RobFire

Water level in my pool started dropping about 3 weeks ago at an astonishing rate. I plugged the bottom drain with a lid and weighed it down with a stone. That seemed to solve it for a couple of weeks, now it is going down at 1000 Gal/week. It appears to happen only when the pump is running. Any suggestions on methods to determine where the leaks are occurring so that I don't have to dig up my entire deck. I have heard also about a check valve sometimes being installed in the bottom drains - can't find any information about this anywhere?

Thanks for your help, I will get a replacement bypass valve. FYI - I also did install a new salt generator and there were some changes (tromboned) in the piping on the discharge side involved that might go to the flow rate changes?

The pump was changed a couple of years ago. However, at end of last year season, the heater was no longer turning on and pool temperature dropped. This year I found and replaced a faulty pressure sensor, replaced the thermocouple\pilot assembly as well. Heater works fine now except for the moaning and groaning. While working on the heater, I was draining the lines by removing a spring loaded device bolted on to the side of the heat exchanger (probably the thermostat device??). Does the device have a preferred orientation, could be mounted either way? The heater is a MIN/MAX unit. How do you determine if that is faulty?

My below ground pool heater is making strange noises this year. When heating it moans, I can change the pitch by adjusting the throttling valves in/out of the heat exchanger. When set point temperature is reached I have also noticed that when the heater turns on, the heater will start to vibrate and shake for 5 seconds, then continues to moan. If the heater is not on and water is just passing thru the heat exchanger -- no noise.

Here are things I have noticed in my heat exchanger. The temperature rise in the pool water passing thru a natural gas heat exchanger is only 10degF (5degC) between inlet and outlet. You need to accurately determine the temperature rise of the pool water entering and leaving the heat exchanger to better diagnose the problem. Try putting a sensitive temperature sensor in contact with the pipe at the pool inlet and outlet ports of the heat exchanger. Wrapping the pipe and sensor will help reduce the effects of ambient air in making temperature measurements inaccurate. Try slowing the flow rate of pool water thru the heat exchanger to confirm that heat is transferring?