Suction Fittings for Swimming Pools, Wading Pools, Spas and Hot Tubs

By Ron George, CIPE, CPD

President, Ron George Design & Consulting Services

I attended the ASME A112 plumbing standards meetings in Reno, Nevada, in February, and one of the hot issues was the recent legislation that was enacted affecting the development of the standard ASME A112.19.8 Suction Fittings for Use in Swimming Pools, Wading Pools, Spas, and Hot Tubs. This standard establishes materials, testing and marking requirements for suction fittings that are designed to be totally submerged for use in swimming pools, wading pools, spas, hot tubs and other aquatic facilities.

The legislation, passed on December 19, 2007, is titled the "Virginia Graeme-Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act of 2007." It was named for the seven-year-old granddaughter of James A. Baker III, treasury secretary and chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan and secretary of state under former president George H. W. Bush. Virginia Graeme-Baker drowned in a friend's whirlpool in Fairfax County, Va. when her hair became entangled in the pool's drain. She was stuck underwater and unable to free herself.

Two types of entrapment are common with pools and spas:

Hair entanglement is one type of entrapment. Many pool suction fittings cause a vortex or swirling action as the water enters the pool outlet or suction fitting. Numerous persons with long hair have become entrapped and drowned when their hair is sucked into the pool suction fitting; the vortex twists the hair into a tight spiral, trapping the person under water.

Suction entrapment is caused by strong pool pump suction or by vacuum force trapping a person against a pool outlet or pool drain. This is common when the pool suction cover is removed.

"Most deaths from hot tubs and spas are drowning deaths that aren't related to entanglements or getting entrapped by suction," according to Mark Ross, a spokesman for the Bethesda, Md.-based Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), who added that voluntary safety controls have cut down the number of dangerous drains. "But the drains have great power, and there are cases where adults have been held down and drowned because of them. Anybody with a spa or residential pool needs to make sure that they have the drains checked to prevent these types of accidents from happening."

Hair entanglement

Whirlpool drains have caused nearly two dozen deaths in the United States over the past 20 years. According to the CPSC, the risks are largely from older-model drains that do not employ suggested safety measures such as a secondary drain or a specialized cover. In some cases, children who are trying to hold their breath underwater get pulled in and can't get out.

The ASME A112.19.8 standard calls for a suction cover that minimizes the vortex action, and, to minimize the suction force on one drain, it requires more than one suction fitting. The vortex action is tested by inserting a stick with human hair into the test pool and allowing the hair to be drawn into the suction fitting. Some pool suction fittings create such a vortex that the pool cover is broken when force is applied to remove the entrapped hair. This is enough force to hold a person under water. The newer pool suction fittings have flow straightening vanes that minimize the vortex action and allow for removal of hair without entrapment.

Suction entrapment

In Minneapolis, Minn., a six-year-old girl was sucked into a wading pool drain at a local golf club. The pump suction on the pool drain was so powerful that it caused an eight-inch tear in the girl's rectum and pulled out much of her small intestine. Somehow, she pulled herself off the drain: She took two steps and collapsed from shock.

The girl's parents blamed the horrific accident on a missing drain cover. It's not the first time this has happened at public swimming pools around the country, resulting in multi-million-dollar judgments.

The ASME standard calls for the addition of more suction fittings or of a suction pressure-activated relief valve that bypasses water around the pool pump. This allows another path for the water so that a person who sits on or covers one drain is less likely to become stuck to that drain.

The legislation

The Virginia Graeme-Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act will go into effect on December 20, 2008, and will mandate that all pool and spa suction fittings comply with the latest edition of the ASME A112.19.8 standard.

Specifically, the legislation will do the following:

• Prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards established by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The legislation includes a directive for the CPSC to establish a safety standard for anti-entrapment drain covers (ASME A112.19.8). This would ensure that all drain covers available in the marketplace would conform to certain safety criteria.
• Create an incentive grant program for states to adopt comprehensive pool and spa safety laws requiring certain safety devices in swimming pools and spas to protect children. The legislation would provide grants to states that pass a comprehensive swimming pool and spa safety law. The bill would require states to use funds, if awarded, to hire and train personnel for the proper enforcement of state law and to educate pool owners and operators, pool construction and installation companies, pool service companies and the public about the state law and about drowning prevention practices.
• Establish a national drowning prevention education program within the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill would require the CPSC to create and administer an educational program to inform the public about ways to prevent drowning and entrapment in swimming pools and spas and to execute a national media campaign to promote awareness of pool and spa safety.
• Require public pools to incorporate anti-entrapment drain covers and other layers of protection. The legislation would require that each public pool and spa must be equipped with anti-entrapment drain covers and other layers of protection, such as safety vacuum release systems.

The problem is that the latest version of the standard is still not ready for publication. The standard revision process has been moving along with all the speed of a herd of turtles. The legislation's deadline basically forced the ASME A112.19.8 committee to work diligently to get the standard finished and ready for publication prior to the enforcement date of December 20, 2008.

All public pools must comply with the new ASME standard, but, currently, only one drain manufacturer complies with the Ultra-Violet (UV) light exposure test in the standard. The UV light test is commonly done in a small chamber, but many larger plastic suction covers will not fit in the UV test chamber. There was discussion of adding language to allow small samples of the material for larger drains to be submitted for UV testing, in lieu of submitting the entire drain cover. Some manufacturers present indicated that not all sizes of the suction covers will be available for retrofits, and that they are all working diligently to design, produce and test pool covers to meet the new standard by the deadline.

There is a possibility that some older pools may become non-compliant as of the December 20, 2008, date in the legislation, because of the pools piping design or because of the size or shape of their pool suction fitting. Many public pools may require retrofits in order to meet the new standard. Someone at the meeting remarked that insurance carriers should be notifying their clients of the requirements and advising pools that are no longer in compliance to be retrofitted or closed until modifications can be made.

Ron George specializes in plumbing, piping, fire protection and hvac design. He also provides  plumbing/mechanical code and product standard consulting services and forensic investigations of mechanical system failures.