Hi all. This post is in regards to my sister-in-laws pool. New to her this season; just bought the house in the winter and it's her first pool. In her home/pool inspection she was told to "keep the waterfalls turned off" because when they were tested the pool lost a couple inches of water very quickly. She wasn't there during inspection so doesn't know what they did. A couple weeks ago I went over to test everything, after a 2-3 inch rain, and there was a small stream of water coming out of an open pipe...I traced this pipe to likely being the waterfall. (One main pump. one booster, and a third pump only connected to this one pipe). The water is coming from the pool side of the pipe, not the suction. The yard slopes from the back to the pool, and there's a retaining wall and the 3 waterfalls slits are just under the top coping of the retaining wall. The lower yard had some standing water. No water was coming out a couple weeks later with dry weather, but I could still see water in the standing pipe.
There is also a disconnected chiller in her equipment area, so lots of random disconnected pipes. I don't know whether this particular pipe was ever connected to the chiller but I doubt it because that wouldn't make sense to connect the water feature and chiller but what do I know.
My question: can I just cap this opening? Do you suppose this is groundwater getting into a broken underground pipe, or how is the water getting into this pipe? If I can cap it, then where can I find a cap? Should I cap it then test the waterfalls, or at least get chlorinated water into the pipe?
I took it to a big plumbing supply house and they said it's pool specific and I need to get it from an online pool plumbing store. I've looked online and can't find a cap or plug or whatever I need that is the same size (4.5 inch inside). I don't completely know what I'm looking for, so don't have a good search term.
Any help is appreciated!
There is also a disconnected chiller in her equipment area, so lots of random disconnected pipes. I don't know whether this particular pipe was ever connected to the chiller but I doubt it because that wouldn't make sense to connect the water feature and chiller but what do I know.
My question: can I just cap this opening? Do you suppose this is groundwater getting into a broken underground pipe, or how is the water getting into this pipe? If I can cap it, then where can I find a cap? Should I cap it then test the waterfalls, or at least get chlorinated water into the pipe?
I took it to a big plumbing supply house and they said it's pool specific and I need to get it from an online pool plumbing store. I've looked online and can't find a cap or plug or whatever I need that is the same size (4.5 inch inside). I don't completely know what I'm looking for, so don't have a good search term.
Any help is appreciated!
