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Pool Leak Detection in Faerie Glen — Start at the Plant Room

Faerie Glen pools have aged well. Most were installed with the original house builds in the 1980s and early 1990s, and the shells themselves have proven remarkably resilient — the majority of Faerie Glen pool shells we inspect today still hold pressure fine on the three-circuit test. What has not aged as well is everything downstream of the shell. The pump-station plumbing is where Faerie Glen pool leaks concentrate now: the union connectors, the non-return valves on the returns, the multiport valve gaskets, and the isolator fittings between the pump and the filter.

Twenty-plus years of daily circulation cycles have worked at every joint in the plant chamber. Rubber O-rings compress and lose their seat. Union threads have taken on scale from years of chlorinated water and stopped sealing cleanly. Multiport gaskets — the classic sport of the 90s pool build — have hardened past their reasonable service life. All of it is small-part failure, and any of it can leak a meaningful volume into the plant-chamber floor drain without ever showing on the pool level as visibly as a shell leak would.

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R2,150 flat rate · Two-business-day photographic report

Which fittings actually fail

In our field experience across Faerie Glen we see the same handful of failure points repeatedly.

Union connectors between the pump and the filter. These are threaded PVC or brass unions that were tightened once during installation and never re-torqued. Twenty years of vibration from a running pump has loosened them, and the weep is often behind the pump housing where it's not immediately visible.

Multiport valve top-gaskets. The rubber diaphragm inside the multiport valve seals the different flow paths (filter, backwash, rinse, waste, closed, recirculate). Once the diaphragm hardens, the valve leaks internally — water bypasses the filter or leaks past the closed setting even when the valve is set to "off". This shows as pool water disappearing when the pump is on but not when it's off.

Non-return valve on the return line. The rubber flap inside the non-return has usually perished by year fifteen. When it fails, pool water in the return line can gravity-drain back into the pump when the pump is off, and the pool level drops overnight because the "one-way" valve isn't one-way anymore.

Isolator ball-valves on the plant loop. Ball-valves that have been left in one position for two decades sometimes leak past the ball itself when finally closed for maintenance. On a Faerie Glen pool where isolators haven't been cycled in years, we sometimes find the leak is at the valve stem rather than in any plumbing.

The Faerie Glen pump-station survey

The R2,150 session on a Faerie Glen pool always begins in the plant chamber before we touch the pool water. We photograph the plant, identify each fitting, and mark visible weep patterns on rubber and PVC. Then we pressure-isolate the plant loop from the pool circuits — capping the pool-side connections and pressurising just the plant plumbing to two bar. A leak on any plant fitting shows as pressure loss within the first minute. From there the pool-side three-circuit test proceeds as normal, but on many Faerie Glen jobs we've already identified the leak before we get to the pool circuits.

Where the plant test finds a leak and the pool-side test holds, the pool shell and underground plumbing are fine and the report focuses on the plant-room repair. Where both tests show losses (which does happen — plant fittings and shell issues are not mutually exclusive), the report separately documents each.

Pricing, guarantee, terms

R2,150 flat for the single-pump session. Photographic report with numbered findings, GPS pinpoint on any underground component, and a repair quote emailed within two business days. On confirmed leaks that we cannot locate with our full detection kit, you receive a full refund under the No Find, No Fee guarantee. Please read the pool leak detection service terms before your appointment.

Prep

Water level filled to halfway past the skimmer opening.
Water clear enough to see the pool floor.
Pump and multiport valve functional. If the multiport has been leaking obviously already, please leave the failure in place rather than replacing it before we arrive — we can only document a failure that's still present.
Please clear working space in the plant chamber. On many Faerie Glen pools the plant is in a small chamber that's become a garden storage cupboard over the years. We need line-of-sight to every visible joint on the pump-and-filter assembly.
Enclose dogs.

Frequently asked questions — Faerie Glen

We just replaced the multiport valve last year. Could that be the source of a new leak?

Yes. New multiport valve installations don't always seat perfectly on the first cycle, and small installation-quality issues (over-torqued spider gasket, misaligned centre spindle, wrong orientation) can produce leaks that develop within months of the install. The pressure test identifies whether the current valve is holding — if it's not, the report flags it as a specific finding, and the installer usually rectifies under their own workmanship period.

The pool water level drops overnight but not during the day. What does that mean?

Usually the non-return valve on the return line. When the pump is off (typically overnight), pool water gravity-drains back through a failed non-return into the pump chamber, and either overflows through the plant drain or slowly refills the skimmer inlet in reverse. The pressure test on the return circuit with the pump off confirms this pattern quickly.

Our pool is fine on the pressure test but we're still losing water. What are the possibilities?

Losses that don't show on the pressure test are usually above the shell. That means either the coping-stone mortar (water tracks behind the coping), the tile-mastic line (small hairline cracks the pressure test can't detect), or the deck-drain overflow. A visual audit during the session catches these; where the visual audit is inconclusive, we may run a dye test at the specific waterline zones to confirm.

We're worried the plant chamber has developed damp on the wall behind the pump. Should we check that ourselves first?

Please don't investigate destructively — leave the damp patch alone. What we need is the damp as it currently is; if we can see the pattern of moisture on the wall, we can often infer which fitting is losing before we even pressure-test. If the damp is dry by the time we arrive, that's still fine — we run the pressure work as normal — but a wet plant chamber gives us a strong initial diagnostic bias to check the fitting closest to the wet patch first.

No Find, No Fee

On a confirmed leak — meter turning with taps closed, or a measurable pressure drop on your pool circuit — if we cannot locate the source, you receive a full refund.

Read the full No Find, No Fee terms →

Book online

The wizard takes about 60 seconds — we'll email a callout confirmation and follow up on WhatsApp.

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