NON-INFLATABLE ABOVE-GROUND POOL
A non-inflatable above-ground pool is provided including a pool bottom and a pool wall connected to an edge of the pool bottom to thereby enclose a water storage cavity. The pool bottom includes interconnected upper bottom sheet and lower bottom sheets. The pool wall includes an inner and outer wall and a top sheet. Each of the inner wall and outer walls have an upper edge connected to the top sheet and a lower edge connected to the pool bottom, defining a filling chamber. Alternatively, inner and outer walls and top sheets are connected to an upper edge of each of the inner wall and the outer wall, thereby enclosing a filling chamber. A lower edge of the inner wall may be connected to the lower bottom sheet. A support wall body is disposed within the filling chamber, and in an embodiment, includes a wall body opening therethrough.
This application claims priority from Chinese Application CN202222153303.X, filed Aug. 16, 2022 in China, and Chinese Application CN202321653640.3, filed Jun. 27, 2023 in China, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
BACKGROUND 1. FieldExample embodiments relate to above-ground pools, and more specifically, to a non-inflatable above-ground pool.
2. Description of Related ArtAn above-ground pool generally has an inflatable pool wall, and is usually provided with a control box in which a water pump, a filter, a heater, an air pump, and other components are held. Such a control box is placed outside a pool body and needs to be in fluid communication with the inside of the pool by means of a pipeline passing through the inflatable pool wall.
Such an inflatable pool has the disadvantage of poor thermal insulation, in that the pool wall dissipates heat quickly. In addition, such an inflatable pool is time-consuming and laborious to inflate and deflate and not easy to store quickly, and after inflation, due to increased air pressure in an air chamber when the temperature is high, is prone to expansion and deformation, which affects the pool appearance and is also prone to tearing and damage to cause air leakage, resulting in short service life. The entire pool has, therefore, a complex structure, is not easy to assemble and occupies a large space.
SUMMARYExample embodiments may address at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, example embodiments are not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and may not overcome any of the problems described above.
According to an aspect of an example embodiment, a non-inflatable above-ground pool comprises: a pool bottom comprising an upper bottom sheet and a lower bottom sheet connected to each other; and a pool wall connected to an edge of the pool bottom, such that the pool bottom and pool wall together enclose a water storage cavity, wherein the pool wall comprises: an inner wall comprising a lower edge connected to the lower bottom sheet, an outer wall, a top sheet connected to an upper edge of each of the inner wall and the outer wall, such that the inner wall, the outer wall, and the top sheet together enclose a filling chamber, and a support wall body disposed within the filling chamber.
The outer wall may comprise a lower edge connected to the lower bottom sheet.
The pool wall may further comprise a gasket connected to the lower edge of the outer wall.
The gasket may be connected to the lower bottom sheet.
The lower edge of the inner wall may be bent in one of a direction towards and a direction away from the outer wall, at a location at which the lower edge of the inner wall is connected to the lower bottom sheet.
The pool wall may further comprise a connecting sheet, wherein the lower edge of the inner wall is connected to the lower bottom sheet via the connecting sheet.
The pool bottom may further comprise a surrounding strip, which is connected to an edge of the upper bottom sheet and connected to the lower bottom sheet to thereby enclose a wave-making channel that is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
The surrounding strip may comprise an outer edge portion extending from a position where the surrounding strip is connected to the lower bottom sheet toward the pool wall, and wherein the outer edge portion is connected to the lower edge of the inner wall.
The support wall body may be made of an expanded polyethylene foam.
The non-inflatable above-ground pool may further comprise: a control box comprising a water pump; a water inlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through a first opening in the support wall body and a water outlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through the first opening in the support wall body, wherein the water pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity via the water inlet pipe and the water outlet pipe.
The control box may further comprise: an air pump; an air inlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through a second opening in the support wall body, wherein the air pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity via the air inlet pipe.
The non-inflatable above-ground pool may further comprise: a water discharge pipe extending through the pool wall and through a third opening in the support wall body passes.
According to an aspect of another example embodiment, an above-ground pool comprises: a pool bottom; a pool wall connected to an edge of the pool bottom, such that the pool bottom and the pool wall together define a water storage cavity, wherein the pool wall comprises: an inner wall, an outer wall, and a top sheet, wherein each of the inner wall and the outer wall comprise having an upper edge connected to the top sheet and a lower edge connected to the pool bottom, thereby defining a filling chamber; and a support wall body disposed in the filling chamber, the support wall body having a wall body opening formed therein; and a control box disposed in the wall body opening and in fluid communication with the water storage cavity via the inner wall.
The support wall body may comprise a foam material.
The control box may comprise a water pump integrated with a filter and a heater, and the inner wall has a water inlet hole and a water outlet hole formed therethrough, thereby allowing the water pump to be in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
The above-ground pool may further comprise: a water inlet joint traversing the water inlet hole and connected to the water pump, such that the inner wall is clamped between the water inlet joint and the water pump; and a water outlet joint traversing the water outlet hole and connected to the water pump, such that the inner wall is clamped between the water outlet joint and the water pump.
The control box may comprise an air pump, and the outer wall may have an air inlet hole formed therethrough, and the inner wall may have an air outlet hole formed therethrough, such that the air pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
The pool bottom may comprise a wave-making channel arranged adjacent to the inner wall and in fluid communication with the water storage cavity, and the above-ground pool may further comprise a connecting channel enabling fluid communication between the air outlet hole and the wave-making channel.
The outer wall may have a panel hole and a cord hole formed therethrough, and the control box may comprise a control panel extending through the panel hole and a power cord extending through the cord hole.
The pool wall may further comprise a connecting sheet comprising an upper edge connected to an outer edge of the top sheet, and a lower edge detachably connected to an upper edge of the outer wall.
The above-ground pool may further comprise a pool cover sized to cover the water storage cavity and detachably connected to the outer wall.
The above-ground pool may further comprise a pool cover liner attached to a bottom of the pool cover.
The above and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of example embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to example embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. In this regard, the example embodiments may have different forms and may not be construed as being limited to the descriptions set forth herein.
It will be understood that the terms “include,” “including”, “comprise, and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It will be further understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections may not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section.
As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Expressions such as “at least one of” when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.
Various terms are used to refer to particular system components. Different companies may refer to a component by different names—this document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function.
Matters of these example embodiments that are obvious to those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which these example embodiments pertain may not be described here in detail.
In this description, the directional expressions such as “upper,” “lower,” “top,” and “bottom” are not absolute, but relative. The directional expressions are appropriate when various components are arranged as shown in the figures, but should change accordingly when positions of the various components in the figures change. In addition, “inner” and “outer” are defined with reference to the radially inward and outward directions of an above-ground pool as shown.
In this specification, the terms such as “connection” and “mounting” should be construed in a broad sense, unless otherwise expressly specified and limited. For example, the connection may be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection, may be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; and may be a direct connection, an indirect connection, or an association through a certain function. For those skilled in the art, the specific meaning of the above terms herein would be understood according to specific circumstances.
As shown in
The pool bottom 11 may be a multi-layer structure sandwiched with a buffer material therein. For example, with reference to
The pool wall 12 comprises an inner wall 121, an outer wall 122, a top sheet 123, and a first (or upper) connecting sheet 124 that connects the top sheet 123 to the outer wall 122. Similar to the upper bottom sheet 113 and the lower bottom sheet 114, the sheets of the pool wall 12 may all be made of, for example, a PVC film material, a PVC composite material or other polymer film materials, and form a body jacket 10 together with the pool bottom 11. An upper edge of the inner wall 121 is welded to an inner edge of the top sheet 123, and a lower edge 1214 of the inner wall 121 may be directly welded to the lower bottom sheet 114 (see
For example, the support wall body 13 made of a foam material such as the EPE may be filled in the pool wall filling chamber. The EPE material has a good thermal insulation effect and has limited energy consumption. The support wall body 13 is formed by, for example, eight support units 131 sequentially joined in a circumferential direction, and a top portion 130 of each support unit 131 slightly protrudes out of the water storage cavity 100 of the pool as compared with a remaining part thereof. Each support unit 131 is configured to have, for example, an angled shape as shown, such that the support units are sequentially joined to form a polygonal support wall body 13. It can be understood that the material of the support wall body 13 is not limited, for example, the support wall body may also be made of a foam material such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In addition, the shape of the support unit 131 is not limited, for example, the inner and outer surfaces of each support unit 131 may also be configured to be arc-shaped, such that the support units are sequentially joined to form a circular support wall body 13.
As shown in
The water pump in the control box 14 is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity 100 by means of the water inlet pipe 153 and the water outlet pipe 154 passing through the pool wall 12. As shown in
The air pump in the control box 14 is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity 100 by means of an air inlet pipe 155 passing through the pool wall 12. As shown in
In addition, as shown in
The above description of the structure of the above-ground pool with reference to
Differences among the first six example embodiments of the non-inflatable above-ground pool described herein will be described in detail below with reference to
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Another primary example embodiment of a non-inflatable above-ground pool, along with further example embodiments will be described below with reference to
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More specifically, the pool wall 12 comprises an inner wall 121, an outer wall 122, a top sheet 123, and a connecting sheet 124. Similar to those of the pool bottom 11, the components of the pool wall 12 may all be made of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film material, for example, and form a body jacket together with the pool bottom 11. An upper edge of the inner wall 121 is connected to an inner edge of the top sheet 123 by means of welding, a lower edge of the inner wall 121 is connected to the pool bottom 11 by means of welding, an upper edge of the outer wall 122 is detachably connected to a lower edge of the connecting sheet 124 by means of a connecting component 17 such as a sewed zipper (see the enlarged part in
As shown in
As shown in
More specifically, the inner wall 121 is provided with a water inlet hole 1211 and a water outlet hole 1212 that allow the water pump to be in fluid communication with the water storage cavity, and the pool body 1 further comprises a water inlet joint 151 and a water outlet joint 152. The water inlet joint 151 passes through the water inlet hole 1211 and is tightly connected to the water pump, for example, by means of screw fitting, and allows the inner wall 121 to be clamped between the water inlet joint 151 and the water pump. The water outlet joint 152 passes through the water outlet hole 1212 and is tightly connected to the water pump, for example, by means of screw fitting, and allows the inner wall 121 to be clamped between the water outlet joint 152 and the water pump. Therefore, the water in the water storage cavity can enter the water pump via the water inlet joint 151, be filtered and heated, and then return to the water storage cavity via the water outlet joint 152.
As shown in
In addition, the outer wall 122 is provided with an air inlet hole 1223, and the inner wall 121 is provided with an air outlet hole 1213 that allows the air pump to be in fluid communication with the water storage cavity. In this example embodiment, the pool bottom 11 comprises an annular wave-making channel 111, the wave-making channel 111 being arranged adjacent to the inner wall 121 and in fluid communication with the water storage cavity through a plurality of jet holes 1110 evenly arranged along the circumferential direction, and the pool body 1 further comprises a connecting channel 16 that allows the air outlet hole 1213 to be in fluid communication with the wave-making channel 111, with one end of the connecting channel 16 being connected to the inner wall 121 around the air outlet hole 1213 by means of welding, and the other end thereof being connected to the wave-making channel 111 by means of welding. In this way, the air entering the air pump through the air inlet hole 1223 can enter the annular wave-making channel 111 through the air outlet hole 1213 and the connecting channel 16, and is then sprayed into the water storage cavity through the jet hole of the wave-making channel 111, so as to provide a comfortable wave-making massage function for a user of the pool. In this example embodiment, the pool bottom 11 is further provided with a pool bottom opening 112. The pool bottom opening 112 is adapted to the bottom of the control box 14, and may not only be used as an auxiliary air inlet, but also used for positioning the control box 14 during assembly of the pool wall 12.
In an example alternative implementation shown in
In addition, the control box 14 comprises a control panel 141 and a power cord 142 that extend from the body of the control box, and the outer wall 122 is provided with a panel hole 1221 for the control panel 141 to pass through and a cord hole 1222 for the power cord 142 to pass through. The control panel 141 protruding from the pool wall 12 through the panel hole 1221 is used by a user to start, stop, or adjust the various functions of the control box 14 mentioned above.
Since the control box 14 is integrated into the pool wall 12 of the pool body 1 rather than placed outside the pool body 1, the pipeline structure of the pool may be simplified without affecting the function of the poor, and the entire pool has a concise appearance and does not occupy additional floor space.
As shown in
In addition, the pool cover liner 3 attached to the bottom of the pool cover 2 is shaped and sized to adapt to the water storage cavity. The pool cover liner 3 may have an inflatable structure, or may be additionally provided with a thermal insulation layer inside, and thus can be used together with the pool cover 2 to further reduce the heat loss of the above-ground pool.
It may be understood that the example embodiments described herein may be considered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Descriptions of features or aspects within each example embodiment may be considered as available for other similar features or aspects in other example embodiments.
While example embodiments have been described with reference to the figures, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A non-inflatable above-ground pool, comprising:
- a pool bottom comprising an upper bottom sheet and a lower bottom sheet connected to each other; and
- a pool wall connected to an edge of the pool bottom, such that the pool bottom and pool wall together enclose a water storage cavity,
- wherein the pool wall comprises: an inner wall comprising a lower edge connected to the lower bottom sheet, an outer wall, a top sheet connected to an upper edge of each of the inner wall and the outer wall, such that the inner wall, the outer wall, and the top sheet together enclose a filling chamber, and a support wall body disposed within the filling chamber.
2. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the outer wall comprises a lower edge connected to the lower bottom sheet.
3. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the pool wall further comprises a gasket connected to the lower edge of the outer wall.
4. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 3, wherein the gasket is connected to the lower bottom sheet.
5. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the lower edge of the inner wall is bent in one of a direction towards and a direction away from the outer wall, at a location at which the lower edge of the inner wall is connected to the lower bottom sheet.
6. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the pool wall further comprises a connecting sheet, wherein the lower edge of the inner wall is connected to the lower bottom sheet via the connecting sheet.
7. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the pool bottom further comprises a surrounding strip, which is connected to an edge of the upper bottom sheet and connected to the lower bottom sheet to thereby enclose a wave-making channel that is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
8. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 7, wherein the surrounding strip comprises an outer edge portion extending from a position where the surrounding strip is connected to the lower bottom sheet toward the pool wall, and wherein the outer edge portion is connected to the lower edge of the inner wall.
9. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, wherein the support wall body is made of an expanded polyethylene foam.
10. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a control box comprising a water pump;
- a water inlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through a first opening in the support wall body and a water outlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through the first opening in the support wall body, wherein the water pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity via the water inlet pipe and the water outlet pipe.
11. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 10, wherein the control box further comprises:
- an air pump;
- an air inlet pipe extending through the pool wall and through a second opening in the support wall body, wherein the air pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity via the air inlet pipe.
12. The non-inflatable above-ground pool according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a water discharge pipe extending through the pool wall and through a third opening in the support wall body passes.
13. An above-ground pool, comprising:
- a pool bottom;
- a pool wall connected to an edge of the pool bottom, such that the pool bottom and the pool wall together define a water storage cavity, wherein the pool wall comprises: an inner wall, an outer wall, and a top sheet, wherein each of the inner wall and the outer wall comprise having an upper edge connected to the top sheet and a lower edge connected to the pool bottom, thereby defining a filling chamber; and a support wall body disposed in the filling chamber, the support wall body having a wall body opening formed therein; and
- a control box disposed in the wall body opening and in fluid communication with the water storage cavity through the inner wall.
14. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, wherein the support wall body comprises a foam material.
15. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, wherein:
- the control box comprises a water pump integrated with a filter and a heater, and
- the inner wall has a water inlet hole and a water outlet hole formed therethrough, thereby allowing the water pump to be in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
16. The above-ground pool according to claim 15, further comprising:
- a water inlet joint traversing the water inlet hole and connected to the water pump, such that the inner wall is clamped between the water inlet joint and the water pump; and
- a water outlet joint traversing the water outlet hole and connected to the water pump, such that the inner wall is clamped between the water outlet joint and the water pump.
17. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, wherein:
- the control box comprises an air pump, and
- the outer wall has an air inlet hole formed therethrough, and the inner wall has an air outlet hole formed therethrough, such that the air pump is in fluid communication with the water storage cavity.
18. The above-ground pool according to claim 17, wherein:
- the pool bottom comprises a wave-making channel arranged adjacent to the inner wall and in fluid communication with the water storage cavity, and
- the above-ground pool further comprises a connecting channel enabling fluid communication between the air outlet hole and the wave-making channel.
19. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, wherein:
- the outer wall has a panel hole and a cord hole formed therethrough, and
- the control box comprises a control panel extending through the panel hole and a power cord extending through the cord hole.
20. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, wherein the pool wall further comprises a connecting sheet comprising an upper edge connected to an outer edge of the top sheet, and a lower edge detachably connected to an upper edge of the outer wall.
21. The above-ground pool according to claim 13, further comprising a pool cover sized to cover the water storage cavity and detachably connected to the outer wall.
22. The above-ground pool according to claim 21, further comprising a pool cover liner attached to a bottom of the pool cover.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 15, 2023
Publication Date: Feb 22, 2024
Inventor: Xianglin ZENG (Shanghai)
Application Number: 18/234,249