Technology seems to be the theme of many of my blog posts. The reason for this is that we are a technologically advanced society and we want instant gratification. There are technological advancements being made in every field across the board. The swimming pool industry is no different. Many companies are coming up with new ideas of how to make owning a swimming pool even more enjoyable and less work to maintain. Why are they doing this? It is because that is what we want as consumers. We don’t want to buy something that requires maintenance every week. We want something that doesn’t require a lot of work or money for that matter to maintain. One of the leaders of swimming pool innovation is Paramount. This is a company that has taken innovation to the next level. When everybody else was doing the same thing that they have always done in the past, Paramount was thinking about how they can make things better.
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| Typical Main Drain |
Let’s look at the main drain for a minute. For years the inground swimming pool main drain has remained the more or less the same. Granted there has been some slight modification to its design for safety reasons, but overall it remained the same. That is until someone at Paramount realized that it could be dramatically improved. Going back to the old style of main drain you have to realize that it was designed to move water to the pump/filter/heater. That is all well and good but that is all that it did. With Paramount’s innovations they have taken the main drain to a whole new level.
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| MDX-R3 |
Their MDX-R3 main drain does what other main drains do and more. It moves water to the pump/filter/heater just like the others, but this main drain also removes debris from the pool. The special opening in the drain allows even larger pieces of debris to pass through without requiring any effort on the part of the pool owner. Basically any piece of debris that comes in contact with the MDX-R3 is sucked up and removed from the pool. In todays world safety is a big concern, so you may wonder what would happen if a person were to come into contact with the MDX-R3. Well I am here to tell you that you can rest assured that the MDX-R3 is VGB compliant. This means that it meets or surpasses all safety standards required of any main drain. The way that it does this is two fold. One is in its design. It’s cover is a dome shape to help prevent entrapment by making it very difficult to completely block the flow. The other way is by using Paramounts secondary safety drain, the SDX.
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| SDX Secondary Safety Drain |
The SDX is Paramounts secondary safety drain that is installed on the wall of the pool. It too is VGB compliant in its design, and it is also plumbed into the same line that the MDX-R3 is on. Basically what this all means is that if anything or anyone was able to completely block off the MDX-R3 then the SDX is fully capable of taking on the full suction of the pump preventing entrapment. If you do not want the SDX on your pool then another MDX-R3 would be required to be installed on the floor of the pool and at least 3 feet from the other one. By utilizing the VGB main drain specifications and having the SDX secondary safety drain on the pool you will have enough power to remove any debris that comes close to the main drain but without having the risk of entrapment. Now I am sure you are wondering where all that debris goes once it is sucked up into the MDX-R3. Well I am glad you asked because that brings me to my next point.
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| Debris Canister |
Paramount thought of this as well and what they have come up with is remarkable. They have developed a debris canister that gets installed poolside in the deck of the pool. Think of it as kind of a skimmer basket. All of the debris is delivered to the canister on the way to the pump, and you will have easy access by simply removing the lid and pulling out the netting to empty it. Being that it is poolside you don’t even have to leave the pool area to empty it. The other option is to just let the debris collect in the pump basket. The downside of that is you will have to leave the pool area to empty the basket and the debris canister is much larger than the pump basket so you would be emptying the pump basket much more frequently. At this point I am sure that you find this information as compelling as I do but let me take it a bit further. You may be thinking that this all sounds pretty good but what about the shallow end of the pool or the corners of the pool. You are right, there is likely to be debris in these areas and typically it would not find its way down to the MDX-R3 for removal on its own.
That is why Paramount came up with the SwingJet. The SwingJet basically a modified return that delivers the debris in the pool to the MDX-R3. It does this by utilizing ratcheting technology and making a 90 degree arc. Basically the SwingJet is plumbed into a valve that operates multiple SwingJets in a sequence.
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| Notice that the arcs are all aiming toward the MDX-R3 |
Typically there are several SwingJets per pool that work together to deliver the debris to the main drain. The water valve automatically switches between SwingJets in a pattern. Every time that a SwingJet activates it pops out of the wall and sprays water up to 16 feet. When the valve switches to another SwingJet that first one retracts and changes position so that the next time it is activated it pops out in a different direction. It does this in three different direction and by utilizing several SwingJets on the pool they will very effectively deliver any debris in the pool to the main drain.
The combination of the MDX-R3, the SDX, and the SwingJets together in one system is called the Swing Sweep system and reduces the amount of physical cleaning that a pool owner will have to do to basically none.
In addition to this technology Paramount has several other products that are geared toward reducing the amount of time and money that people commonly spend on their pools. To see a complete list of products and descriptions visit http://www.paramountpoolproducts.com/products/. You can also see other information on how to make your in ground vinyl liner pool clean itself by viewing my other blog posts. If there are any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
