Pumps And Power Outages

[Nyboy]

I have a country home I use 2-4 days a month. I just picked up from CL a large plastic pond that would be prefect as base of fountain. I have 2 fountains that I am using as planters, would love to make one back into fountain. My worry is rural house that has a lot of power failures. Almost once a month clock on microwave is flashing ( means lost power needs to be reset). If outage happens for several hours will pump just continue when power back on. I though about just turning on fountain when I am there, but worried about water quality just sitting for week or 2. My friend had to replace pump on his fishtank when it burned out coming on after power outage.

 

[MitchM]

I wouldn't count on a typical mag drive pump starting up every time after a power failure.
A little battery backup could keep the pump going.
A small air pump would reliably start up after a power failure. That would keep your water quality good until you were at your country home again.

 

[Nyboy]

There are battery pumps ?

 

[MitchM]

No, something like this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpower-450va-battery-back-up-system-black/3938808.p?skuId=3938808

 

[MoonShadows]

I don't think that battery back up will run a pump for very long. Might be good is the power is off for a few minutes, but most of these backups are made for electronics so you don't lose your work and have time to shut everything down. I have APC BackUps LS 700 for my computer, monitor, modem and router, and the estimated battery back up time is only 53 minutes.

 

[Spartamets]

Yesterday, my son mowed the extension cord to which my pump and spitter pump were attached. (The electrician is not coming to install the power to the pond area until next month; the extension cord is plugged into a gfci outdoor outlet in the meantime.) Anyway, the pumps were down for at least an hour until I got home. Everything started up fine after I devised a work-around. The spitter pump is just some random little pump, but the main one for the waterfall is a Danner 4800 gph.

My son is buying a new extension cord and taking his meals in the (metaphorical) doghouse.

 

[Stephen T.]

We had wind, lightning and a 3-4 hour power outage last night. No problems except the upper bog filter drained down a couple inches and the stream emptied mostly, so the lower pond overflowed into my lower bog (not attached to the pond, just takes overflows). I had to add some water this morning. The pumps started up fine and all was running when I got up.

If the outage had lasted much longer, I have a 200 amp hour deep cycle battery in our small RV and solar panel on the roof, I would have run an extension cord out from the inverter. I did run a cord into the house so we could have a couple lights. That RV really comes in handy as an emergency power supply!

 

[sissy]

The power outages are not good for appliances either .How about a back up genrac generator that works on propane .Ifit is only going to be a water feature why not just turn it off and put mosquito dunks in it and add algaecide to it or peroxide

 

[Nyboy]

I do have a gas generator for when I am there. I was worried about 95% of the time I am not there. Looking like only running when I am there is best

 

[Usman]

for how long you have powerbreakdown? how many wats ur pumps consume?
car battery (or any battery) and inverter , will run for many hours . it works like UPS
or u can install ATS to ur generator it will do auto start

 

[Nyboy]

Problem is I am not at this house 90% of the time. If I am lucky I get to go up 2 sat nights a month. Hoping by time i am ready to retire mortgage will be paid off. I don't know if power is out for a few minutes or a few hours.

 

[Gordo33]

but the main one for the waterfall is a Danner 4800 gph.

I use Danner 2600gal waterfall pump and have not had any problems with the pump restarting after power outages for the 4 years its been running. We just had a power outage last week for several hours.

Based on experience, I have to disagree with the comments mag drive pumps can not be turned on and off on a regular basis. I use mag drive pumps in my aquariums and they get turned off for 15 minutes twice a day when I feed the fish and every other day for 30 minutes when I do water changes. The pumps turn back on without any problems. This is a common practice for the type of fish I have. Now I can't say how this will affect the longevity of the pump

 

[Usman]

we have power breakdowns and i have lost few pumps bcz of on and off when i pluged them directly on power supply or on generator , i dont know whats the technical reason but can be that theres a difference between manually turning off/on and when power breaks down , can be difference of voltage when it goes off or comes back usually appliances are in danger when it happens . it weakens the pump winding when voltage is weak or high then it gets heat up and some times winding needs a kickstart to rotate , if motor is running but propeller is stuck then it heats up and can burn as the propeller works as cooling mechanism too .

i have one pump + aerator on UPS and other thru voltage stabilizer , when power goess off one pump shuts but UPS pump carries on and when power comes the stabilizer has delay start so its safe now if ur using generator or having breakdowns then use stabilizer or UPS to extend pump life

 

[MitchM]

Another issue with leaving a small pond for a long period of time is evaporation.
Top up systems are notoriously unreliable.

 

[Nyboy]

I think I might go with solar. If I can find one that can handled the height of fountain. I know it would only run a couple hours a day, should be enough to keep water from being stagnate. I have one on a small birdbath type fountain, suppose to have battery and night light.