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Evaporation or leak? The bucket test, done right
Before anyone books anything: this page gives away the diagnostic. Gulf Coast evaporation is real — a quarter inch a day and more — so “the pool seems low” isn't yet a case. The bucket test measures your pool against a control sitting in the same sun and wind, and in 24 hours the question answers itself. Run it tonight; if the pool loses more than the bucket, that's when this site earns a call.
The method
Five steps, one bucket, 24 hours
- Fill the pool to its normal level and turn the autofill OFF — it lies for a living.
- Set a bucket on a pool step so it sits partly submerged, and fill it so the water inside matches the pool's level outside. Weigh it down if it floats.
- Mark both levels — a strip of tape or a grease pencil inside the bucket and on the bucket's outside (the pool side). Same starting line, same exposure.
- Wait 24 hours with the pool in normal use paused — no swimming, no backwash. Run it once with the pump ON, and if results are interesting, repeat with the pump OFF.
- Compare the drops. Bucket and pool fell the same? That's evaporation — case closed, no call needed. Pool fell noticeably more? The water has a destination, and finding it is a detection visit's job.
Bonus clue worth a sentence in your request: if the pool stops dropping at a particular level — the bottom of the skimmer, the top of a return — it's pointing at a leak near that depth. Pools are surprisingly honest witnesses.
Bucket test questions
How much evaporation is normal in Sarasota?
Roughly a quarter inch a day as a baseline, and noticeably more during windy, dry, or scorching stretches — Gulf Coast pools can lose over two inches a week to pure physics. Heated pools and spas evaporate faster still. That's exactly why the bucket test exists: it measures your pool against its own conditions instead of a rule of thumb.
My bucket test says leak. How bad is it?
The follow-up clue is whether the loss changes with the equipment: loss that speeds up when the pump runs points at pressure-side plumbing; loss that's steady regardless points at the shell or fittings; a pool that stops dropping at a specific level is practically drawing you a map to a leak at that depth. Mention what you observed — it shortens the detective work.
Can I just keep topping it off instead?
You can, and the autofill will even do it for you — that's the trap. A leak topped off forever costs water, chemicals, and sometimes the ground under the deck, all on subscription. Finding it once converts an open-ended cost into a one-time fix.
Failed the bucket test?
Then the free diagnostic did its job. Send the daily loss, whether pump-on changed it, and your city — the detection visit takes it from there.
Request a quote
(941) 541-6227
Next step
The bucket said leak?
Then it's findable. Call with the loss rate, and the detective work gets booked.