Swimming Pool Blog

Swimming Pool White Goods

white goods
by Mark Garcia January 10, 2015

White Goods is a term used in the pool industry for all the white plastic parts and doo-dads that are used on some equipment. They could be called China Goods, since most plastic goods are now manufactured overseas. Some of the larger manufacturers, CMP for instance, wholly own their Chinese production factories and distribution chains.

The ease and relative cheap cost of producing white widget molds and the ability to make small production runs has put a lot of newcomers into the field, making generic or knock-off white goods, to fit major manufacturer's products such as Hayward, Pentair and Zodiac.

For your information - here's a list of 5 good categories of items that you might find on any standard pool service truck.



Pool Ladders, with plastic ladder treads and rubber ladder bumpers (male and female), are two popular aftermarket items that you'll need at one time or another. Treads can break under the strain of heavy swimmers (which can be dangerous), and ladder bumpers protect your pool liner or pool plaster from holes caused by the sharp ends of the ladder rail.

Main Drain

Main drain pots, or underwater suction outlets, must be now certified safe, with anti-vortex drain covers to prevent entrapment. If you have a loose fitting main drain cover, or one that is a flat grate type, replace it with a VGB approved main drain cover. Suction outlets, which may be used by booster pumps to power waterfalls or water features, should also be certified safe and care taken to secure the suction outlet cover at all times, with both screws.


A number of white good type of pool plugs are made, most notably the Hayward SP1022C and the SP1022B. Threaded plugs like these are used for plugging hydostats in the floor (flush plug), and as filter drain plugs, skimmer or return plugs (raised plug). These plugs have an o-ring or gasket to assist with a positive seal. Teflon tape is often used around the plastic threads as added sealant.


For vinyl pools, the entire fitting, on both sides of the wall is one giant white good. Many vinyl pools use the Hayward SP1408 as their return. Eyeball fittings are used to direct the water to create a circular flow pattern, or a slight surface ripple. A smaller sized eyeball may be used on returns closer to the pump, and a larger eyeball size on returns that are further away from the pump, to balance the flow more equally. Replace gasket and faceplate ring when replacing the pool liner.


Skimmers have a ton of white good parts! Lids, weirs, faceplates (vinyl skimmers), baskets, diverters, plugs and hose adapters. Skimmer lids that are cracked should be replaced to prevent an injury. Skimmer weirs are also very important to have in good operation, speeding up water flow into the skimmer, and trapping the leaves inside when the pump is shut off. Skimmer diverters fit into the bottom of the skimmer to control flow rate when a main drain is connected, and Skimmer Vac Plates allow you to vacuum into the skimmer basket, and not the pump basket. Hose adapters are useful when vacuuming light debris into the pump basket, as it allows the vac hose to seal up tight to the skimmer.

There are more items that are considered white goods, such as pump baskets, or DE filter manifolds or polaris pool cleaner parts, or unions. Plumbing parts too - they are white!

That's all for now ~


Thanks for Reading!

Mark Garcia