Found out why my return fittings kept weeping after two seasons

Started by Jason Okafor · · 4 replies
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#1
Small thing but saved me a bigger headache down the road. Had a tiny bit of moisture around both return fittings on the pool wall, not enough to call an emergency but enough to bug me every time I walked by. Finally drained down a foot and pulled one apart, and the gasket behind the flange had gone stiff and shrunk just enough to lose the seal, probably original from 2015. Swapped both out with a generic flange gasket kit instead of paying pool store prices for the exact OEM part, like six bucks each versus what they wanted. Bone dry since. Lesson for me was checking those every spring instead of waiting for a drip to show up, by the time you see water outside the wall it's already been seeping a while. For what it's worth check your returns before you're fighting an actual leak.

4 Replies

#2
Good call on Jason's spring check habit, though with a spool mine's small enough I can see both returns from the loveseat step so any weeping shows up fast, bigger pools where the returns are under a sun shelf or something you'd never catch it that early.
#3
That's a fair point about visibility, mine are both on the straight wall with nothing above them so I get lucky there, no sun shelf or bench to hide behind. If yours are tucked under something I'd just feel around the wall with a bare hand every so often instead of relying on eyeballing it, stiff gasket usually means a little bit of slime or a cooler wet spot even before you see actual drips.

Honestly the two foot thing probably saved me from doing it blind too, I could see exactly where the flange sat once I dropped the water instead of guessing at it through a mask. Your mileage may vary depending on how deep your returns sit but even a partial drain down beats fishing around underwater with a screwdriver.
#4
I'll push back a little on the feel around with a bare hand idea, at least for anybody with a heat pump running most of the year like mine, the wall right around the returns stays a touch warm from the flow and it threw me off a couple times thinking I felt something that was just temperature difference, not moisture. What's worked better for me is running a dry paper towel along the flange edge once a month, shows wet instantly and costs nothing. Jason's dead right about not waiting for the drip though, mine were original 2016 gaskets too and I only caught it because the deck grout above one return started looking dark before I ever saw actual water.

Good luck with it.
#5
Chuck's paper towel trick is solid but I'd push back a hair on blaming it all on heat pump warmth, amigo, my oval's got no heat pump and I still second guess myself feeling around the wall seams on a hot San Antonio afternoon when the whole thing's warm from sun. Paper towel or even just a dry finger wiped and checked again a minute later works better than trusting your palm either way.