Evaporation, what's normal???

[mariner09]

I just moved into a new house aver a month ago and it has a pool.

I figured out my first problem that I got no response in this forum to, but I do believe this pool isn't normal.

I was having pressure issues and found out that my filter cartridges were the cause.

On to the next item...

What would one expect to be a normal water loss in a 24hr period? I have a 17,000gal (best guess) inground pool and I fear there may be a leak somewhere. I haven't done the once-over with the filter, yet. Maybe today as I have to examine the light that doesn't work.

It seems I'm topping it off everyday and that doesn't seem right to me.

[Rangeball]

Where are you at, and what have the day/night temps been?

How much in inches are you topping off each day?

Have you done a bucket test? If not, do a search for bucket test, there're some threads discussing it.

Good Luck

[matt4x4]

any real visible amount of water loss overnight (enough to top it up daily) is definitely cause for concern.
Could you elaborate on how much and over how long, does it seem to disappear more when the pump is on, off, or does it just drop the same all the time.......

[prh129]

The bucket test means to float a bucket of water in your pool. Mark the water level in the bucket and the water level in the pool at the start of the test. After 24 hrs, if the pool level dropped more than the bucket level did then you probably have a leak.

Peter

[larry2338]

Depending on his/her weather, maybe a visible drop in water level overnight doesn't mean a problem. We have had, until today, an extended period of abnormal weather for the deep south. Temps 92-95 degrees, humidity < 30 percent !!! and nearly continuous 10-20 mph breeze. I was noticing a 1/4 inch drop nightly and began to wonder about a leak. After a couple of weeks of that, I put the solar cover back on at night and suddenly, no water loss.

[matt4x4]

Yes, you do have to take weather into account, I guess I've become accustomed to having the "feel for the weather" automatically work it's way into the observations, mine's dropped an inch in 2 weeks which is also abnormal for around here, but we've also had low humidity, continuous wind and higher than normal temps - somehow, I "calculate" all that in when visually checking the pool and really think nothing of it.
However, topping the pool up daily sounds excessive, even for high heat, low humidity and windy scenarios, every 2-3 days maybe...
The bucket test will tell for sure.