Factors TO KNOW ABOUT FOUNTAIN PUMPS

When replacing a fountain pump or deciding on a new one, very first there are some key terms to keep in thoughts:

"Head": This is the maximum vertical lift of the pump. For example, a 6' head means the pump is rated to pump water up to 6 feet clicky high. Note, even so, that at 6 feet the pump would be providing quite little water, with gallons per hour around zero. So if you want to pump, say, 200 gph at 72", you will almost certainly need about a 300-600 gallon per hour pump to do the job.

"GPH" : Gallons per hour, typically rated at various heights

"GPM" : Gallons per minute, typically rated at diverse heights

"Pump Curve" : The amount of water volume "curved" according to various heights. A 500 gallon per hour pump, for instance, may pump 500 gallons per hour at " lift, 350 gallons per hour at 24" of lift, and so forth. When acquiring a pump for the very first time or when seeking a replacement pump, it is vital that you know how a lot of gallons per hour you want to pump and at what height (head).

Water Volume The total volume that you will be pumping is controlled by a handful of aspects. One element is the size of the pump, as covered above. But you also should think about how wide your tubing will be. Tubing is measured in two techniques: inside diameter (i.d.) and outside diameter (o.d.). Really skinny i.d. tubing will tremendously reduce water flow. Many buyers are shocked when they discover that, immediately after hooking up their 500 gallon per hour pump to 1/2" inside diameter tubing, they are only finding what they contemplate a trickle.

We had an engineer do some calculations for us to illustrate the dilemma. Using a 300 gph pump with 1/two" tubing is going to restrict your flow to 253 gallons per hour. By increasing the pump to 450 gallons per hour, but nonetheless employing 1/two" tubing, you will enhance volume only slightly, to 264 gallons per hour! The lesson is this: When getting a pump, discover out what size visit of tubing is supposed to go with it. Another difficulty is running the tubing also far. Long lengths of tubing create resistance. If your pump calls alkaline meals for 1/two" i.d. tubing, for instance, but you are running the tubing twenty feet from the pump, it is

a very good concept to use 3/4" tubing instead so as not to cut down too considerably on flow.

How much water do I need to have? What size of pump? This question is answered in part by no matter whether you want a "trickle" or a roar. When you purchase a fountain, you will generally locate a suggested flow. For waterfalls, use this as a rule of thumb: for every inch of stream width or waterfall "sheet," you will need to deliver 100 gallons per hour at the height you're pumping. So if you are creating a 12" wide waterfall that is 3 feet tall, you want to buy a pump that will be pumping 1200 gallons per hour at 3 feet of height. For little ponds, whenever achievable, it is a very good idea to recirculate the water as soon as

an hour, far more usually if attainable. Thus, if your pond is 500 gallons, attempt to get

a pump that will recirculate water at a rate of 500 gallons per hour. For really

significant ponds, this is not required and is far too expensive.