I am in the process of building a pond about 1500 gallons.

I currently have two submersible pumps. 1 535 gph beckett, 1 200 gph
(not sure)

My wife wants a waterfall probably about 2 ft high..


I am trying to understand the Pluses and Minuses of a normal pond pump
vs a waterfall pump...

I know one thing to keep in mind is the max lift..

But when I compare prices the Waterfall pumps seem to be cheaper..

EX..

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..


Ben Raines

(Ben Raines) writes:

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..

Electricity cost. Check the power consumption numbers.

Andrew Burgess wrote in message
...
(Ben Raines) writes:

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..

Electricity cost. Check the power consumption numbers.

I'm running my 3 ft. waterfall on a 300gph Beckets and it works just
great...gives me more of a babbling brook type waterfall rather a Niagara,
just depends what type waterfall you want...I'd say go with the 500gph pump.
Should be easier on the checkbook as well.

I'd say 2000gph on a 2 ft. high waterfall would be a bit much, maybe
not.shrug


~Wilson~

Waterfall pumps usually just means that the pump produces more flow
(gph). You have a couple of important choices ahead of you. The
reason I know this is becase until this year I had a 800 gph and a
1200 gph submersible nursery pro pumps running and I wasn't concerned
about pumps. I enlarged my pond and added a 4200 gph external
sequence pump and I did my research.

The big pluses and minuses are really gph at head height and energy
consumption.

You already know the height you need to raise the water, so find a
pump that matches the flow you want at that height. For example, I
have 32 foot of 1 1/2 inch pvc running from my skimmer to my filter
and it rises about 5 ft. My pump is running at about 3000gph becuase
of the height over that distance. -- I now wish I would have bought a
bigger pump... oh well.

Now, for energy consumption... spend the money now on a good energy
conserving pump because it will pay you back quick. There are some
great posting in this news group to help you calculate your $ savings
if you buy a good pump. The waterfall pump I almost bought at a local
store had a consumption of 800 watts instead of the 180 watts mine
uses. The best part, I bought the better pump online for the price I
would have paid for the energy hog at my local store. The is a
great discussion thread called " Pump Advice Please" that may help
you with calculating energy consumption whether its a pump rated on
Amps or Watts.

Hope this helps.

Ben,

One of the things you want to consider is the pond turn over rate. The
total volume of the pond should turn over at least every 2 hours for a water
garden, and at least every hour for a koi pond. There are factors such as
friction head, height of waterfall, that will reduce the flow of the pump.
Energy efficiency is more important than initial cost. Do a Google search
of rec.ponds for discussions on head, waterfalls, and pumps. We have had
some very good discussions on all of the above.

Only after you do your research, should you be thinking of buying. The
choices will become fairly easy at that time.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Ben Raines" wrote in message
om...
I am in the process of building a pond about 1500 gallons.

I currently have two submersible pumps. 1 535 gph beckett, 1 200 gph
(not sure)

My wife wants a waterfall probably about 2 ft high..


I am trying to understand the Pluses and Minuses of a normal pond pump
vs a waterfall pump...

I know one thing to keep in mind is the max lift..

But when I compare prices the Waterfall pumps seem to be cheaper..

EX..

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..


Ben Raines

Ben,

Waterfalls are a whole different area. It is not necessarily the height,
but the amount of water going over the cascade. Lift of a pump is important
for this will tell you what gallonage you pump is going to put over the
falls.

Here is a pretty good rule of thumb for water falls. For every 100gph at
the discharge of the waterfall, the pump will create a flow 1/2 inch deep
and 1 inch wide. So as an example, a 600 gph discharge at the top of falls
will have a flow producing a stream 6 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep. To
expand this if you pump at the top of the falls was discharging 1,200gph and
the stream was only 6 inches wide the depth of water cascading over the
falls would be an inch deep.

Waterfall pumps are usually inefficient and require more power to run.

HTH

Tom L.L.
=================================
"Ben Raines" wrote in message
om...
I am in the process of building a pond about 1500 gallons.

I currently have two submersible pumps. 1 535 gph beckett, 1 200 gph
(not sure)

My wife wants a waterfall probably about 2 ft high..


I am trying to understand the Pluses and Minuses of a normal pond pump
vs a waterfall pump...

I know one thing to keep in mind is the max lift..

But when I compare prices the Waterfall pumps seem to be cheaper..

EX..

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..


Ben Raines

Sequence makes a very energy efficient pump. It will cost more but the
3800GPH pump I bought uses the same or less electricity then the Beckett 535
gph pump I bought originally.They do sell smaller sizes that use even less
electricity. Also don't forget to figure in plumbing when calculating pump
size needed. 90 degree elbows create a lot of static head. I think it is
something like a foot of head for every elbow? So if you have 2 foot for the
falls and a couple of elbows getting it there that is 4 feet.

"Ben Raines" wrote in message
om...
I am in the process of building a pond about 1500 gallons.

I currently have two submersible pumps. 1 535 gph beckett, 1 200 gph
(not sure)

My wife wants a waterfall probably about 2 ft high..


I am trying to understand the Pluses and Minuses of a normal pond pump
vs a waterfall pump...

I know one thing to keep in mind is the max lift..

But when I compare prices the Waterfall pumps seem to be cheaper..

EX..

Pond pump 500 GPH $89.99 and a waterfall pump 2000 GPH $119.99

So what I am wondering is... If a 2000 GPH waterfall pump is only
$30 more.. Than why not go with that..


Ben Raines

"Mickey" writes:

Sequence makes a very energy efficient pump. It will cost more but the
3800GPH pump I bought uses the same or less electricity then the Beckett 535
gph pump I bought originally.They do sell smaller sizes that use even less
electricity. Also don't forget to figure in plumbing when calculating pump
size needed. 90 degree elbows create a lot of static head. I think it is
something like a foot of head for every elbow? So if you have 2 foot for the
falls and a couple of elbows getting it there that is 4 feet.

Its measured in equivalent feet of pipe not head and depends on the
fitting size. See:

http://www.mdminc.com/friction_loss_chart.htm or
http://www.webspace4me.net/~mikehill...formulae2.html
(these two give slightly different numbers...)

So for example a 2" elbow is equivalent to 6 feet of 2" pipe. The actual head
depends on the flow rate. At 1800 gph the elbow adds about an inch of head.