Oh joy...

[Lisak1]

Well... last night one of the dogs was barking and pacing, barking and pacing. Finally followed her outside to discover water was spraying out of the pump vault. Good dog! Bad pond sitch!

Pulled the plug last night - too dark, too cold to worry about it at the moment. The pump must have separated from the line somehow. I'll wander out today at some point and take a gander. It's supposed to be back up to 40 degrees by Monday, so we'll have to tackle the problem then.

Remember when I said I would cry bitter tears of despair if we had a pump issue mid-winter? Imagine me weeping right now.

 

[mrtrumpet]

Sorry it happened. Hope it's not too big a problem to solve mid-winter.

 

[Tula]

Yikes! Here's looking towards warmer temps and a quick fix

 

[j.w]

Sorry it happened but be thankful your weather is not going to be freezing when your hands have to be working out there fixing it all.
Good doggy

 

[cas]

Hope it's an easy fix. Every time I read a post about someone's problems in winter I cringe. It can happen to any of us. Let us know how it goes.

 

[MitchM]

Well, that's no fun Lisa!

 

[Faebinder]

Two weeks ago, the connection of the two hoses linking my pond to the bog plugged off in the freeze and the water from the pond all spilled to the ground... I woke up and saw the pond down to its last 200 gallons. Of course my watering hose had frozen ice in it so I could pump more water to the pond. I had a second hose but it was connected in my garage on the other side of the house so.........

I gathered up my watering hose and took it in the house, turned on the heater, left it there and went to work, while placing both nozzle ends in a bucket... ice thawed, water dripped... took the empty hose when I came back and connected it to replace the water.... Unfortunately, the filter box was full of frozen water so I couldn't turn the skimmer pump back on.... had to wait till got to the 50s one week later.

Fish did well, and I gave in and placed my trough tank heater back in the pond (was hoping not to need to use it this winter). Sadly, a frozen filter box for 1 week = uncycled filter... so when the water fluctuates to the 50s and 40s, the box is not doing much filtration since its uncycled. Oh well. Feeding is minimal anyway.

Winter can get ugly. I gotta find me a longer hose to connect the pump to bog.

 

[Lisak1]

A similar thing happened this summer. Our pump connection was a bit strained where it all screwed to the main plumbing because the pump was juuuuuuuust barely touching the ground. So the weight of the pump was pulling downward on the connection which we knew would be an issue eventually. The problem was because it had pulled it out of alignment, we couldn't unscrew it - it was like it had slipped out of the threading on the screw on part. Anyway, we had to cut the pipe and put on new connectors, which ended up being an all day affair when SOMEONE (no names, but it rhymes with BEE) dropped an important piece into the six foot deep pump vault. Simple job became a fishing expedition.

So fingers crossed that this turns out to be a much simpler fix! (Still haven't looked... haha!)

 

[DeepWater]

Ahh, the bees have an all day affair with our pond too! The neighbors raise honey bees and they have a highway in the sky to this watering hole. Wasps come from somewhere too, there are always several looping through the circuit.

 

[RobAmy]

Hopefully you can tackle it, never fun in the colder temps

 

[teeemkay]

Remember when I said I would cry bitter tears of despair if we had a pump issue mid-winter? Imagine me weeping right now.

Oh I can hear you! We finally installed a new pump a couple days ago after the old one died during that first sub-zero cold snap we had last month. Luckily it was an extremely easy install. It was a big plus buying this house from someone who did plumbing for a living--the pond piping (as well as everything in the house itself) were done A+++++.

 

[cas]

@Lisak1 , did you get the problem fixed?

 

[Lisak1]

did you get the problem fixed?

No. We identified the problem and nothing is broken which is the good news. It looks like the joint just came unglued where the pump is connected to the plumbing. My husband's theory is the extreme cold caused everything to contract and allowed it to pull apart. Although to me the PVC glue should be (and was for five winters) strong enough to hold. But it's the one joint we didn't glue back together this summer, so it figures! In fact we couldn't get it apart no matter how hard we tried - so maybe we did loosen it up just enough for the cold to finish it off.

We could push everything back together and it would run with a minor leak (which is no big deal since the pump sits in the vault underwater) until spring, but in the meantime the bog froze over. So we're waiting for it to warm up (back up in the 40's midweek and then more seasonal 30-35 degree days to follow) and then we'll start it up again. This has been some weird weather! In the 50s until December 1 and then BAM! Single digits and lots of snow ever since!

The aerators are running and the fish are chilling, so all is well. I do miss my waterfall though! Those icy sculptures are fun to watch!

 

[teeemkay]

I missed the waterfall too while our pump was out of service! It was too quiet in the backyard whenever I went out there. We have some gnarly ice sculptures going by the waterfall and where the water dumps into the pond.

Extreme cold messes everything up. On my old '91 Buick, a hairline crack formed somewhere in the radiator one winter... When the weather got very cold, the metal would contract just enough to make all the antifreeze start leaking out. We'd get the car into the garage to look for the leak, but as soon as the metal started warming back up in the heated garage, the metal would expand and we couldn't find the leak. Eventually we gave up and got a new radiator.

 

[Lisak1]

Well, it's a beautiful January day - temps close to 50 degrees - so I figured I would tackle the pump issue. Yesterday we realized that our aerator had failed - it appears to be producing air, but nothing is getting to the stones. Anyone ever have that happen? Is it not producing enough pressure? And THEN I pulled our auxiliary pump out of storage to put in the pond to get some water moving, and IT won't work. WHAT THE HECK?!? So I was doubly motivated to get the pump connected and plugged back in.

Anyway, I pulled the whole pump assembly out of the vault and realized as I did that every single connection that was glued together has come undone. Again - WHAT the heck? I talked to a few plumbing people and they said they have never seen PVC glue give out or fail. So what happened?

I got the whole thing glued back together and just as I was ready to put it back in the pump vault... KERPLUNK! My watch, which I had slipped in my pocket to keep from getting PVC glue on it, fell into the vault. Ugh... I'm in the process of pumping out six feet of water and hoping it still works once I get it out! IF I can get it out, that is! Hopefully I can see it down there!

I came inside to make a cup of coffee while the pump does it's thing and forgot to put the basket in the coffee maker - hot coffee all over the counter. GAH! It's one of those days folks!