The Bestway Pool Settlement Pays $40 With No Receipt and 10% With One. The CPSC Priced These Pools From About $400 — Which Is Exactly Where the Receipt Stops Being Worth Digging Out.

On July 21, 2025, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced recall number 25-393, covering about five million above-ground pools in the United States, 48 inches and taller, sold by Bestway, Intex and Polygroup. The hazard, in the CPSC's own words: “The compression strap that surrounds the outside of the pool legs may create a foothold, allowing a child access to the pool, posing a drowning risk.”

The CPSC reported that nine children, aged 22 months to three years, drowned between 2007 and 2022 in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri after using the straps to get into a pool. Three further incidents in 2011 and 2012 involved children climbing in the same way.

The remedy is free and it is not the settlement: a repair kit consisting of a rope that attaches to each vertical support pole at ground level and wraps around the pool, after which the compression strap is removed. If you still have one of these pools standing, that kit is the part of this story that matters most, and it is available regardless of whether you ever file a claim.

The settlement agreement says so itself, and unusually bluntly: “Nothing in this Agreement modifies, limits, or extinguishes the Pool Recall of July 21, 2025, which remains in effect independent of this Settlement, and which is neither endorsed by nor incorporated into this Settlement.” Taking the $40 does not sign away the repair kit.

If the court approves, Bestway pays $15,000,000 into a fund that covers cash awards, notice and administration costs, attorneys' fees and costs, and service awards. Question 8 of the long form notice sets out what a claimant receives:

• With a valid proof of purchase: “a payment equal to ten percent (10%) of either: (i) the actual price paid as reflected in the Valid Proof of Purchase (e.g., receipt); or (ii) the Average Retail Price of the identified Class Product if no actual purchase price is reflected.”
• Without one: “Claimants without Valid Proof of Purchase shall receive a Cash Payment of Forty Dollars ($40.00).”

Put those two side by side and the break-even is arithmetic, not opinion. Ten percent of the price beats $40 only when the price was above $400. At exactly $400 the two tracks pay the same. Below it, the receipt is worth less than not having one.

Now the CPSC's own figure for what these pools sold for: “approximately $400 to over $1,000,” depending on size and model, at Walmart, Target, Sears, Lowe's, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Sam's Club, Home Depot, Big Lots, Costco, BJ's and online. In other words, the break-even sits at the very bottom of the price range. A larger pool bought at $800 yields $80 with a receipt, double the flat payment. A smaller one bought on sale for $300 yields $30 — and that claimant is better off filing without the receipt.

This is not a loophole. Both tracks are in the notice, and the flat payment exists precisely because most people do not keep receipts for a pool bought as long ago as 2008. It just means the sensible order of operations is to find the price first, then decide which track to file under — not to assume the paperwork is always worth more.

One caution on the size of the pot. Unlike the New York settlement we covered today, the fees here come out of the fund: counsel may apply for up to one-third (33⅓%) of the settlement amount, exclusive of administration costs and service awards, plus a cost reimbursement, plus $2,500 to each class representative. The court may award less than requested.

The settlement class is all persons in the United States, its territories and the District of Columbia who bought, for personal use and not for resale, a Bestway-branded pool 48 inches or taller — the notice names the Power Steel and Steel Pro models — with compression straps located outside the support poles, sold from 2008 through 2024.

Two exclusions do real work. The first: second-hand purchasers are excluded. If you bought the pool used — a yard sale, a marketplace listing, a neighbour moving house — you are not in the class, however recalled the pool is. The second is a matter of branding. The CPSC recall covered Bestway, Intex and Polygroup, but this settlement is Bestway's alone. An Intex or a Summer Waves pool sitting in the same recall notice gets nothing from this fund. Wholesalers, distributors and retailers of the products are also out, as are the defendants' own people and anyone who opts out.

Coleman-branded Power Steel pools sit inside the Bestway family, which is why coverage of this case mentions Coleman alongside Bestway. If you are unsure which side of the line your pool falls on, the administrator will tell you: 1-855-789-5948, or Bestway Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 1869, Baton Rouge, LA 70821.

October 30, 2026 is a single deadline doing three jobs: it is the last day to file a claim, the last day to opt out, and the last day to object. That is unusual — most settlements stagger these — and it means there is no second look after the claim window shuts.

The fairness hearing is November 20, 2026, when the court decides whether to approve the settlement, the fee award and the service payments. Class counsel's fee motion will be posted on the settlement website before the objection deadline, so anyone who wants to object to the fees can read the request first rather than object blind.

If you are in the class and do nothing, you receive no payment and you give up the right to sue Bestway over the issues this settlement releases. Claims go through poolsettlementbw.com, administered by Eisner Advisory Group LLC; a Spanish-language version of the notice is posted there as well. And whatever you decide about the money: if the pool is still up, get the free repair kit.