Caught a cracked return fitting before I closed her up

Started by Bill Hartman · · 2 replies
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#1
Small win this week, was doing my usual walk around before putting her to bed and noticed one of my return fittings had a hairline crack right at the threads, probably from one of these 15 Ohio winters finally catching up to it. Would've been a mess come spring, water weeping behind the liner where I'd never see it till it was bad. Swapped it out for about the price of a six pack, ten minute job with the pool drained down past the returns anyway. Just a reminder to actually get hands on everything once a year instead of eyeballing from the deck. Water's already colder than my wife's feet so I wasn't lingering out there longer than I had to.

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#2
Had almost the exact thing happen two winters back, Bill, caught a hairline crack right where the return fitting meets the threads, same spot you're describing. Mine wasn't even from freezing, I think I just overtightened it going back together after a liner adjustment and never knew it till I was down there with a flashlight checking gaskets. Weeping behind the liner is the part that gets me too, you don't see it, you just see the liner looking a little loose or a stain creeping up months later and by then you're chasing it blind. Texas winters are nothing like your 15 Ohio ones but San Antonio still gets enough cold snaps that stuff flexes and cracks quiet like that. Good reminder though, hands on every fitting once a year beats eyeballing every single time, water's plenty cold enough here too to make you want to rush it and that's exactly when you miss something.
#3
Good catch, Bill, and that line about water weeping behind the liner where you'd never see it is exactly why Gene gets down and checks every fitting by hand before we close ours up too. We're inground so no liner to worry about, but our pool is from 1998 and we still had two returns that needed replacing after the replaster this spring, just old and brittle from sitting there a quarter century. Twenty five years on original fittings is probably pushing it, so once a year hands on sounds about right no matter what kind of pool you've got.