Pool Leak Detection
in Edenvale
Pool leak detection in Edenvale starts with a bucket on the step, to rule out evaporation, and a look at the end of the backwash pipe, because a worn filter valve can drain a pool that has no hole in it. Then the skimmer, the lines and the light are tested one at a time.
Where A Pool Usually Loses Water
Four places, from the edge of the water to the pump house.
The skimmer
The joint where the skimmer box meets the shell, and cracks in its throat. A leak here stops once the water drops below the skimmer mouth.
The return and suction lines
The buried pipes between the pool and the pump. A loss that is worse with the pump running points at the return side.
The pump, filter and valve
A weeping pump seal, a cracked union or a multiport valve that lets water by to the waste line while it should be filtering.
The light and the shell
The light niche and the conduit behind it, and cracks in the shell. Shell repairs are a pool builder's work; the plumbing around them is ours.
Some Pool Leaks Leave Through The Backwash Pipe
A filter valve that passes water to waste looks exactly like a leak, and in Ekurhuleni the by-law decides where that pipe can end.
Not every pool that drops has a hole in it. The filter's multiport valve sends water to one of several ports, and two of them, waste and backwash, lead out of the pool system altogether. When the seal inside the valve wears, or a grain of sand holds it off its seat, water slips through to the waste pipe even while the handle says filter, and the pool loses it every hour the pump runs.
Where that pipe ends decides whether anybody notices. The City of Ekurhuleni's Water Services By-laws, approved in September 2023, say pool water may not go over a road or into a gutter, a stormwater drain, a watercourse, open ground or another person's premises, and may enter a drainage installation only with the City's written approval and on its conditions.1 Kept on the property, a backwash line can end somewhere nobody watches: a flower bed, a soak-away, the corner behind the pump.
The pump tells you whether to suspect it. Measure the drop over a day with the pump on its usual timer, then over a day with it switched off. A pool that loses far more with the pump running is losing water on the pressure side: the return lines, the fittings after the pump, or the valve passing to waste. One that drops just as much with the pump off points at the shell, the skimmer or the suction side instead.
Checking the valve takes a minute. With the pump running and the handle on filter, look at the end of the waste pipe, or into the sight glass if the valve has one. A steady flow means the valve is passing, and the repair is a new seal or a new valve, not a search for a crack in the pool.
It is worth doing before you pay anyone. The same by-law gives no rebate for water lost through faulty fittings or undetected leakage in your own installation,1 and a passing valve is a faulty fitting your meter counts in full every time the pool is refilled.
Before anyone looks for a hole, run the pump on filter and look at the end of the backwash pipe. Water there means the valve, not the pool.
How Pool Leak Detection Is Priced
Finding the leak and repairing it are two prices.
The visit and the tests
Said on the phone. It covers the pump-on and pump-off readings and testing the lines and fittings.
Locating it
A leak at a fitting is quick to confirm with dye. A leak in a buried line takes longer to narrow down, section by section.
Opening up
Lifting coping or paving to reach a line is priced with the making good, before it is done.
The repair
Pipe, fittings and seals listed on the invoice by name, with the leak point written up if you are claiming.
How A Pool Leak Is Tracked Down
Four steps, the first of which costs nothing.
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The bucket test
Done by you, before anyone is booked. It shows whether the pool loses more than evaporation takes.
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Pump on, pump off
The level is measured with the pump running and with it off, which points at the pressure side or the suction side.
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Lines and fittings tested
Each line is pressure tested on its own, and dye is used at the skimmer, the returns and the light to find the exact spot.
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Repaired and re-tested
The leaking pipe or fitting is repaired, and the level is checked again over the following days.
If The Water Is Going Somewhere Else
Leaks in the house, bursts and the bill that comes with them.
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Leak detection
Meter creeping with the taps off, damp that never dries
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Emergency plumber
Burst pipe, water through a ceiling, a geyser that let go
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Blocked drain clearing
Slow sinks, a backed-up toilet, an overflowing gully
Pool Leak Questions
The cost of finding the leak comes first.
What does pool leak detection cost in Edenvale?
Finding the leak and fixing it are priced separately. The visit and the tests are said on the phone, and how long they take depends on whether the leak is at a fitting, which dye shows quickly, or in a buried line that has to be narrowed down. Once it is found, the repair is quoted in writing, including any coping or paving that has to come up.
How much water does a pool lose to evaporation?
It changes with the sun, the wind and how warm the water is, so there is no single figure to hold your pool against. So the useful comparison is not a published figure but a bucket of water sitting in your own pool through the same hours. A cover cuts the loss, and the City has asked residents to cover swimming pools to stop quick evaporation.
Will the pool be emptied while the leak is traced?
No. The lines are pressure tested and the fittings checked with dye while the pool is full, because the water is what shows where it is escaping. Draining is only for a repair to the shell that cannot be done underwater.
How do I do the bucket test?
Pick a dry day. Fill a bucket from the pool and sit it on the top step, mark its level on the inside and the pool's level on the outside, then wait a full day without swimming, the pump on its usual timer. Evaporation takes the same from both. Should the pool's mark have fallen clearly further than the bucket's, something other than the weather is taking the water.
Is it the pool or the house that is leaking?
Read the water meter with every tap closed and nothing filling the pool. If the small dials still move, the leak is in the house supply, and the leak detection page explains the next test. If the meter is still and the pool keeps dropping, the water is leaving through the pool.
Can I fit an automatic top-up to the pool?
Not one fed from municipal water. Ekurhuleni's water by-law forbids supplying a pool from a potable source through an automatic top-up system or a float valve, and any pipe that fills a pool has to discharge above its water level, so pool water cannot be drawn back into the house supply.
Can you repair a crack in the pool shell?
The plumbing is what gets repaired here: the lines, the skimmer and return fittings, the light seal and the pump and valve connections. A crack in the shell or a failing marbelite or fibreglass surface is a pool builder's job, and you are told so plainly if the tests point there.
Will my insurer pay for a pool leak?
Policies differ, and some treat pools and slow leaks differently from a sudden burst, so phone your insurer before booking if you mean to claim. Whatever they decide, the leak point and the repair are written up for you.
Book A Pool Leak Check
If you have done the bucket test, put both drops in the message: the pool's and the bucket's.