Hi Folks. Bought a new home last spring with a 27' round above ground pool. I was able to get it open and maintained all summer -- kids loved it. I closed it up in October and by late November it was losing water badly -- only had 16" of water left in it. I had only drained it to 1" below the skimmer -- so it lost 6-12" a week for a month or so. It stabilized with 16" of water left in the pool, I don't know why. I checked everywhere around the sides of the pool and didn't find a soggy spot.
1) Liner sprung a leak late in the season and I didn't notice. I didn't have to do any extra filling in the last month or two, but maybe I just didn't notice? In any case, the liner looks quite old, so it wouldn't surprise me that it needs to go.
2) Main drain has a leak (yes, this AGP has a main drain). I blew it out with my compressor, set at only 20lbs of pressure, but maybe I damaged something? Seems unlikely that I could damage pvc with low pressure, but maybe? There's no good way to check this, as far as I can tell?
Other thoughts or ideas? What else should I check?
It seems that the easiest way to find a leak is to let the pool drop until it "stabilizes" as that is usually the point where the leak happened.
If it's the main drain, you wouldn't have any water left because that'd be the lowest point. Check the wall where your ladder sits. You may have a tear there if you removed the ladder.
Thank you! Sounds like if there's any water left the tear must be in the wall? I easily could have ripped it near the big wedding cake steps. That was a pain to get out. Now I know a place to look!