The U.S. Consumer and Product Safety Commission recalled 1,000,000 pool and spa drain covers after it was discovered that the lab that tested the product for safety used bad standards.

A Tribune investigation in February exposed how pool drain covers underwent flawed safety evaluations and failed subsequent, more stringent tests. The newspaper’s investigation spotlighted a confidential report in which witnesses to faulty tests at a major national laboratory concluded some pool drain covers certified there “could result in serious injuries and or death.” The safety agency, known as the CPSC, had fielded safety complaints about the drain covers for more than two years but didn’t launch an investigation until last July.

Without proper covers, pool and spa drains can act like supercharged vacuum cleaners, trapping people under water with hundreds of pounds of suction force.

Although many of the drain covers themselves are not very expensive, hiring a pool professional to replace or retrofit them can cost hundreds of dollars. Federal regulators did not want consumers who shelled out $20 for a defective drain cover to be on the hook for the installation fees, and under the terms of the recall that labor will be covered by the manufacturers. –LA Times, May 26, 2011.

The following covers have been recalled:

Company	Model Information (websites)	Dates Sold	Remedy
A&A	www.aamfg.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
AquaStar	www.aquastarpoolproducts.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr.2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Color Match	www.poolfittings.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Custom Molded Products	www.c-m-p.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Hayward Pool Products	www.hayward-pool.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Pentair Water Pool & Spa	www.pentairpool.com	June 2009 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Rising Dragon	www.risingdragonplastics.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit
Waterway	www.waterwayplastics.com	Dec. 2008 – Apr. 2011	Replacement or Retrofit

 

You can find complete information including more photos of recalled drain covers at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Political junkies may recall that former Senator John Edwards won a case in 1996 against Sta-Rite, a manufacturer of pool drain covers. The parents of Valerie Lakey, a five-year-old girl who was killed after being disemboweled by a pool drain, were awarded $25 million by the jury. The company had continued to sell the defective drain covers despiste being sued 12 times. [Source]