Las Vegas summer evaporation can pull a quarter to a half inch of water out of your pool every day. That looks alarming, but it's normal. Before you assume the worst, do the bucket test — it's the same first step any honest leak detection technician will do.
The bucket test, step by step
- Get a 5-gallon bucket. Any plastic bucket works. Make sure the inside is clean.
- Set it on a pool step or bench so the inside of the bucket is at the same approximate level as the pool water (within a few inches).
- Fill the bucket with pool water to within about an inch of the rim.
- Mark the inside of the bucket at the waterline (Sharpie or piece of tape).
- Mark the pool waterline too — on the skimmer wall, the tile, wherever you can see it clearly.
- Turn off your pool pump and any auto-fill.
- Wait 24 hours. Both the bucket and the pool will lose some water to evaporation — that's the point.
- Compare the drops.
How to read the results
If the bucket dropped about the same as the pool: You don't have a leak. That's just Vegas evaporation. Top off and move on.
If the pool dropped noticeably MORE than the bucket: You have a leak. The amount of difference roughly tells you the leak rate.
What does the leak rate tell us?
| Extra Daily Loss | Likely Cause |
|---|---|
| ¼ inch or less | Small structural leak (liner, skimmer, light) |
| ½ inch | Moderate plumbing leak (return line, suction) |
| 1 inch+ | Major plumbing leak (mainline or buried fitting) |
Pump-on vs pump-off comparison
Here's a bonus diagnostic that's incredibly useful:
- Run the bucket test twice — once with the pool pump RUNNING, once with it OFF.
- If the pool loses more water when the pump is RUNNING: The leak is on the pressure side (return lines, after the pump).
- If the pool loses more water when the pump is OFF: The leak is on the suction side (skimmer, main drain lines), or a structural leak.
- If it's the same either way: Likely a structural leak (shell crack, light, skimmer throat).
What we do once we know it's a leak
We bring three sets of tools to a pool leak job:
- Dye testing at the waterline — non-toxic dye reveals exact leak locations in the liner, around skimmers, return jets, lights, and stair fittings.
- Pressure testing on suction and return lines — isolates which plumbing line is failing.
- Acoustic listening for underground plumbing leaks — the same equipment we use for slab and mainline leaks.
The whole point is to find the leak without draining the pool. Draining is expensive (replacement water + chemicals + risk of cracking the shell from pressure changes) and almost never necessary with modern detection.
How much water is at stake?
A pool losing one inch per day is wasting roughly 500-700 gallons per day depending on pool size. Over a year that's 180,000-250,000 gallons. At Vegas water rates that's $1,500-$3,500 in wasted water annually — plus the chemicals you keep adding to top it off.
That's why fixing a pool leak almost always pays for itself within a year or two, even before considering the structural risk of letting the leak continue.
"Half the pool leak calls I get end up being normal evaporation. Always do the bucket test first. I'd rather save you a service call than find nothing." — Matt, owner
If your bucket test failed
Call us at (702) 682-1626. Our Pool Leak Detection service runs $295-$495 and includes pinpoint of the leak source plus a written report. Repair is quoted on-site after we find the cause.