Are Pump Failures Preventing You From Enjoying Your Pond?

Published on October 19, 2021

Sponsored Content from MDM Pumps

Over the past 20 months your pond may be that key spot at your home providing an escape from pandemic fatigue. Or perhaps you’ve been planning to build your first pond for that respite.  Is it the calming effect of hearing a soft trickle of water?  Or watching the fluidity of your colorful fish as they go about their lives in the clear water habitat? For some it’s tending to the aquatic plant scape masterpiece that blooms their Lilly’s.  

Keep peace of mind, prevent pump failures

Performance of one key mechanical system component can threaten or increase that serenity and relaxation we seek from our water features. Don’t let the heart of your pond system cause a problem. With so many pond pump options in the decades old water feature hobby market, there’s plenty of use case data to help you mitigate risks to your enjoyment, ruin your experience. In particular, there are pumps on the market today that provide years of trouble-free operation and lowest out-of-pocket cost.  

Set Yourself Up for Success

The size of your pond, and equipment in the system define performance requirements for your pump. The basic question is how often the pond needs to be recirculated for aeration and biological purification. Faster the turnover wants larger pipe diameter, as small diameters increase friction loss and restrict flow. If a waterfall is designed in the system, the height from the lowest water level to the highest point where water exits the pipe will also affect the rate of flow, the higher the lift the lower the flow. Mechanical filtration affects performance dynamically, based on the number of solids being captured in the filter vessel.

Pump Sizing, a Critical Step in Planning

Consultation with a technical professional is the critical first step in deciding what pump to install. The wrong pump may not provide the flow that you want; it may fail early or consume too much energy. After clearly defining system requirements, three key considerations will determine your experience:

1) PUMP TECHNOLOGY: SUBMERSIBLE (IN-THE-POND) VS EXTERNAL (OUT-OF-POND)

Alternatives are pumps positioned inside or pumps positioned outside the pond. Submersible pumps are prone to clogging and require frequent maintenance, which involves taking the pump out of the pond. External pumps are set with fixed plumbing and are less susceptible to clogging due to use of strainer baskets that catch debris yet keep a clear flow path to the pump inlet. Maintenance, when required, is performed without affecting the installed plumbing.

Submersible pumps require wiring that takes electricity into the pond, with inherent risks to the operator and all aquatic life. External pumps are wired like an appliance, with conventional ground fault interruption and no electrical path into the body of water.

2) QUALITY: WARRANTY LENGTH

Warranties are indicators of manufacturer confidence in economic life. The objective of every manufacturer is to have their product operate at least to the end of the warranty period; short warranties point to frequent replacement cycles. Time and effort in replacing pumps, and exposures in not having water circulation, easily exceed the acquisition price of the pump. Low priced pumps with short warranties often do not turn out to be a bargain.

3) EFFICIENCY: OPERATING COST EXCEEDS PURCHASE PRICE

Knowing power consumption and the price of energy, it is easy to calculate the cost of pump operation, and to know how long it will take before what you spend on electricity exceeds what you spend on a pump. This can be a surprisingly short period of time. With promotional information about pumps, it is easy to compare the operating cost of pump alternatives. Pumps designed for continuous operation, with high efficiency motors, invariably offer lowest operating cost. 

>> Download the ebook to see representative comparisons in the concluding section of this document.

“As a Koi breeder, downtime in a filtration system is a matter of profit and loss. When you install a pump in 1987, and now in 2016 it’s still running, one has to contemplate how profitable a simple pump can make an operation like ours. Sequence pumps are the only pumps for us!”

Dennis Royle, KOI-OP

Size your Sequence pump today and put the stress behind you.  

Get Back to Enjoying Your Pond (…or Make Sure That You Can Enjoy Your Pond)

Sequence Pumps have provided thousands of pond owners years for trouble pump operation, assuring the serenity and peace their ponds were intended to provide.  Many Sequence pump owners have upgraded their system after unfortunate experience with submersible products that failed one too many times, or high-power bills, green water, and dead fish.

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