The Pool Update

After Tuesday's discovery of a lowered water level in the pool, I'd been awaiting an opportunity to get the winter cover off so that I could take a closer look. I originally measured the drop at around 8 inches, at a time when I'd been pumping a lot of water off the cover (as a result of an unusually large amount of snow over the winter). Yesterday, with the weather having warmed up quite a bit, I pumped off the last portion of the above-cover water, and then Vicki (when she got home from work) helped get the cover itself off. The water level was noticeably lower again, and I measured it early last night at 12 inches down.

Tonight, however, the water was still at that same mark, 24 hours later. There are a couple possible explanations that I can think of for why it would go down 4 inches in 3 days but then not drop at all over the next 24 hours:

1. The location of the leak is now above the water line; or
2. I was (unintentionally) pumping some of the below-cover water off while I was draining the stuff off of the cover.

I'm obviously hoping for # 2, as it would mean that there isn't actually any leak, just a semi-permeable winter blanket that allows water to move through it. # 2 is only a possibility in my mind because we bought a new cover last September, meaning that this is our first year using it. That, and the fact that the pool place we called on Tuesday mentioned that sometimes the winter covers "work" that way these days, gives me some faint hope at this point.

To find out for sure, I'll need to wait another day or two (hoping the water doesn't drop at all) and then add some water in to raise the level back up. If the problem is actually # 1, then it'll go back down once it's high enough to find the leak again. In any event, we should know more in the next few days.