Pond pumps, water features, choosing feature pumps

Pondkeeper's How to...

Pond and water feature pumps

Tips about pond pumps and water features

Pump head is measured from the pond surface - not the bottom of the pond.

Never switch off your pond pump for more than about 60 minutes if you keep fish - the biofilter is starved of oxygen. For this reason two smaller pond pumps are often a better choice than a single larger pond pump.

Make sure the delivery pipe from the pond pump is not kinked or is being restricted by a build up of algae inside the pipe. This happen quickly in transparent tubing exposed to sunlight.

Any pond pump with a guarantee of less than 2 years is probably not suited to most garden pond environments. Short term guarantees indicate lack of product confidence in difficult environments such as ponds.

For safety sake use pond pumps with the longest possible cable and avoid joining wires if you can. It is always best to wire a pond pump directly into the earth leakage system of the house rather than depend upon a plug and socket. If you do join wires outdoors use waterproof cable connectors.

Pumps and ponds ... most small submersible pumps have impellors designed to go around in a single direction. This type normally have curved rotor blades for improved pumping efficiency. To make sure they do not start up in the wrong direction when you switch them on this type of rotor can only be turned by hand about 3/4 of a turn before it comes to a deliberate stop. If and when your pump sudenly stops pumping this is the first and easiest test to do to find out if the rotor needs changing or if something more serious is wrong with your pond pump. If the blades go round and round and round you probably just need a new rotor.

Pond pumps and maintenance ... more and more modern pond pumps are being sold without sponges to reduce the hassle of sponge cleaning.

Do get one of these in preference to one with a sponge if you like the idea of less maintenance. This type of pond pump is generally more robust and can handle small solids going into it without breaking the pond pump shaft or pump rotor.