Losing water, can't find leak, bottom drain hose seems clogged

[JasonSandeman]

Hello, long time lurker, reader. Lost my old login information, so starting a new.

I've been battling water loss in the pool for a couple weeks. We were losing 6-10 inches of water a day. At first I thought I had a tear in the liner, so I called a repair person. She charged 100$ plus 10$ per hole patched. Problem was that I was unable to drain the water enough for her to do her job.

I'm unable to get any water from the bottom drain now, and back then it maybe came out a bit slower than a garden hose. The lady told me to fill the pool up and try, because of pressure issues. I tried that, and no luck. So I let it drain all by itself. It got to the last 4 inches, then stopped.

I couldn't find a hole in the liner, so I tried to fill it again to test. Once again, no water from the bottom skimmer. I went out and bought a toilet auger, and sent it down from the skimmer side. I can't get it past the bottom 1 foot after it goes in the ground. It's like it's plugged. I can occasionally get the end of the snake through, but it's extreme hard to do so.

I bought a 1 min plumber pressure can, and was able to force air and get bubbles along the bottom. No done for the auger. I tried a bladder that attachés to the garden hose... I can get it to where I feel water coming from the bottom drain, but I still can't get the augur through.

Someone mentioned that I don't need the bottom drain, just plug it up and run things off the skimmer. I did that, refitted the bottom hoses, but now I'm still losing 4 inches of water a day, and it's slower.

So I don't know if it's the bottom hose, or how to get it cleaned. I don't want to lose my pool, and to dig it up requires me to replace a brand new liner... How do I tell if it's actually the hose?

I'm in Quebec, and so far we've asked at Club Piscine and Trevi, but they don't know of anyone who is a pool repair guy, only that they want to sell us a new pool. I like my pool, and will buy a new one if I absolutely have to, but want to exhaust all options first.

Thanks for your help!

[odbob]

When I fitted my pool, I was told that I don't need a bottom drain hose, and 13 years later, this has proved to be true. This may seem obvious, but have you blocked off the hose at both ends to eliminate this pipe as the source of trouble, is the liner within a concrete structure because normally if you have such a large leak on the liner, the water gets behind the liner and it then tends to float away from the concrete, this can usually be seen.
Another point worth mentioning and back to the drain hose, have you tried running the pump with the skimmer blocked off, this will force all of the pool water through the drain hose, usually taking any blockage with it.