Roughly 15,800 above-ground pools sold under the Blue Wave, Sunneday and Blue Bay brands are being recalled because the compression strap wrapped around the pool’s exterior support poles can act as a foothold, letting a child climb in even after the ladder has been removed. The Blue Wave recall, covering about 13,400 units sold at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Dunham’s Sports, Amazon, Walmart.com and Wayfair between January 2021 and July 2025, was announced by CPSC on December 18, 2025. A related recall of roughly 2,390 Sunneday and Blue Bay pools, sold through Amazon and Sunneday.com between January 2024 and October 2025, followed on January 29, 2026.
How the Defect Actually Works
Above-ground pools are supposed to keep small children out unless someone deliberately sets up the ladder. That’s the entire safety premise of the design. CPSC’s notices describe a flaw that quietly defeats it: the compression strap that wraps around the outside of the pool’s support poles, meant to help hold the frame’s shape, creates a horizontal foothold a child can step on. A determined toddler can use that strap to climb the outside wall and get into the water without ever touching the ladder, which means removing or locking the ladder, the standard advice for keeping pools secure between uses, doesn’t actually stop access.
Both recalls cover pools 48 inches deep or taller, sold in sizes ranging from 15 to 24 feet in diameter, in finishes including Active Frame, Wicker, Rustic Cedar, Rattan and several solid colors, at prices from $500 to $2,000 depending on size. CPSC has not reported any injuries or deaths tied to these specific recalls as of the notices’ publication, but the agency classifies the hazard as a drowning risk severe enough to warrant a nationwide recall rather than a warning label update.
What Owners Are Being Told to Do
Both manufacturers are offering free repair kits rather than refunds. Blue Wave owners can request one by calling (800) 603-0475 or emailing [email protected]; Starmatrix, which makes the Sunneday and Blue Bay pools, can be reached at (888) 254-2714 or [email protected]. Until the repair kit is installed, CPSC’s instruction is blunt: keep children away from the pool without direct adult supervision, or drain it entirely.
Model numbers matter here since both brands sold many size and finish variations under the same recall. Blue Wave’s affected models include NB19790, NB19791, NB19797, NB19798, NB19890, NB19891, NB19900, NB19902 and NB19904 through NB19910. The Sunneday and Blue Bay recall covers the Oasis Cottage 18-foot and 24-foot models (70018, 70024) and Blue Bay Softsided Pools in 15-foot and 18-foot sizes (358015W, 359015G, 360018W, 361018G, 380018T).
Two Companies, the Same Design Flaw
What makes this pair of recalls notable is that Blue Wave and Starmatrix Group, the manufacturer behind Sunneday and Blue Bay, are separate companies with separate supply chains, yet CPSC found essentially the same structural vulnerability in both product lines within weeks of each other. Compression straps are a common feature on soft-sided and hybrid-frame above-ground pools generally, used to keep the pool wall taut against its support poles rather than relying on a rigid metal frame alone. That two unrelated manufacturers hit the same failure mode suggests the risk may sit with the compression-strap design approach itself, not with a single company’s construction quality, which is worth knowing if you’re shopping for a replacement pool and see a similar strap on a third brand’s model that hasn’t been recalled yet.
Why This One Deserves Extra Attention
Pool safety advice has spent years centered on ladder removal as the go-to line of defense between swim sessions, which is exactly what makes this defect worth flagging even if you don’t recognize your specific model number. A family that has done everything right by the conventional safety checklist, locking the gate, pulling the ladder, covering the pool, can still have a pool that’s climbable, because the vulnerability lives in the frame itself rather than in the entry point everyone’s trained to watch. If you own any above-ground pool with an exterior compression strap, checking the model number against both recall notices takes less time than a single trip to refill the pool chemicals, and it closes a gap that ladder removal alone cannot.
