ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,624,863, issued on May 12, was assigned to Rheem Manufacturing Co. (Atlanta).

"Pool heater bypass systems and methods" was invented by Ryan Joseph Valencia (Oxnard, Calif.), Juan Carlos Montanez (Oxnard, Calif.), Alexander Stephen Chow (Camarillo, Calif.) and Satya Kiran Gullapalli (Ventura, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A bypass system is provided for use with a pool water heater having a pool water heater input port configured to receive a portion of pool water, a heating system configured to heat water received by the pool water heater input port, and a pool water heater output port configured to output heated water from the he...