Our experience in bringing serenity to pools began in 1992. We’ve gone through quite the evolution over the past 30 years. Name change, selling, openings, closings, trial, error and innovations have made us what we are today; America’s favorite waterfall manufacturer. We became Great American in 2003, a family owned and operated company led by Ben Dixon and two other partners.
When a major manufacturer left Florida there was a void in service and product. Ben’s vision was to create a brand of waterfall and other aqua products for the pool industry to fill this void. Great American had more experience and quality know-how than any other company in the water feature market. And just like that, the phones started to ring. With the help of our reps, and focus on customer service the orders started coming in.
The original waterfall in 2003 was assembled using a lego type system. It was composed of many pieces glued by hand to create the unit. This type of construction was for efficiency which would allow us to ship the same day or next on our standard products.
With innovations like our unique baffling “T” design, our products provided consistent water flow with only one inlet fitting in most units up to 8 lineal feet in length. That, along with interlocking inlet fittings, provides a stronger bond to the body of the units. These ideas were well received by the industry and propelled the company forward.
We doubled our employees from 2003 – 2008. Some are still with us 15-years later. When the market crashed in 2008, the pool industry fell hard. We made layoffs and did some major re-assessing. We went back to making each waterfall from sheets of ABS plastic, cutting and assembling bodies and nozzles the old way, by hand. Manufacturers, distributors and builders all worked together and focused on how to bring the industry back. After many sleepless nights and stressful days we survived along with our dedicated distributors and builders.
With those rough years well behind us, we’ve added pool industry innovators like Chris Walton who you know as Zero Edge Guy, possibly the most knowledgeable person in the business and Ben’s son Aaron Dixon is now leading the way. Today Great American has employees in multiple locations, has expanded manufacturing, continues selling some of the most reliable, cost-effective products for waterfalls plus, are innovating exotic edges and textures for pools with the launch of our Zero Edge and Turf Edge products. Our fail rates are the lowest in the industry and that’s because we still manufacture the right way, by hand as it was when Ben Dixon and partners got us going all those years ago.