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Water feature mistakes This is a nice looking soon to be water feature, or is it?
During the installation of a custom made water feature similar* to this, two 15mm pipes were run under the floor area, one for water flow, one for water return. The pump is to be connected at the other end of these pipes which is around 8 metres away. Below is a list of errors that were not thought of with the installation of this feature. A nozzle was requested to be fitted to the top outlet. The height and style of this feature means that a nozzle will only serve to spread the water further outside the bottom bowl, please see the jw rule for more information. The return pipe diameter is too small, since the pipes are just under the gravelled area they are level so the only reason the water will return to the pump is gravity, pumps pump water out they do not suck it in. The return pipe needs to be much bigger than the flow pipe if this is ever going to work. The pump position is above the gravelled area which means its inlet will be just below water level The water return pipe is just protruding from the base of the pool. it has no screen to stop debris from entering the pipe, when debris does enter the pipe and it gets lodged in the pipe how will you get it out? Our solution? To cut the pipes off, use one as a conduit for a cable. Mount the pump in the bottom pool of the feature. The picture below, shows how it should be done. In this instance there was no pump cavity, so a simple small brick wall was built to make a cavity and raise the feature. Thanks to Michele for the picture.
For those of you thinking why not use a central heating pump the answer is two fold. A central heating system is a closed loop, water can be pumped very high, and through small diameter pipes because as the water is pumped away, it forces water into the pump inlet at the same rate, it is pumped out because it is a closed system. A central heating pump will also corrode because of the new oxygen being introduced. Central heating pumps are called circulators for a reason. * We have only used this picture as an example, as it is the same style as the "problem" feature. This feature has a hollow stand for the pump to sit in.
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