the DIY and have someone look, our pool leak detection service covers the diagnosis and the repair. Call (352) 246-1350 or book an appointment. We serve Clermont and the rest of Lake County, and we will have someone at your pool within 24 hours of your inquiry.
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