PondCheck: Pool Leak TestPondCheck: Pool Leak Test
A leak, or just evaporation? A bucket tells you which.
Download on the App Store
Screenshots
Features
Pond drop and bucket drop, side by side
The bucket sits in exactly the same sun, wind and humidity as your pond, so its drop is your evaporation — measured, not estimated. Whatever the pond loses beyond that is the gap PondCheck shows you.
The gap in numbers you can act on
See the difference in millimetres or inches per day, converted to litres or gallons per day, plus a weekly figure so you know what the loss really adds up to.
A Live Activity so the second reading isn't forgotten
Start the test and a countdown runs on your Lock Screen for 24 or 48 hours, then reminds you when it's time to measure again. The second reading is the one people forget.
Rainfall recorded as a confidence flag
PondCheck fetches rainfall for the test window. Rain falls to the same depth into the pond and the bucket, so it already cancels out in the difference and is never subtracted from your result. It's shown only to lower confidence, because a pond can catch runoff from the surrounding ground while a bucket cannot.
Pump off against pump on
Run the test twice and compare. If the loss grows while the pump runs, the plumbing side is worth checking first. If it stays the same, the shell or liner is the more likely place to look.
Ponds, pools, tanks and troughs
Works for garden ponds, swimming pools, rainwater tanks, livestock troughs and aquariums. Metric or imperial, litres or gallons — your call.
Offline, no account, no tracking
Everything runs on your iPhone. No sign-up, no syncing, no analytics. The only network request is the optional rainfall lookup.
Is your pond really leaking, or is it just evaporation?
PondCheck runs the bucket test that pond and pool professionals recommend. Place a bucket in the water, mark both levels, wait a day and measure again. Because the bucket sits in exactly the same weather as your pond, its drop is your evaporation — measured, not estimated. Whatever your pond loses beyond that is the difference PondCheck reports as leak.
No sensors, no hardware, no subscription. Just a bucket, a ruler and your iPhone.
HOW IT WORKS
1. Float or stand a bucket in the water and fill it to match the water level.
2. Mark both levels and start the test in PondCheck.
3. A Live Activity counts down 24 or 48 hours so the second reading never slips your mind.
4. Enter both drops. PondCheck lines them up and shows the gap.
WHAT YOU GET
• Side-by-side view of pond drop against bucket drop
• The difference in mm or inches per day, converted to litres or gallons per day
• A weekly figure, so you can see what the loss really costs you
• Live Activity countdown for the second reading
• Rainfall during the test fetched automatically and flagged as a confidence warning — rain falls equally into both, so it cancels out in the difference and is never subtracted from your result
• Pump-off against pump-on comparison to help narrow the search to the plumbing or the liner
• Ponds, swimming pools, rainwater tanks, livestock troughs and aquariums
• Metric and imperial, litres and gallons
• Fully offline, no account, no data collection
WHY THE BUCKET MATTERS
Evaporation swings enormously with sun, wind, humidity and water temperature. A hot dry stretch can pull a pond down fast enough to look alarming, and a short season makes averages useless. The bucket removes the guesswork: it sits in the same weather, so its drop is the real evaporation in your yard on those exact days.
FOR POOL OWNERS
A pool that drops a little each day is normal. A pool that drops more than the bucket is not. Run the test once with the pump off and once with it running. If the loss grows while the pump runs, the plumbing is worth a closer look. If it stays the same, the shell or liner is the more likely place to check.
PondCheck reports what you measure. It does not diagnose the cause of a leak or replace an inspection by a professional.