The Brand Story
Paramount: The Family That Taught Pools to Clean Themselves
In the Arizona desert, a swimming pool is a constant fight with dust. Wind carries fine dirt over the fence every afternoon, and it settles on the floor and in the corners where no skimmer can reach. George Ghiz had been building pools since 1958, and he knew that fight well. In 1964 he set up a small research and development arm inside his pool company to work on it. He called it Paramount, and the problem it chose to solve, keeping the floor of a pool clean without anyone touching it, would define the company for the next sixty years.
Chapter 1 · 1964
A laboratory inside a pool builder
Paramount began as the R&D arm of Paddock Pools, a long-established pool builder and retailer run by the Ghiz family. That arrangement gave it something most equipment makers never have: a steady stream of real pools, real construction crews and real homeowners to learn from.
From the start, the focus was in-floor cleaning. Instead of a robot or a hose dragging across the plaster, an in-floor system builds the cleaning into the pool itself, with nozzles set flush in the floor, steps and benches that push debris toward the drain and keep the water moving.
Chapter 2 · The next generation
Buzz Ghiz takes the helm
When George Ghiz stepped back, his son Lewis Ghiz, known throughout the industry as Buzz, took over both Paramount and Paddock. Under his leadership Paramount refined the parts that make an in-floor system work: the water-driven distributor valve that sends flow to one group of nozzles at a time, the nozzles themselves, and the canisters and drains that collect what the nozzles stir up.
In 2005 Buzz and his brothers David and Edward sold the Paddock pool building business, and Buzz turned his full attention to manufacturing at Paramount. The company moved well beyond cleaning systems, adding ultraviolet and ozone sanitizers, venturi skimmers, automatic water levelers, unblockable drains, lighting and other equipment, nearly all of it aimed at the builders who install it.
Chapter 3 · 2017 to 2018
A family business finds a new steward
In 2017 Buzz Ghiz lost his brother Edward and his sister Jazelle. With no family member set to carry the business forward, he began to think about who should look after it next. In August 2018 he agreed to sell Paramount to Hayward Industries, one of the largest pool equipment manufacturers in the world, and the deal closed on September 4, 2018.
The terms were unusual for the industry. Paramount would keep its name, its Chandler, Arizona headquarters, its management, its sales force and its customer service team, and run as an autonomous business within Hayward. Buzz stayed on to lead it. He told the trade press he believed Hayward would be good stewards of the Paramount brand.
Chapter 4 · How it works
Cleaning from the floor up
A Paramount in-floor system is driven entirely by water. The pool's pump sends flow to a patented, water-actuated distributor valve, which feeds one zone of floor nozzles at a time in a fixed sequence. Each nozzle pops up, rotates and sweeps the surface around it with a jet of water, then drops back flush with the floor when the valve moves on. Paramount's PVR nozzles use a ratcheting, self-cleaning head that covers roughly six to ten feet.
The moving water lifts dirt into suspension so the filter can catch it, and pushes heavier debris toward a main drain and into a debris canister, either in the deck or at the equipment pad. Because the system also circulates water across the floor, Paramount says it can save owners up to 30 percent on chemicals and energy over the life of a pool. The catch is that an in-floor system has to be planned and plumbed when the pool is built or fully renovated.
The Lineup
What Paramount builds today
Paramount builds in-floor cleaning and circulation systems, alternative sanitizers and the white goods that finish a pool. At HVAC365 the line is weighted toward in-floor parts and safety components:
- In-floor cleaning systems: PV3 and PVR cleaning nozzles with caps, retrofit nozzle kits, the 6-port water valve module and 2-inch valve base, nozzle tools, and the EDC equipment-side debris canister.
- Main drains: the SDX2 Retro high-flow safety drain with an adaptable back plate for renovations.
- Skimmers and inlets: the Paraskim non-venturi skimmer and the ParaskimV venturi skimmer, designed to keep skimming when a variable-speed pump runs at low flow, plus SwingJet oscillating wall jets and the pulsating Parajet.
- Water levelers: automatic fill devices that keep the waterline where the skimmer needs it.
- UV sanitizers: ultraviolet systems that reduce the chlorine demand of a pool, part of Paramount's wider filter and sanitizer range.
The Safety Standard
Drains and the Virginia Graeme Baker Act
Every main drain in this collection lives in the shadow of one federal law. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, enacted in 2007, requires drain covers to meet a national anti-entrapment performance standard, now ANSI/APSP/ICC-16. Since December 19, 2008, public pools and spas have been required to use compliant covers, and a public pool that relies on a single blockable drain, or on drains less than three feet apart on the same plane, needs a secondary anti-entrapment system. Paramount markets its safety drains as VGB compliant, and the rated flow of any drain cover should always be matched to the pump that pulls through it.
At a Glance
Paramount by the numbers
- Founded
- 1964
- Founder
- George Ghiz
- Headquarters
- Chandler, Arizona
- Formal name
- Paramount Leisure Industries, Inc.
- Parent company
- Hayward Industries, since 2018
- Known for
- In-floor pool cleaning systems
- Also makes
- Skimmers, safety drains, levelers, UV and ozone sanitizers
Questions
Frequently asked questions about Paramount
Who owns Paramount Pool & Spa Systems?
Paramount Leisure Industries has been owned by Hayward Industries since September 2018. It operates as an autonomous business under its own name from Chandler, Arizona.
When was Paramount founded?
George Ghiz founded Paramount in 1964 as the research and development arm of Paddock Pools, the family's pool building business.
What is an in-floor pool cleaning system?
It is a set of pop-up nozzles built into the pool floor, steps and benches. A water-driven valve sends flow to the nozzles in sequence, pushing debris toward the drain and the filter.
Can an in-floor cleaning system be added to an existing pool?
Generally only during a full renovation, because the nozzles and their plumbing are set into the pool shell. Retrofit nozzle kits are used to update or replace parts in pools that already have a system.
What is the difference between the Paraskim and ParaskimV skimmers?
The ParaskimV is a venturi skimmer designed to keep pulling surface debris at the low flow rates of variable-speed pumps. The Paraskim is the standard non-venturi version.
