In today's episode we're gonna talk about how often you should clean your waterfall filter,
warranty on pond liner, and external pumps versus submersible pumps.
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Let's kick the show off with a question right off the get go.
Here's a question I get all the time because of our,
our helix waterfall filters with their air assist cleaning cycles and so forth.
And I get people sending me emails, hey, I'm interested in the helix waterfall technology,
but I'm getting mixed mixed signals here because I'll read one manufacturer's
suggestion on cleaning waterfall filters and they're like, you know, clean it once or
twice a year.
And when we have all this fancy technology for cleaning of waterfall filters, you know,
why do I need it if we're only cleaning once or twice a year?
So, our recommendations, they're a little bit different,
because we want you to clean that waterfall filter more frequently.
Once a month, some of our clients clean it twice a we,
I, twice a month not twice a week.
It really is dependent on, on your system, and how many fish you have in the pond, and
how often you're feeding.
A lot of things will factor on how frequently you clean the waterfall filter, but
I'm a big fan of cleaning that thing several times, several times a year,
like once a month at least.
Now, it might be little bit different for, you know, someone who lives in Illinois,
or Michigan.
A lot of the manufacturers are from those cold climates where they might only have
six months of an actual pond season, and for
six months the system's just completely shut down.
So, when you start the pond off, a brand new pond after you get it kick started,
it usually takes four to six weeks, maybe 8 weeks, to get that waterfall filter running.
And then, you know, four months later the whole system's shut down.
So I can kinda see where some of those manufacturers would recommend it that way,
but I wanna give you a blanket across the nation kind of
figure is clean that waterfall filter at least once a month.
When you kickstart the thing, wait four to six weeks to even get it started before
you even think about touching it and then go from there.
So that, that's why that would be my answer to that for the cleaning cycles, but
in California, you know, I'm feeding my fish, right now, is in January.
It's beautiful outside, it's 80 degree weather and we're still feeding the fish
right now, so you can't just tell someone who's in California or
in Florida just clean their filters once a year.
I'm gonna move on to the next question, [COUGH] this is a tricky one,
this is a good one.
This is from John in Banning, California.
He comes into my facility on a Saturday and he wants to talk about pond design.
He says to me, Eric I was talking to one of your competitors and
he says that if I put a bottom drain in the pond and
I cut a hole in the liner, it's gonna void the, the, the warranty on the liner.
How do you get around voiding the warranty on your customer's liner on your ponds,
and it was funny.
I'm sure I kept my cool.
I, I probably smiled a little bit because I just thought it was ridiculous that you know,
a contractor, any contractor that would say that is either,
A. doesn't know how to install a bottom drain, B.
doesn't want to install a bottom drain, or C. can't install the bottom drain for
whatever reasons that affiliations and companies that he's dealing with.
And it's just, it's ridiculous to me that they would use a,
scare tactic like that to talk them out of doing a bottom drain.
If you wanna put a bottom drain on your pond, then put a bottom drain on your pond.
You know, if you're cutting a hole in the liner, whether it's the bottom of the pond or
in the side of the pond where you're cutting the hole in the liner to attach the skimmer,
you're still cutting a hole.
And then you're puncturing holes for the mechanical attachment,
you're putting a sealant on there to make it waterproof.
Or if you're puncturing the liner up at the waterfall filter where you're doing that,
that attachment, you're still cutting the liner,
you're still puncturing holes in there.
And so, what does it matter whether it's at the top, where the waterfall is,
at the side of the pond, where the skimmer, or on the very bottom of the pond,
where you're putting a bottom drain.
If you're doing it correctly, you're not gonna be voiding the warranty.
And let me tell you this, in my career, it's been about 20 years now,
I've never, ever, knock on wood, had to give a warranty on pond liner.
The pond liner that we use is just so durable and strong, it's crazy.
I've had it damaged from some mole on occasion or a little ground squirrel.
I mean, it's been damaged like that, but
not just from being put in the ground with the rock and stone on it and, and
cutting a hole from a mechanical attachment, you'd never have to do anything like that.
So John, let's put a bottom drain in your pond and not worry about it, okay?
I'm gonna work on to the next question, which is external pumps versus submersible pumps.
And I think this is this is a question I get asked quite a bit
when we're doing design work for people out of state, or in state.
People come in and they're kind of kicking things around.
The external pond pump in the beginning costs you a little bit more money
to get it installed on your pond, because you have to put it over,
remotely, you've to do more plumbing, you have to get more fittings.
So, it does take more time and labor to get it installed.
So that's always a question like, what do i really need to spend the extra money for
this external pump versus the submersible pump?
I'll tell you this, I have a submersible pump out in my landscape out here,
it's 15 years old.
Not submersible, I apologize, an external pump, it's 15 years old,
it's sitting in the landscape and it's still running like a charm.
I know of ponds that are 20 years old, 18 years old, 19 years old with
the same external pump still servicing that system 24 seven continuous duty,
working the pond and it's doing fine.
I even have knowledge of a, of a, of external pump that is 25 years old.
I gotta pin the guy down, get to his place cuz I wanna do a, a some type of episode
on location and show you that pump that's 25 years old still working.
Submersible pumps typically three to five years is the lifespan that we're getting out
of a submersible pump.
There's, there's rare cases where you'll go seven to ten years but it's pretty rare.
With external pumps you're getting that long, long return on investment, so
it's worth it on the get go to get it installed.
I will say there,
there's a lot of, for instances that submersible pump just makes more sense.
So, often times when I'm doing design work for a client,
I'm gonna suggest that they put a submersible pump either for ease of installation.
Or might be in a small courtyard where, you know,
the external pumps do have a slight hum, but if you hide them remotely and
do some disguise work around them, you don't really hear them, but
in a small courtyard with walls you might be able to hear that hum.
So there's, there's a few instances that I do that.
Another big factor for me using external pumps whenever I can is because they,
they save a lot on electricity as well.
So, not only are you saving every single month on, on using an external pump over
submersible pump for energy efficiency, but you're getting that long life span as well.
I wanna end the episode today with asking you a question you know how we like to do that.
I wanna know what your favorite YouTube segment is on our channel.
Is it the Koi discussion, is it the pond gone wrong, is it the tutorial videos that we do,
I, I wanna know what it is that you like especially.
So maybe we can focus some more of that on the future.
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Until next time, I'm Eric Triplett, The Pond Digger, and
I hope you dig ponds as much as I do.
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