Swimming Pool Water Circulation System

Abstract

A swimming pool system including a system chamber formed in part by a wall of the swimming pool and close to the ground surface covered by coping material wherein water inlet conduits for filling the pool extend from a filter in the system chamber directly into the pool and along the interior wall adjacent the top thereof, outlet openings being spaced along the length of the inlet conduit to uniformly distribute water into the pool, an outlet conduit extending on the interior of the pool and directly into the system chamber, skimmer units being located in the walls of the pool and interconnected by a pipe extending below the coping freely to the system chamber, and all pipes and conduits extending to a remotely located pump from the system chamber in a passageway close to the ground surface and adapted to be exposed by the removal of a cover. The inlet conduit is spaced a predetermined distance from the pool walls to provide a finger hold rail around the pool walls. The inlet conduit may be selectively rotated to direct the water either downwardly into the pool or upwardly for cooling in the night air and to provide a series of fountains around the periphery of the pool. When the water is directed downwardly it will tend to disburse the sediment on the bottom of the pool such that it may rise and be removed by the skimmers. Further agitation of the sediment may be had by connecting a length of hose to the water inlet pipe at spaced apart points therealong whereby the water flowing therethrough will cause the ends of the hoses to move about on the bottom of the pool to disburse collected sediment.

Description

The common conventional residential type pool involves a water system wherein the drain for the pool is provided in the bottom thereof and the connecting pipe to the drain extending to the pump is buried in the ground and in the concrete of the pool if the pool is formed from concrete. Also the inlet water pipes for the pool are buried in the concrete or the ground as are all pipes connecting the pool to the remotely located filter and pump units. It is seldom that the pool walls whether formed of metal or concrete leak but it is not uncommon for leaks to occur in the pipes and conduits. These leaks are almost impossible to locate without digging up all of the conduits and pipes to examine them. Thus it is apparent that the complexity of installation of the ordinary type pool is greatly complicated by the necessity of burying the water inlet and outlet pipes and the maintenance problem is particularly aggravated by having to completely tear up the entire pool to get to the buried pipes for inspection and repair if necessary. The accessibility problem with regard to the filter system and pump unit is similar on most pools and thus represents a considerable problem.

The circulation system for the water in the pool of this invention involves locating all the circulating pipes and conduits in positions readily accessible for inspection and maintenance if required. The inlet conduit extending from a system chamber formed by one of the pool walls is actually in the pool and extends along the pool walls at about the normal water level. A plurality of outlet openings are provided to evenly distribute water throughout the pool. The inlet conduit is spaced a predetermined distance from the pool wall to provide a finger hold or hand rail around the pool. The spacing of the inlet conduit should preferably be insufficient for a person's fingers to extend completely between the pool wall and the back side of the inlet conduit. A series of eye bolt fasteners which receive and hold the inlet conduit extend through the pool wall and are anchored in poured concrete if desired. The lengths of inlet conduit are interconnected by appropriate couplings and are of an appropriate diameter to give the desired water flow at given points around the pool. Additionally, the lengths of inlet conduit may be rotated to direct the jet of water either downwardly into the pool usually for daytime operation or upwardly to provide cooling of the water during the cool nights and to provide a plurality of fountains around the periphery of the pool upon which colored lights may be appropriately directed.

It is seen that when the water jets are directed downwardly wave motions will be caused in the water to agitate the sediment on the bottom of the pool to cause it to rise and be removed by the skimmers. Additionally, it may be desirable to place lengths of hoses at various points around the periphery which will extend to the bottom of the pool and move about on the bottom for agitating the collected sediment. The flow of the water through the inlet pipe may be caused to pulsate and be sequentially operated as desired by the appropriate use of commercially available valves and controls.

The outlet pipe for the pool comprises a pipe located inside the pool and extending directly into the system chamber for communication with the remotely located pump system. If skimmer units are used they would be interconnected by a pipe freely disposed directly below the coping near the pool's edge and this pipe would then extend back to the system chamber. The remotely located pump required by most city ordinances is in communication with the inlet conduit, the outlet pipe and the skimming pipe through pipes located in a passageway directly below the removable coping material. The filtering unit is in the system chamber and thus is directly accessible by removal of the coping material covering it.

Additionally a lighting unit may be located in the system chamber and thus also be directly accessible for inspection and repair when required. It is thus seen that there are no underground or buried pipes or conduits and all of the regulation system can be quickly assembled and inspected after the pool is put in place to find leaks if any should occur. It is never necessary to tear up the ground or pool structure to work on the circulation system. All that is necessary is to remove coping material or the like covering the pool's edge.

These and other features and advantages of this invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following description when taken into consideration with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the pool system of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the system chamber including the filter unit and light unit showing the pipes and conduits all being in communication with this chamber;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line 3--3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4--4 in FIG. 1.

The water circulation system of this invention is shown in FIG. 1 on a pool 10 having side and end walls 12 and 14. The walls form a pool chamber 16 filled with water 18.

A pair of water inlet conduits 20 comprised of a number of segments interconnected by appropriate couplings 19 extend into the pool and in opposite directions along the adjacent pool end walls 14 and thence along the sidewalls 12 terminating at steps 24 in the opposite end wall 14. Outlet jet openings 26 are provided along the length of the inlet conduits 20 to evenly distribute water into the pool around its perimeter. The size of the outlet openings may be varied to give the desired uniform distribution of water throughout the pool area. The angle of the openings in the inlet conduits 20 may also be selectively varied to direct the stream of water 28 at the desired angle into the pool.

It is seen that a space 30 is provided between the inlet conduit 20 and the pool sidewalls 14 and 12 through use of eye bolts 32 having a spacer shoulder 34 and a nut 39 on the inside of the walls. It is also seen that concrete 37 may be poured on the bolts on the inside of the walls to permanently maintain them in place and to give further rigidity to the connection of the eye bolts to the walls.

Further adjustment of the inlet conduits may be accomplished by simply rotating the conduits in the eye bolts such that the desired jet projectory is provided from a normal daytime position of the water being directed downwardly into the pool as seen by the solid lines in FIG. 3 or upwardly as a fountain as indicated by the dash lines in FIG. 3. When the water is being directed upwardly as a fountain the water is cooled by exposure to the cool night air but also provides a very pleasing appearance which can be considerably enhanced by the addition of colored lights directed on the jets of water projecting upwardly around the periphery of the pool.

The cleaning of the bottom of the pool is further enhanced by the use of lengths of hose 31 connected to spigots 33 appropriately spaced around the length of the inlet pipe 12. The length of hose would have a tail on the bottom of the pool of between 2 and 6 feet in length to agitate the dirt and sediment particularly at nighttime.

The circulation of the water by the plurality of inlet jets 28 spaced 6 to 12 inches apart as compared to 10 feet on conventional pools greatly increases the sanitation of the water by its being changed more frequently. As is also seen in FIG. 3 the sediment 35 on the bottom of the pool is caused to rise to be removed by the skimmers.

It is seen that the space 30 is just sufficient to allow only the finger tips of a person to grasp the inlet conduit pipe 20 and thus allow the pipe to be used as a hand rail but not allow the swimmer to extend his hand fully around the pipe. Thus injury to a person's hand is avoided as well as possible damage to the pipe and its securing fastener means while still giving the swimmer safety in having a hand rail all along the pool's perimeter.

The inlet pipes 20 are in communication with a conventional filtering unit 38 positioned in the system chamber 22. The filter 38 is fed by a pipe 40 extending directly under coping 42 to the pump 44 located remotely of the system chamber 22 as required by most city ordinances.

It is further seen that the water is removed from the pool through an outlet conduit 46 extending directly out of the system chamber 22 and downwardly adjacent the deep end sidewall 14 as seen in FIG. 3. It is apparent that the outlet pipe 46 is fully exposed inside the pool 16 and will draw water from the pool just as a drain located in the bottom of the pool with pipes extending under ground to a remotely located pump. As seen in the drawings, the outlet pipe 46 extends through the end wall 14 and through the system chamber 22 thence upwardly and outwardly to the pump 44 adjacent the pipe 40 feeding the filter unit 38.

A series of skimmer units 48 are positioned in the sidewalls of the pool around the perimeter thereof and are interconnected by a pipe 50 which also extends freely and independently of the pool along and below the coping 36. The pipe forms a T as seen in FIG. 2 with the wing portions 50 extending in opposite directions around the perimeter of the pool and the leg 52 extending to the pump 44.

In addition to the water circulation system which is easily installed and easily maintained when servicework is required the pool is provided with a pool light 60 positioned in the system chamber 22 and mounted in the end wall 14 as seen in FIG. 2 and thus is fully exposed for maintenance work if ever required.

The inlet conduit 20 sections may be made of high strength plastic material which is readily shaped to follow the contour of the pool walls 12 and 14. The outlet set openings 26 are preferably constructed to provide high pressure water streams 28 which will tend to move the surface water and allow it to be skimmed by the skimmers 48 automatically as well as agitate the sediment on the bottom of the pool a seal may be provided on the eye bolts 32 of a Neopreme or like material to provide sealing between the walls 12 and 14 and the eye bolts for the pipe 20.

As seen in FIG. 4 the coping 36 extends completely around the pool and over the space 60 provided for the skimmer outlet pipes 50. Thus in operation it is seen that the pump 44 will draw water in from the deep end interiorly located outlet pipe 46 as well as from the skimmers 48 through the skimmer pipes 50 whereupon the water will be pumped back through the pipe 40 to the filter 38 and the water under pressure will enter the inlet pipes 20 to be uniformly distributed around the pool as seen in FIG. 1. The deep end outlet pipe 46 as seen in FIG. 3 will draw the water from the bottom of the pool and tend to help clean the bottom of the pool since the lower end of the pipe is closely positioned to the bottom surface. At the same time the inlet streams 28 from the inlet pipes 20 will agitate the surface water to cause it to skim the debris thereon into the skimmers 48 as seen in FIG. 4 whereupon the water will be drawn away through the skimmer outlet pipe 50.

Again it is stressed that the water circulation system may be easily installed in building a pool and may be prefabricated in its entirety. Equally as important is that all of the water circulation conduits and pipes are readily accessible to be inspected for leaks or the like. The safety of the pool is substantially increased through the use of the circulation system of this invention due to its providing a finger-type rail around the periphery of the pool at the approximate water level of the pool and thus the swimmer has something to grab hold of close at hand at all times but yet the finger hold pipe will not cause injury to the swimmer's hand since it is carefully spaced a predetermined distance from the pool sidewalls to prevent the hands of the swimmers from being caught.

Claims

I claim:

1. A swimming pool water circulation system comprising, a pool structure having a bottom and sidewalls forming a water chamber, water inlet means including an inlet conduit disposed on the chamber side of said sidewalls and extending therealong, said inlet conduit having a plurality of outlet openings along its length for directing water upwardly and inwardly to provide a plurality of cooling fountains of water in said water chamber, said water inlet conduit secured to said sidewalls and positioned adjacent the top of said sidewalls, a system chamber provided with one sidewall being formed by one of said pool sidewalls, a removable coping extending along and over said sidewalls, said coping forming a cover over said system chamber, a pool outlet conduit extending from in communication with said water chamber into said system chamber, a filter unit in said system chamber, a pump means in communication with said pool outlet conduit, said inlet conduit being connected to said filter unit, said pump means adapted to draw water from said water chamber through said pool outlet conduit and return said water to said water chamber through said filter unit connected to said inlet conduit, said inlet conduit being exposed in said water chamber and extending directly through said pool sidewalls into said system chamber for communication with said filter unit, said pool outlet conduit being located in said water chamber and extending directly through said pool sidewalls into said system chamber, said pool outlet conduit extending from said system chamber in a passageway adjacent the ground surface to said pump means located remotely of said system chamber, and a plurality of skimmer units located in said pool sidewalls and having an interconnecting outlet pipe extending freely and directly under said removable coping and adjacent said pool sidewalls on the exterior side thereof, said skimmer outlet pipe extending through said system chamber in said passageway to communication with said pump means, and an inlet pipe extending closely adjacent said pool outlet conduit and said outlet pipe in said passageway between said pump means and said filter unit whereby all pipes and conduits are readily accessible for maintenance work.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said water inlet conduit is secured to said sidewalls by a fastener means including spacer means to position said conduit at a predetermined distance from said sidewalls whereby a person's fingers may grip said conduit for a handhold means.

3. The structure of claim 2 wherein said fastener means is further defined as eye bolts having bolt portions extending through the pool sidewalls, said eye bolts having eye portions through which said inlet conduit extends and nut means on the outer side of said sidewalls opposite said water chamber engaging said bolt portions and said sidewalls hold said eye bolts and inlet conduit rigid.

4. The structure of claim 1 wherein said inlet conduit is composed of a plurality of sections rotatably coupled together by coupling means for said sections to be turned independently of each other.

5. The structure of claim 1 wherein said inlet conduit includes a plurality of hose lengths connected thereto with their free ends positioned on the bottom of said pool structure for agitating movement over the bottom upon water passing therethrough.