Loop-Loc, a leading safety pool cover manufacturer based in Hauppauge, N.Y., recently marked its 35th year.
The firm was established in 1977 by Bill Donaton, but his work with safety pool covers first began in 1957, after a colleague complained of finding small animals drowned in his pool’s waterlogged, solid cover.
Donaton co-invented a new type of cover with mesh, which allowed water to drain through rather than collect on top. He continued to make improvements to Loop-Loc’s covers in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Most notable was the GapGuard and SAFEDGE Child Safety Intrusion Barriers, a plastic extrusion designed to close the gaps created where the edge of a cover meets a raised obstruction.
Devoted to pool safety, Donaton served on a National Spa & Pool Institute committee that, along with in ASTM, developed performance standards for safety covers.
In 2001, Donaton’s daughter, LeeAnn Donaton-Pesta, took over as company president before Donaton’s death in 2002.
Today, Loop-Loc has grown to 300 employees occupying a 200,000-square-foot facility and has sold safety pool covers on every continent except Antarctica.
