Water Pumps Explained: Discover How To Choose A Water Pump For Your Garden Water Features
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
by Amy C
Tabletop Fountains
Choosing the right kind of pump for your garden water feature is critically important for its proper functioning. If a wrong pump is chosen, it may damage the entire water feature and render it useless.
Water pumps are measured in terms of gallons per hour (GPH) they circulate. This GPH capacity of water pumps range anywhere between fifty GPH to several thousand GPH. The capacity of pump?s GPH ratings depends on the size of the water feature. Bigger water features need higher GPH ratings.
Here's a simple way to decide the GPH ratings of your pump.
First measure the amount of water your water feature holds. This can be done by measuring the width, depth, and length of the water basin of your water feature. If your water feature is a pond, measure the average depth, average width, and average length of your pond. Measure these numbers in feet. Now multiply these three numbers to determine its volume. Multiple the volume with 7.5 and you would get the average amount of gallons of water your pond holds. The reason we multiply the volume by 7.5 is because an average cubic foot of space holds about 7.5 gallons of water. If you final gallon amount of water is about 700, then a water pump with 500 GPH rating is adequate.
The reason we choose 500 gallons per hour pump for a 700 gallon pond is because we want to make sure that the entire volume of water is re-circulated every two hours. This one trick of making sure that the entire volume gets re-circulated ever two hours is the most important criteria when it comes to choosing a water pump. Since the pump that we chose has 500 gph rating, it would re-circulate 1000 gallons of water every two hours. This makes it perfectly suitable for a pond that has got 700 gallons of water. We could have chosen a 350 GPH pump to be accurate for this example; however, it is generally best to purchase a slightly larger pump to account for the loss of pressure and hose friction.
Another important aspect of choosing a water pump is its energy efficiency. A garden water feature that has direct exposure to sun may be perfect for a solar water pump that has zero operational costs. Water-filtration is another important factor when choosing water pumps. A large pond has lot of debris and it is critically important to pick the pump that can filter solid debris.
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Amy C. invites you to browse stunning collection of water features like bamboo water fountain and bamboo spouts for your garden at
Tabletop Fountain
Store - A place to shop for soothing water features that fill your home and garden with serenity, calmness, and happiness.
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