Pressure Testing Swimming Pool Lines

Pressure testing is a great way to find out of your plumbing whether it be for a swimming pool or any other type of plumbing, Pressure testing is when you fill the pipe up with pressure to see what areas of the pipe/s have holes, tears, or breaks so that you can find the problem and repair the issue.

Common Types Of Leaks

There are many types of leaks that your swimming pool plumbing can give you. Most leaks are caused by human error rather then the pipe itself going bad, but in some cases it simply is the pipe or the fitting that goes bad.

Some Common Causes Of Leaks

Improper Maintenance Or Installation

Severe Weather Or Ground Conditions

Wrong Materials / Supplies Used

Improper Repairs By Unlicensed Contractors

How To Pressure test your swimming pool plumbing

Pressure Testing you swimming pool plumbing can be done with an actual tool called a "pressure tester", and there is one company that has been making pressure testers for some time and there name is Anderson.

Anderson Pressure testers have been a common tool on most swimming pool repair techs trucks for years, and the reason being that they are the leader in the industry.

The pressure tester will hook up to one end of the swimming pool plumbing lines and the other end of the lines will be plugged with #8, #10, #12 Anderson test plugs depending on what you are pressure testing.

What Exactly Makes The Pressure

The Anderson pressure tester has two different way to accept pressure , one allows you to hook up water using a standard garden hose and the other allows you to hook up compressed air from an air compressor.

The Way The lines are pressure tested

Step One

Get you supplies and pressure testing equipment all together and ready. This should include your pressure tester, test plugs, hand tools , water line ( Garden Hose ), and an air compressor.

Step Two

Depending on what plumbing lines you are testing for leaks on your swimming pool will decide on what you need to plug. If you are testing your returns for leaks then you will want to remove the eyeballs from the returns and use a test plug to plug the lines, If you were testing the skimmers you would plug the skimmers and so on,

Step Three

Now that you have plugged one end of the pipe/s that you are testing you will need to attach the pressure tester to the other side of the pipe that you just plugged. You will now be connecting the pressure tester to the filter end of the plumbing. So what you need to do know is find the end of the pipe that you just plugged near the filter system.

Lets say you are testing your skimmer lines and you have just plugged up the skimmers, what you will have to do is find the skimmer line that is near the filer. In most cases the skimmer lines will be connected to a vavle on the suction side of the pump using a union. You will want to disconnect the union and attach the pressure tester to the union.

Step Four

Now that you have the pressure tester hooked up to your swimming pool plumbing lines you can either use air or water to test for leaks or even a combination of both.

Once the pipe has between 15 - 20 pounds of pressure you will want to cut off the source of the pressure ( stop adding air or water ) and then watch the gauge. If you see that the gauge is falling or another words the pipes not holding pressure, then that will mean you have a leak somewhere within the lines

If you have added 15 - 20 psi of pressure and the pressure gauge is holding steady and not losing any bit of pressure at all after a few minutes, this will mean that your swimming pool lines are good and do not have any leaks.