TL;DR
A main drain cover is the grate over a pool's floor suction fitting, engineered so a swimmer's body or hair cannot seal against it and be held by pump suction. Federal law — the Virginia Graeme Baker Act — requires covers certified to ANSI/APSP-16, each stamped with the standard, flow rating, and a replacement life of typically 5 to 7 years.
What it means
A main drain cover is the grate over a pool's floor suction fitting, engineered so a swimmer's body or hair cannot seal against it and be held by pump suction. Federal law — the Virginia Graeme Baker Act — requires covers certified to ANSI/APSP-16, each stamped with the standard, flow rating, and a replacement life of typically 5 to 7 years. Cracked, missing, or expired ones are among the most serious findings in a pool safety inspection.
Where it sits in the glossary
Main drain cover is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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