To push the water upwards, you’ll also need a submersible pump with a good length of cable that can reach your house. The pump must be covered by water at all times to avoid damage to the mechanism if it runs dry, so you’ll need to check it regularly to make sure. Some of the more expensive units can also be left in the water all year round but others need to be taken out over winter.
Most water features come with a pump and all the wiring and pipes you need, but for a custom feature or for pumping water from a pond, you can buy one of several types of pump:
Just what it says, a pump that must never be used in your pond. Connect up pipes to drive water around your pond or feature. Surface-mounting means maintenance is easy on these units but you do need to have somewhere to hide them.
Most garden ponds with a waterfall or fountain feature will need one of these pumps. Make sure the unit is supplied with plenty of cable so that you can reach your nearest power supply without making cable connections. Some models have a cut-out switch that turns the unit off if the water level drops, reducing the chance of damage.
Some pumps come with a detachable case, which acts as a filter and strainer when the pump is in the water. These can be used in or out of water, so you can swap it around, say if you didn’t use a particular water feature in winter.
Whichever pump you choose, there are three specifications to check before parting with your cash. The consumption is the amount of power consumed by the unit. This varies from around 30 to 500 watts. Next is the pumping rate/hour that indicates how quickly dirty water will be pushed through the filters. This figure can be anywhere from around 2,000 to 16,000 litres per hour. Check with the supplier to match the flow rate to the size of pond/water feature. Finally, the ‘max head’ is the height the pump can force water upwards. This again varies widely according the power of the pump, from a gentle metre to a Versailles-like 8m. Choose a unit that has plenty of power so that your pump isn’t working at its maximum capacity all the time.
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