A little pump action

what is the age of your longest running (continuous seasonal) pump?

  • 0-1 year

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • 2 - 3 years

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • 4 - 5 years

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • 5 - 8 years

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • 9 - 12 years

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • 12 + years

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • Pump? What's a pump?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Pump is older than my college age kids

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I had a pump...once upon a time

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Total voters
    9
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so, I was wondering how long ponders' pumps are lasting. This is for continuous yearly/seasonal use -- not if you use it occasionally. This is for the same pump, not same brand.

Have fun!


Michael
 
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MoonShadows

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This submersible is rather new...only been running continuously since April 15, 2017. (I'm running it all winter.) Lifegard All-in-one triple stage pond filter. @$275 +/- depending on where you purchase it. Rated for a pond up to 2000. I'm using it in my 425 gallon pond with 8 sarassa comets. Very pleased with the job it does with except, like all submersibles, it's a pain to pull and clean.

koi-pond-filtration-system.png
 
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addy1

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Dragon lim it has been running except for around 6 months, when I had my Arizona pond shut down and it shipped to Maryland for my MD pond. In Arizona it ran 24/7/365 for around 10 years. Here it runs 24/7 except for around 4.5 months each year, ie winter.
It is around 16 years old.


Screenshot-2018-1-10 w Lim Corp Koi Pond Supplies, Pumps, Filters, UV Filters(1).png
 
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Our pump was installed when the pond was new in 2012 - still going strong, so this will be six years. Fingers crossed it lasts a good many years more!
 
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This submersible is rather new...only been running continuously since April 15, 2017. (I'm running it all winter.) Lifegard All-in-one triple stage pond filter. @$275 +/- depending on where you purchase it. Rated for a pond up to 2000. I'm using it in my 425 gallon pond with 8 sarassa comets. Very pleased with the job it does with except, like all submersibles, it's a pain to pull and clean.

View attachment 107556
MS; I think yours is a pita mainly because is an all-in-one. For me, and I have a submersible too, I only have to haul it up by the strap I attached and then hose it off. There's no 'all-in-one' with my unit as it just pumps water to either the drum-sock filter or the waterfall. I think you'd find it very much less a pita if you could pump the water into an external 'filter' of some sort where your pita then gets transferred to whatever system you come up with. Never liked cleaning the 'in aquarium' filters when I was a kid and it got easier when I began using 'outside-of-the-tank' hang on filters.

And I like you added the brand simply so others can see and hear which pumps seem to be doing well. If I could still edit, I'd note mine is a Danner submersible, 4000gph capable.


Michael
 
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Dragon lim it has been running except for around 6 months, when I had my Arizona pond shut down and it shipped to Maryland for my MD pond. In Arizona it ran 24/7/365 for around 10 years. Here it runs 24/7 except for around 4.5 months each year, ie winter.
It is around 16 years old.


View attachment 107558
I sorta figured your pump would be one of the longer-lasting ones, addy. As noted to MS, glad you included a brand and type for others. How long are you expecting this pump to last, do you think? That said, I wonder if there IS a shelf life for pumps. Do you have to maintain the bearings/seals on your unit at all? And, is your external unit covered (I'd imagine it is) or is it weatherproof?


Michael
 
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Our pump was installed when the pond was new in 2012 - still going strong, so this will be six years. Fingers crossed it lasts a good many years more!
Hey Lisa, can you note what brand/type you have, so others can assess the merits of various brands in action? I really should have asked those voting for this info as I think it would help newbies in the future. Thanks for steppin' up to the table to be counted!


Michael
 
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Oh sure! It's an Aquascape pump - not sure what model. It's a variable speed. Let me go double check. We actually have two Aquascape pumps that have been working for 6 and 7 years respectively - the second one is in our pondless waterfall and gets pulled out every fall.

The pond has the Aquasurge Pro 4000-8000 Adjustable Flow Pond pump. I will say that the "adjustable" part of this pump failed early on - there's a remote controlled box that controls the flow speed. Either the remote stopped working (although we did replace the battery and that didn't help) or the actual box stopped responding. Either way, we're stuck with the flow level we had when it stopped!

The other pump is an Aquasurge, too - just a smaller one. And we also have the AquaForce pump for a back up. We used it the first year over winter - pointed up to create turbulence and keep an opening in the ice. It was just a little TOO turbulent for my liking! When it got really cold, the water formed a ice dome about three feet high!
 
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Oh sure! It's an Aquascape pump - not sure what model. It's a variable speed. Let me go double check. We actually have two Aquascape pumps that have been working for 6 and 7 years respectively - the second one is in our pondless waterfall and gets pulled out every fall.

The pond has the Aquasurge Pro 4000-8000 Adjustable Flow Pond pump. I will say that the "adjustable" part of this pump failed early on - there's a remote controlled box that controls the flow speed. Either the remote stopped working (although we did replace the battery and that didn't help) or the actual box stopped responding. Either way, we're stuck with the flow level we had when it stopped!

The other pump is an Aquasurge, too - just a smaller one. And we also have the AquaForce pump for a back up. We used it the first year over winter - pointed up to create turbulence and keep an opening in the ice. It was just a little TOO turbulent for my liking! When it got really cold, the water formed a ice dome about three feet high!
I wonder if there's a way to 'open the box' and fix it so you have full flow again...I gotta believe it is some sort of solenoid controlled valve. Or, is there a way to cut the box loose and still clamp your hose over what's left? It would bum me out if I couldn't have that feature and I paid for it. That said, it's easy to have 'full flow' and then add tees/wyes to the pump with valves to control it to suit your taste. It's what I ended up doing. Btw, from talking to Meyer last year when I was working on setting up my pre-bog mech filter, he told me I could increase the outlet size (AT the pump outlet) and gain more flow. And talking to another pro, he told me to double it--which I did. Doing so meant I was now getting what the pump could actually produce re it's specs. For some reason, when you use the opening as is, if you add up all the friction coefficients and whatnot, you get less than full flow. Increasing the size, then adding a wye with reducers, I was able to get a stronger flow to the mech filter AND still supply water to the falls. Pretty neat trick! I added valves to each 'end' so I could control exactly how fast/furious the water was coming.

Thanks for the info!


btw, do you have a pic of your 3' dome? That would be interesting and I bet was exciting for you that first winter, hey???? :geek:

Michael
 

Jhn

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Have the same pumps as Lisa. Aquascape aqua surge pro is the variable speed up to 10,000 gph, the others 3 aquascape pumps are the 3000 gph models. I can't remember the pump I got for the turtle pond that I just built, and it's too cold to go look. The smaller pumps are 4-5 years old and the larger variable speed pump is 2 years old.
 

MoonShadows

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MS; I think yours is a pita mainly because is an all-in-one. For me, and I have a submersible too, I only have to haul it up by the strap I attached and then hose it off. There's no 'all-in-one' with my unit as it just pumps water to either the drum-sock filter or the waterfall. I think you'd find it very much less a pita if you could pump the water into an external 'filter' of some sort where your pita then gets transferred to whatever system you come up with. Never liked cleaning the 'in aquarium' filters when I was a kid and it got easier when I began using 'outside-of-the-tank' hang on filters.

And I like you added the brand simply so others can see and hear which pumps seem to be doing well. If I could still edit, I'd note mine is a Danner submersible, 4000gph capable.


Michael

It was the filter that came with this pond. (http://coastalpondsolutions.com/cedar-ponds.php#425). I would like to get a different system, but I can't justify the cost while this one is doing the job....even though it is a PITA.
 
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This is basically the part that stopped working - the original is wired in so I'm not sure how you would remove it to replace it with this. This one looks like you plug the pump into it and then plug this into the outlet. And maybe you can't replace ours - this may be a replacement for the newer model. Maybe they re-designed it so this part could be easily replaced.

The crummy part is the replacement part is $99 - that's 1/5 the cost of the pump brand new.

45029_RemoteAndReceiverKitG2_Main.jpg
 
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Laguna Max, there I just jinx'd it
time to get a new one next year....
 
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Aquascape Tsurumi 3-PL submersible pump. We bought it last winter when the old one that was of very similar size/capacity gave out. So far, so good.
81zv2ubO40L._SL1500_.jpg
 

addy1

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Do you have to maintain the bearings/seals on your unit at all? And, is your external unit covered (I'd imagine it is) or is it weatherproof?
I have done nothing to it except put some plumbing grease on the o ring with every start up and winter shut down.
I have a cut in half 55 gallon barrel covering the pump , keeping rain etc off of it.

The bearings are sealed.

How long will it run? No clue, but I have another sitting in the basement waiting for start up if ever needed. My AZ pond had two of them, usually only ran one, but when I wanted a screaming stream flow I would fire up the second one. That pond was 14000 gallons with a 40 ft stream.
 

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