Which pond pump
Which pond pump is a question we often get asked, but
what is it to do in the pond?
The pump you should have is determined by what you want
the pump to do, be it for a water feature water fall or fountain, so if you
chose the pump by price by human nature you will opt for the cheapest
which may not be up to the intended task.
Pumps are all the same aren't they?
If you go to your local "aquatic shop" and get "any pump"
chances are it will come with a nozzle, unless that is it is a filter or
waterfall pump. Pumps can be split into different categories, in order to
achieve the desired result you must use the correct type of pump.
The pictures below are examples only.
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Filter pumps.
Filter pumps move large volumes of water
at a low to medium head height (From the pond to the filter) They can pump
"solids" from your pond into your filter. Because of this you will
find that there is not a nozzle in the box it came with, if you add a
nozzle you will find that the jet of water is low, this is because
it does not have a lot of pressure.
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Waterfall pumps
Water fall pumps are similar to filter pumps but they
usually have a greater head height but can not pump solids
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Feature pumps
Feature pumps are almost as powerful as fountain pumps but
are usually of smaller size (In order to fit in the feature)
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Fountain Pumps
Fountain pumps provide pressure to make nozzles work as
they should, different nozzles require different pressures and flow rates to
work correctly. Most fountain pumps will come with a nozzle, if yours
doesn't are you sure its a fountain pump? (see filter pumps above)
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Sump pumps
Sump pumps are designed to move high volumes of water to a
high head height, but are not suitable for fountains because you can
not directly attach a nozzle to their outlet, they are often very power hungry
(expensive to run) and are not always designed for continuous use, but
are more for occasional use such as emptying a sump. (Funny that) Although often
initially cheaper they do not have the durability and are expensive to
run.
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Summing up
So you can now see that not all pumps are the same.
Always use the correct pump for the correct task. You may also like to read our
wrong pump page.
Pictures are not to scale and are examples only.
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