Pool Info: Pool Glossary - Page 5
Pool Glossary (cont.)
GATE VALVE: The type that spins "lefty-loosey; righty-tighty."
GASKET: A gasket is a mechanical seal that fills the space between two objects, generally to prevent leakage between the two objects while under compression. Gaskets are commonly produced by cutting from sheet materials, such as gasket paper, rubber, silicone, metal, or a plastic polymer.
GROUND-FAULT CIRCUIT-INTERRUPTER: A GFCI device protects a circuit from branching off by de-energizing the path of electricity very quickly when it senses current loss. An important safety device around water (the pool?).
GROUT: a construction material used to embed rebars in masonry walls, connect sections of pre-cast concrete, fill voids, and seal joints (like those between tiles). Grout is generally composed of a mixture of water, cement, sand and sometimes color tint which is applied as a thick liquid and hardens over time, much like mortar.
GUNITE: A dry mixture of cement and sand mixed with water at the "gun"; hence the name. A gunite operator "shoots" the pool's rough shape, while finishers trowel after.
HALOGEN: A member of the family of elements fluorine, bromine, chlorine and iodine.
HARD WATER: That water which is high in calcium hardness and other salts which, as such, resists soap being lathered.
HAZMAT: A hazardous material, a term used almost exclusively in the United States, is any solid, liquid, or gas that can harm people, other living organisms, property, or the environment. Hazmats may be radioactive, flammable, explosive, toxic, corrosive, biohazardous, an oxidizer, a pathogen, an allergen, or may have other characteristics that render it hazardous in specific circumstances.
HEATER: A device used to heat the water. It may be electric, fuel operated or solar powered heat.
HEAT EXCHANGER: A set of 8 or 10 ribbed copper tubes that absorb the heat produced below it and transfer it to the water cycling through its tubes.
HEAT PUMP: The antithesis of the air conditioner, the heat pump's cooling coil removes heat from the air while the condenser coil transfers it to water cycling through it.
HOT TUB: Usually considered a circular, wooden vessel filled with heated and circulated water.
HP: Horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. The most occurring conversion of horsepower to watt goes 1 horsepower = 745.7 watts.
HYDROXIDES: the most common name for the diatomic anion OH−, consisting of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, usually derived from the dissociation of a base. It is one of the simplest diatomic ions known.
HYPOCHLORITE: A family of chlorine compounds such as Calcium Hypochlorite and Lithium Hypochlorite, both granular, and the liquid Sodium Hypochlorite. When these compounds contact water, they release Hypochlorous Acid, the active sanitizing agent.
HYDROSTATIC RELIEF VALVE: Fitting(s) installed in the floor of the pool designed to manually or automatically release hydrostatic pressure beneath the pool by allowing ground water into the pool.
IMPELLER: The rotating vanes of a centrifugal pump; its action creates the flow of water. The impeller is shaft driven by an electric motor.
ION: An atom, or group of atoms that possess an electrical charge.