Posted on 05/26/2011 4:34:21 PM PDT by smokingfrog
In its largest ever pool drain cover recall, the government's lead consumer watchdog has recalled almost 1 million pool and hot tub drain covers because of a drowning risk.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said that pool owners should stop using dozens of different models made by eight different companies "immediately" because improper safety ratings mean the products "could pose a possible entrapment hazard to swimmers and bathers." The recall comes nine months after ABC News revealed that millions of backyard pool drain covers may have been improperly tested for safety and might pose entrapment risks.
"I want to make it clear that this recall announcement does not mean that one million drain covers will need to be replaced or repaired," said CPSC chair Inez Tenenbaum, who announced the massive recall Thursday during a pool safety event near San Diego, "[but] pool operators and homeowners should contact the maker of their drain covers to see what action, if any, is needed to make their individual pool or spa safe."
The models subject to recall were manufactured by A & A, Aquastar, Color Match, Custom Molded Products, Hayward Pool Products, Pentair Water Pool & Spa, Rising Dragon and Waterway, and were marked with the improper water flow rating. In a statement, the CPSC said the recall was undertaken with the cooperation of the manufacturers, and that "pool owners/operators and consumers who have one of the recalled pool or spa drain covers should immediately contact the manufacturer to receive a replacement or retrofit, depending on their make and model."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
There is absolutely no excuse for these covers not to be safe and secure. Shame on the approval process!!
Most of the newer designs are a lot better than the old style drain covers, but still not good enough to meet government standards. If you have an older pool with only one drain, there’s practically no way you can make it work with the new standards, except with some expensive retrofits.
How tiny would a person have to be in order to be sucked down a drain?
Is this the type of drain that sucks you down and you drown? I saw something about a drain in a pool that literally sucked the person flat to the bottom and it formed a “seal” around the skin and drain.
When I built my outdoor soaking tub, I installed 2 drains so that if one drain could not create a vacuum (unless the other drain was also hopelessly blocked). I assumed this was standard procedure. Is it not? Because it seems that any of these drains on recall would be suitable in such a situation.
Sorry— “so that ONE DRAIN COULD NOT create a vacuum...”
FR needs an “edit” feature...
Read a few few stories, over the years, about young children having their intestines sucked out. This should not affect private pools, but there is some precedent for concern albeit slight.
I live in MD and had to get a pool operator’s license one year when I supervised the renovation of a 44-unit condominium building.
The licensing course covered everything, including drains.
When a single drain is clogged,the pump will increase suction to maintain water flow - this will effectively “seal” whatever is clogging it to the drain cover. There have been deaths because of this. Usually a child gets stuck to the drain.
That is why, in MD, they mandated retrofits to ALL pools of a certain size [something like 10’ x 15’ and larger]. The new configuration has a “T” configuration - meaning there are two drain covers AT LEAST 3 feet apart. If something gets clogged in one drain, the other drain will incrase flow and keep the suction down. That way, no one gets trapped.
I sh*t you not, there have been cases where a person’s rear end was stuck and they were eviscerated from the inside out ...
Well let's see. If the drain is 10 feet down and 6 inches across, and water weighs 62.4 pounds per cubic foot, then, according to Google:
((3 * 3 * pi) / 144) * 62.4 * 10 = 122.522113
If the child's body blocked the drain efficiently, he would have to overcome about 123 pounds of force to get free.
Graeme drowned when she was stuck to the bottom of an in-ground spa.
Virginia Graeme Baker was the granddaughter of Jim Baker, President Reagan's Chief of Staff.
She was seven.
More than that, you have to factor in the normal suction of the water pump, plus the incrased suction as it tries to pump faster to keep up the water flow ...
Yeah, that’ll work if there’s only one person in the tub. But what if your wife joins you? Or your dog or a goat jumps in?
Right.
A perfect pump could add as much suction as there is atmospheric pressure at the pool location. So, if the pool is at sea level and the barometric pressure is average
(1 atmosphere), then the pump's suction could add another 3 * 3 * pi * 14.7 = 416 pounds, pushing the number to 539 pounds. Yowza!
Of course, pumps aren't perfect, so the actual number is probably somewhere in between ...
Not sucked DOWN the drain. Just held down to the bottom of the pool by the drain suction so that you drown. Supposedly, the newer type drain covers will not allow that to happen.
It is standard procedure now, but you will find many smaller pools that are 10+ years old with only one drain.
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