Yesterday I opened my pool... The water level was *just* high enough
to get into the skimmer basket (which is where water is sucked into
the pump), and it was a few inches over the water jets that shoot
water back into the pool from the pump. Anyhow after I removed the
cover, I threw the hose in the pool and filled it up to the normal
operating level. Then I fired the pump up, and everything seemed to
work great... Then this morning I wake up and I can hear the pump
sucking in air, which means that the water level had dropped about 3
to 4 inches over night... This is very odd because water usually
doesn't evaporaite that fast on a 50-60degree night (in fact it
doesn't evap that fast on a 90degree week!) Anyhow, I am kinda new to
pools, and I was just wondering if I had a broken pipe, A) how could I
locate the pipe burst. B) what if the pipe is  under the cement slab
around the pool? C) am I totally screwed? :) D) would it be
easier/cheaper to just fill the pool with dirt?

A few other notes: I don't think it is a hole in the pool liner
because the water didn't leak out over the winter, only when I turned
the pump back on. Also the pool is a whopping 31 years old. (Pump,
liner, and filter are new much newer, I don't know about all the age
of the pipeing around the pool).

Another thing to note is that some of the pipe leading from the pump
to the water jets is under about 3 inches of dirt around the perimeter
of the cement slab, I did a quick visual inspection and I didn't
notice thousands of gallons of water anywhere... ;) (Although with the
amount of rain we had in the past week everything is still kinda damp,
so it may be that I just couldn't tell) The remainder of the pipe is
under the cement slab...

Anyhow I am willing to do any/all work to fix this problem, I just
hope it doesn't mean blindly digging up all my flowers/grass/cement
slab to fix...

I already did a web search for this and didn't really find anything,
if anyone has personal expirence to draw from, that would be super, or
if you can find some really good websites that talk about what to do
in this situation, that would be good too...

Did you recently purchase the house and, if so, is this the first time
you've used the pool since you bought the house?  If so, you should
contact the real estate agent and question the disclosure agreement.

There is information for sale at http://www.mypoolleaks.com/pools.htm
that are kits claiming to be able to detect pool leaks.  You may want
to visit there.  I'm unable to answer your question but the
information there may help you determine where the leak is located.

Journalist: This is my second and a half summer in the house, the pool
has worked fine for the previous 1.5 summers... Thanks, for the link
to mypoolsleaks.com, I will check into that...

Hi jeanluis,

First - let me express my condolences on your pool problem.  I have a
very large 10ft approximately 25,000 gallons diving pool and it's the
same age as yours.  I recently had the pool "redone" for cosmetic
purposes - new plaster, eyeballs, drain, cooldeck replaced.  The
equipment that runs the pool was replaced by the prior owner in order
to sell the house, 5 years ago and has never given me any problems.

If you're not familiar with pools and the operation of them, I'd
suggest calling a pool repair company come out and do a one time
inspection of what's what.

Do you have a Home Warranty Contract?  If so, was the pool/operating
system put on the contract?

Good Luck to you,

tlspiegel
Google Answers Researcher