fountain tips

Fountain tips

Fountain tips, water feature tips

This page is a collection of fountain and water feature tips, they are in no particular order.

Sump pump

Only use a sump pump for sumps

Here you can see a sump with a sump pump (The yellow thing), for fountains and water features which run for long times, sump pumps use too much electricity.

You may want to see our which pump page

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Large pipe

If you have a large diameter pipe as a feature - say 10cm in diameter, it is going to require a lot of water to fill it before it flows over (The desired effect) You can put a smaller pot in the top (small flower pot) Then the water only needs to fill the top pot before it over flows, using less water. See diagram below

A) Pot

B) Large diameter pipe

C) Riser pipe

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Holes

Never think you can drill holes in a pipe and have the water go in the direction of the holes, it very rarely works. You need a nozzle to direct the water jet. The same is also true of a vertical pipe you can not guarantee which direction the water will flow.

		As you can see holes drilled in a pipe to make a fountain do not work. Even though the same size holes were drilled the jets vary in height and direction. (As a certain tv programme says "We do these experiments, so you don't have to") Nozzles are available from the components website
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		This shows what can happen if you use a vertical pipe with no nozzle, It has no direction. It may be the desired effect for some projects but not most since there is no guarantee where the water will go. Nozzles are available form the components website. (As a certain tv programme says "We do these experiments, so you don't have to")

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Pump Size

When designing a fountain or water feature make sure the pump is capable of the job required, if in doubt get a bigger pump, you can turn a big pump down, you can NOT turn a small pump up. Pumps are on the components website

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RCD

Always use an RCD* protected plug or socket, it may save your life

* RCD or GFI (depending on your location)

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Power of pump

As mentioned in pump size, what if your pump is too small for the nozzle?

see our page here

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Water demand

Foaming nozzles have a very high water requirement (known as water demand)

When choosing a pump it is quite often chosen by price, not capability, which then means it can not operate the nozzle of your choice. More information is on our page here

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Noisy fountain?

By their nature most fountains are noisy, but if yours is "too noisy" the easiest way to reduce the noise is to reduce the flow rate, because most noise is created by the pumped water hitting the pool water surface. Changing nozzles to ones with a wider diameter also helps reduce noise, but this can not always be done.

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JW fountain Rule

Water will fall as far as it is high (see the jw rule) This can cause problems with pools emptying in slight winds

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Lighting a fountain

More information is here

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Useful

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Nozzles etc are available from the components website

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