Frequently asked questions.

Two fixed tiers: Tier A is $395 and Tier B is $595. The price you see is the price you pay. There is no call-out fee and no hourly charge. If your postcode carries a travel surcharge it is added and shown before you confirm, never after.

Tier A is the standard diagnostic: visual and dye inspection, a pressure test of the suction and return lines, and an acoustic ground-microphone trace where a line leak is indicated, with a written report within 24 hours. Tier B is everything in Tier A plus a full air-supplied dive inspection of the shell and fittings.

No. Both tiers are fixed-price. The only thing that changes the total is a travel surcharge for outer-metro postcodes, calculated from your postcode when you book and shown before you confirm.

You book online. Tell us your symptoms and postcode, we match the right tier to what your pool is doing, and a $99 deposit holds the slot.

On Tier B, if we do not find a leak, you get $100 back.

No. The $99 deposit holds your slot and comes off the total, so it is part of the fixed price rather than an addition to it.

Tell us your symptoms when you book and we match the right tier to what your pool is doing. As a guide, Tier A is the surface diagnostic and Tier B adds the dive for leaks that sit in the shell or a fitting below the waterline.

We start with a visual and dye inspection, then pressure-test the suction and return lines, and run an acoustic ground-microphone trace where a buried line leak is indicated. On Tier B we also dive the pool to inspect the shell and fittings at depth.

We measure the pool's real water loss against the day's conditions, so the weather is accounted for rather than guessed at. Before we visit, the simple bucket test will tell you whether the loss is more than evaporation explains.

Yes. The pressure test isolates the suction and return lines, the acoustic ground microphone traces buried pipe runs, and the Tier B dive covers the shell, fittings and joints. Between them they separate a plumbing leak from a shell leak.

When dye and pressure tests do not catch it, the leak is usually in the shell or a fitting below the waterline. The technician puts on the air tank and inspects those at depth, which a surface-only test cannot do.

Most diagnostics take one to two hours on site, depending on the tier and what the tests turn up.

No. You do not need to be home for the whole visit, as long as the technician can reach the pool and the equipment area.

Nothing is required. If you would like a head start, the bucket test is a free five-minute check that tells you whether the loss is more than evaporation explains — though we measure that on the day regardless.

Common sources are a hairline crack in the shell, a perished return fitting, a split suction line a metre underground, or a failed skimmer throat. The diagnostic works through each in order rather than settling on the first thing that looks likely.

We seal and pressurise the suction and return lines separately and watch whether each holds. A line that bleeds off pressure has a leak underground; a line that holds is ruled out. It is how we separate a plumbing leak from a shell leak without digging on a hunch.

When a buried line leaks, water escaping under pressure makes a sound. We sweep the ground above the pipe run with an acoustic ground microphone and listen for where that sound peaks, pinning the leak to a small area so any dig is targeted.

Measuring, then isolating, then tracing, then diving means each step narrows where the water is going before the next begins, so the answer is the actual source and not the first thing that looked likely.

The dive is included on Tier B. Tier A is a surface diagnostic; if it points to something that needs eyes underwater, the dive is the reason Tier B exists.

The technician is a PADI Open Water certified diver. Residential pool depths, at most around 2.5 metres, sit well within that certification.

Yes. The dive is air-supplied, and a residential pool at around 2.5 metres is well inside PADI Open Water limits. It is a controlled inspection, not a deep dive.

The dive is included on Tier B and is the step we use when the surface tests have not named the source. If the pressure test has already pinned a buried line, the finding can be clear without it.

A written report: where the water is going, the evidence behind that finding, photos, and a repair quote where the leak is repairable.

Within 24 hours of the visit.

Yes. The report is formatted to support a Water Corporation dispute, with the finding and the evidence set out clearly.

Yes. The same report supports an insurance claim where the leak has caused damage.

Yes. A sample report on the site shows the layout and the four things every report contains: the finding, the evidence, photos, and a repair quote where the leak is repairable. You can open it from the guide on what a report covers, and an issued report carries your pool's actual findings.

Yes. The report includes photos of the source and the evidence, so the finding is something you can see rather than take on trust. They are also what a utility or an insurer looks for when assessing a claim.

Perth Pool Leak Doctors is the leak-detection department: we find and name the leak and include a repair quote where it is repairable, so you can decide what happens next. Where a repair is not straightforward, the report says so plainly.

Across the Perth metropolitan area, Two Rocks to Mandurah.

Same-week service across the metro area.

Send us a postcode and we will tell you honestly whether the trip makes sense for both of us. Outer-metro postcodes are covered with a travel surcharge from $80, shown before you confirm.

Most metro postcodes have none. Outer-metro postcodes carry a travel surcharge from $80, calculated from your postcode and shown before you confirm.

A pool loses water two ways that matter for your bill: evaporation, which the weather drives, and a leak, which it does not. A sudden jump that the weather does not explain usually means water is escaping somewhere it should not.

Above 38 degrees in a Perth summer, evaporation alone runs about 5 to 8mm a day. Through a mild, still week it is a fraction of that. A pool dropping about a centimetre a day in mild weather is almost certainly losing water somewhere it should not.

WA permanent water rules allow pool top-up only to replace evaporation. A pool consistently topping above evaporation rates is operating outside the rules, and a Water Corporation high-bill alert often follows.

A free five-minute check you can run yourself: float a bucket of pool water on the top step, mark the level in the bucket and the pool at the same moment, and compare the two drops after 24 hours. If the pool drops more than the bucket, the difference is water leaving the pool somewhere it should not.

That is what the written report is for. A dated finding and the measured loss show the extra water was going to a leak, not over the limit, which is the question a Water Corporation high-bill review turns on.

We are the leak-detection department of Pool Doctors, a Perth-based pool services group. All correspondence comes from @pooldoctors.au.

Our diver is PADI Open Water certified. WA licensing and public liability insurance details are published in the credentials section on our homepage and confirmed before we take live bookings.

Start a booking online for a diagnostic, or email bookings@pooldoctors.au for anything else.