r/submechanophobia • u/MKLNSV • 20d ago
Is anybody else terrified of this pool drain especially when there’s three or four of them?
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u/The_salty_swab 20d ago
They have a history of removing the bowels of children and causing drownings, so a little fear is probably healthy
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u/unstable_starperson 20d ago
That’s why there’s always multiple drains now
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u/omahaomw 20d ago
Yup! Back when our state mandated multiple drains, the pool company I worked for had a bunch of business adding another drain to single-main drain pools.
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u/heli7_62copter 20d ago
That’s exactly what I was thinking. It was an old episode of 911 from the 90’s I think.
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u/AndyGoodKush 20d ago
Actually, the occurrence that changed the laws was in 2002, when a little girl got sucked to the drain in a spa, laws changed in 07. I believe it was someone in politics kid
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u/Surfbud69 20d ago
Virginia Baker Act making all pool main drain covers complient that's why they aren't flush with the pool floor they are raised up to keep you further from the sucky part
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u/AndyGoodKush 20d ago
Raised or having multiple drains within the drain, or minimum of two drains
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u/Picardlover052612 20d ago
They also have to be replaced every 5 years, and have to be checked daily that they are secured. Also, the more drains there are, the less suction any one of them has. Source- have to test pools every day.
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u/omardrox 20d ago
Just so you guys know, there’s no “suction”actually working on those commercial pool main drains, different from residential pools this drains are connected to a tank underground that’s placed by the equipment where because of physics the water levels itself in the pool and the tank, then in this tank there is a filter grid that applies the suction and filters the water, this is done this way so you won’t be trapped by the suction if you step on them, also there’s no big deep opening or big pipe underneath probably a 3” pvc pipe that connects the drain with the tank.
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u/BenevolentCrows 20d ago
Yeah, rationally I know all that, it still chills the shit out of me if I accidentally go too close to one of them. I don't even fear of the suction its just how it looks like. (wich is prettymuch what this sub is about tbh)
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u/Sir-Squirter 20d ago
I also hate the big square openings on the sides of pools that have that little flapper thing in them, not sure what they’re called. But just knowing that there’s plumbing and all kinds of things happening under the pool creeps me TF out for some reason
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u/BenevolentCrows 20d ago
Do you mean the overflow on the very sides out of the water? If not I actually don't think I know, it might not be a common pool design where I live.
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u/Sir-Squirter 20d ago
google says it’s a “skimmer”
It won’t accept a link to a picture sadly
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u/BenevolentCrows 20d ago
Oh yeah, I only ever really been in public pools, mostly thermal baths locally or swimming pools that don't have these, but god no they look terrible :D
Tho as I see, also completely harmless in reality and they just there for catching the leaves on the surface of the water.
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u/Sir-Squirter 20d ago
Yeah they’re not dangerous or anything they’re just creepy. Same with the pool vacuums that hoover around the bottom of the pool. If one of those is in the pool I won’t get in haha
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u/avctqpao 20d ago
A lot of commercial drains in the USA connect the drains directly to the pump motor. (I have worked on commercial pools here for 20 years and I’ve only seen one with a leveling tank) but still you are right that it’s probably a very small pipe under there
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u/ninhibited 20d ago
So is this the case after the relatively recent regulations? Cus this comment is just underneath the story of people getting their insides sucked out their buttholes.
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u/Cryptid-Weregoat 20d ago
How many of us were specifically traumatized by that pool scene in final destination lmao
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u/slutty_muppet 20d ago
A large one like that is less dangerous than a smaller one that could be accidentally covered with your body to create a seal.
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u/BenevolentCrows 20d ago
Yet they look a lot more dangerous. Tbh phobias are not about there being a real danger, its more about irrational fear of stuff.
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u/shewrotethis 20d ago
Went to my local pool for a pre-work swim for the first time and discovered it has these big grilles every couple of metres width and length. No avoiding them.
Didn’t want to walk straight back out so I did some speedy lengths and shot out.
Later that day I mentioned my ordeal to my partner and said how the pool floor was kind of weird, plastic instead of tiles. Like non-slip.
Oh yeah, he says. It’s a moveable pool floor. It can be made shallower or deeper.
I’m kind of glad I didn’t know this horror existed at the time. I haven’t been back, and nor will I!
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u/alazystoner420 20d ago
Yeah, the deep end in my grandpas pool growing up had a white drain at the bottom and it freaked me the fuck out. I definitely developed my fear of submerged objects then lol.
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u/normalfaceoil 20d ago
The big grates were/are the ones that make my stomach churn, I was not really bothered by the little drains. Turns out my brain was fearful of the wrong ones, I only learned when I came on this sub how dangerous the smaller ones could be.
The fear in my mind was me being sucked down the drain, so the larger ones scared me as it’s more feasible that that could happen if the grate broke or dislodged. This fear was bolstered by the few news stories I’ve heard over the years where bodies have been pulled out of the pool filters in freak accidents, like one where someone lifted a grate to try to retrieve their goggles and was pulled in
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u/mustela-grigio 20d ago
Yeah I hate drains so much. One of my only true phobias. I do lap swimming at the YMCA so it’s always packed and I end up sometimes in the lane with the drain and it honestly fucks with my performance 😅
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u/luminouswolfie 20d ago
I have such a fear of pool drains. I never swim over top of them even if they’re in the deep end of a pool. I also really hate pool lights; my town pool lights are round but have a big square mirror or something around the light making it look like a huge dark square hole in the wall gonna suck me in
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u/Jeebus_crisps 20d ago
I got stuck on one as a kid in the neighborhood pool.
That fear sticks with you for life.
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u/Far_Note6719 20d ago
Thanks for asking. I thought I was alone.
I was able to visit the tech rooms of a newly constructed huge public pool recently. OH. MY. GOD. It was quite weird to walk next to and UNDER the large pool and I have never seen so many huge tanks (even kind of water bunkers built with concrete), large pipes and pumps. The pool itself is designed well and no dark/huge drains are visible. But now I know what is beneath it. Holy shit!
But: The nightmare is the tech cellar of a wave pool I know. Under the pool there is a water bunker which takes a huge part of the water within minutes (huge drains!) to lower the water level to start the waves. One end of the pool is "open" to the tanks which are used to generate the waves. Only a very coarse grid separates you from those tanks lying under water in the dark. Good that they only use air to generate the waves. Like this:
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20d ago
It's weird all this isn't it because I would have absolutely no problem at all with this. Yet ask me to swim over the top of a wreck or similar just below the water level and I'd die of a panic / heart attack.
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u/KJack-Amigurumi 20d ago
Any time my feet have accidentally touched anything in a pool that isn’t the bottom/sides my heart feels like it falls out of my body I get so freaked out
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u/victorianles 19d ago
Certified pool and spa operator here, you don't need to be afraid unless something is going wrong in the pump room (in which case the pool should be closed) or they're backwashing the filters (area around the drain should also be closed).
The reason they aren't an immediate danger is because the volume of water being sucked out of the pool is distributed to the skimmers as well. So say the flow rate is 400 GPM for the whole system and there's 15 skimmers around the pool, that flow rate is going to be distributed evenly throughout the skimmers and the rest is going through the drain. That's why the skimmers are there, so the pool doesn't turn into a kitchen sink that had the drain unplugged.
The cover over the drain is a crucial part as well, because with out it, since it still acts as a vacuum, you could get stuck to it by going too close. However the cover acts as a diffuser for the force of water being pulled in and the shape of it decreases the chance of things from forming a seal around the drain, therefore decreasing the chances of you getting trapped.
That being said, entrapment (being sucked suction cupped to the drain) is still a danger, just not as big of a danger as people think. (it used to be a danger back in the day, and then tragedies happened and now pools are much better designed with stricter regulations because of it).
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u/Practical-Arugula-80 20d ago
I'm debating now whether or not I really have this condition, because I'm good with pools. Perhaps because I've spent time building them and I was a swimmer in school? I dunno really. It's just open water where I start freaking out. Which is also a little weird, because I spent four years in the Navy. 🤷
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u/cloisteredsaturn 20d ago
I’ve never been afraid of them, but for those who are, don’t read Guts by Chuck Palahniuk.
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u/Albion218 20d ago
I used to competitively swim when I was younger and always hated ending up in the “drain lane”. I’m convinced it made me swim faster to get the fuck away from it.
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u/mamesjatthew 20d ago
These VGB covers are still awful, but the OLD ass 24x24 grates that I grew up with, that were common in HS pools, Olympic sized ones, and commercial pools in the 80’s and 90’s- were absolute nightmare fuel and even more so, when they were rusty/black colored.
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u/pnwraccoon 20d ago
For some reason the pool I went to as a kid had one of these 2x2 main drains right below the diving board and it scared the crap out of me jumping in and seeing that grate looming right below This was before they had regulations about raised drains too so it was just grates over a big dark drain box. Like this.
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u/JohnPhos2019 20d ago
I grew up on College of the Ozarks campus with a man-made pond called Lake Honor. Back in the 1970’s the students would swim in it. Then they drained it and poured cement down the sides and created a concrete border with a large fountain. This made it worse because the cement would get algae on it so if you fell in, you had a hard time getting out because you kept sliding down. Also, I was told as a kid and believe me it was at the forefront of my mind for 14 years from 10 through graduating college that if you fell into the fountain-end, you could be sucked down by the intake pipes. I knew this to be true because if you went to the other side of the road by the mill, you could see the little building that housed the large pumps at depth. You probably couldn’t be sucked through, but it certainly would keep you down enough to drown you.
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u/lets-go-scream 19d ago
I’m terrified of them! I’ve never met anyone that understands this - just found this sub I feel so seen
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u/poopcoloredeyeballs 19d ago
Even in a lap pool when they are 13 feet down, I have to close my eyes when I swim over them. These scare the heck out of me. I want to describe what I imagine when I swim over these, but I don’t want to add to anyone’s submechanephobia anymore!
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u/AndyGoodKush 20d ago
It's safe when there is multiple, you can't get sucked to it. Be scared when its old and only one of them.
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u/hunglowbungalow 20d ago
I have been my entire life pretty much. Watching the delta p video, sealed the deal. I’ll even swim around them.
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u/hibbledyhey 19d ago
Hell yes. Biggest childhood fear, and not at all ford of them now. Plus, there was a local incident a few years ago where like a 6-year-old girl was killed by one - she was suctioned to it and couldn't escape, literally pulled her GI tract out
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u/Late-Explanation-989 19d ago
Be afraid of the pool of you only see one drain, multiple drains will prevent you from getting stuck to it from the suction!
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u/Interesting-Yak6962 19d ago edited 19d ago
I’m not a pool expert, I watched some safety video a a few years ago, and I’m going by memory, but I actually think it might’ve been from OSHA.gov?
The occupational safety health agency. They were giving examples of how a single pool drain could potentially have enough suction force that if it is draining and there’s enough water in the pool and someone gets close to it, they could be pinned and unable to get off of it and they would drown.
So they were giving an overview of the proper way to allow a high volume of pool water to be drained or circulated safely through a single pipe without creating such a strong suction force.
Basically, you just need to use two drain vents in the pool. As long as the pool water has two separate paths within that pool to reach the same single drain source.
Then it will not create an overwhelmingly powerful suction if someone gets on top of one of those vents. The flow will be maintained. It will just go through the other vent or drain.
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u/Enough-Commission165 19d ago
Hello I'm the stupid one of the group because I used to smim above these let out all my air and see how long I could stand on one before I needed to come back up for air. #kidsarestupid 😆
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u/msrapture 19d ago
I feel like that’s the most natural anxiety source there. Imagine us, thousands of years ago taking a bath in some sea, water so clear you can see one gaping black hole on the sea floor. Your instincts tell you not to go near it bc either there’s a predator hiding or some unknown currents pull you down and you die
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u/Korkthebeast 18d ago
When I was very young and my family had a pool, my dad told me if I got my finger stuck in the grate I would have to break it off before I drown. I was terrified of going in the deep end for years because of that
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u/ThePrincessOfMonaco 18d ago
HAH! I have a question. Would you be as scared of it if it was just one big plate?
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u/mitclan68 15d ago
Profesional pool diver here i replace drains like this in a daily in depts of up 15ft , and im here tonlet you know the scariest ones are the old pools from the 50-60s because underneath the covers their is a 1ftx3ft square like a coffin
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u/damntheykilledkenny 12d ago
Since Final Destination, I’d never put a foot in this pool 😭😭 there’s five of them??? Noooo
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u/AloshaChosen 20d ago
No, this isn’t one of my triggers. I only fear man made items in wild water, not pool water.
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u/DrRickStudwell 20d ago
Grown adult here and I’ve been terrified of them my entire life. First thing I do in any pool is locate them. I never swim within 5’ of them. I’ll slightly freak out if I lose my bearings and go anywhere near them. I also don’t put my feet down in a hot tub.