Most fountain pumps are not hard to install. They are, however, easy to install in an order that makes the first start fail, and the usual response to a fountain that will not run on day one is to conclude the pump is faulty and send it back.
Often it is not faulty. It is full of air, or it is not quite underwater, or the tube has a kink in it that you cannot see because it is inside the column.
This is the order of operations that avoids all three, taken from what the pump manufacturers themselves print in the manuals that come in the box.
What you are actually installing
It helps to stop thinking of the pump as a part and start thinking of it as one end of a closed loop. The loop is the reservoir, the pump, the tube, the outlet at the top tier, and then the open air the water falls back down through.
Every one of those five things can stop the fountain. Only one of them is the pump.
- The reservoir
- The lower basin. It has to hold enough water to keep the pump covered while the fountain is running, which is not the same as the level you filled it to
- The pump
- Sits in the reservoir, fully underwater
- The tube
- Runs from the pump outlet up through the column to the top tier. Its diameter and its bends are part of the pump, not accessories to it
- The outlet
- Where the water leaves the tube. Its height above the running water level is the lift the pump is working against
- The fall
- Tier to tier, back to the reservoir. This is the part you are paying for, and it is also where water leaves if the flow is set too high
If you have not chosen the pump yet, the sizing question comes first and it is a separate one: how to size a fountain pump covers what the two numbers on the box mean and why the headline one is measured under conditions your fountain does not have.
Before the pump goes in, deal with the base
This section is our judgment from the shapes we sell rather than a manufacturer instruction, and we are marking it as such.
A tiered fountain distributes water by letting it spill over a lip. A lip only spills evenly if it is level. Tilt the fountain a few degrees and the water stops going over the whole rim and starts going over the low side of it, which looks wrong and also throws water outside the basin, which is one of the routes described in the article on fountains losing water.
- Level the base before anything else goes on it. Check it in two directions at ninety degrees to each other, not one.
- Think about what it is standing on. A concrete fountain is heavy and soil is not a stable footing. Bare soil settles under load, and it settles unevenly, so a fountain that was level in April can be off by the middle of summer.
- Do the leveling with the basin empty. Adding a few gallons of water will not correct a tilt, and it makes the whole thing far harder to move.
- Assemble dry first if the fountain comes in pieces. Stack the tiers, check that each one sits flat on the one below, and only then start on the plumbing.
Seating the pump
The single instruction every manufacturer prints, in capitals, is that the pump has to be underwater. The TetraPond pump instruction guide states it as "NEVER RUN THE PUMP UNLESS IT IS COMPLETELY SUBMERGED (UNDERWATER)."
Completely is doing real work in that sentence. A pump that is nine tenths submerged is not submerged.
- Where it sits
- On the floor of the reservoir, upright, in the deepest part
- How deep
- Deep enough that the running water level still covers it. The running level is lower than the filled level, because some of the water is in the air and on the tiers
- Which way round
- Intake screen clear of the floor and clear of anything that could sit against it. Leaves settle where water is slowest, which is exactly where the pump is
- What not to do
- Do not wedge it under the column to keep it still. If you cannot reach it to clean the intake, you will not clean the intake
The tube run is part of the pump
A pump and the tube it feeds behave as one system. Fitting a strong pump to a narrow tube does not give you a strong fountain, it gives you a pump working against resistance it did not need to fight.
The University of Hawaii CTAHR rainwater guide gives the fix and the reason together: "If the calculated friction loss is very high, it may be necessary to consider using pipes of larger diameter to prevent damage to the pump or plumbing system."
- Match the tube to the pump outlet. If the outlet is one size and your tube is smaller, that is a reason to buy the right tube, not a reason to force a reducer on.
- Keep the run short and the bends few. Every elbow is friction. So is every tight curve you build in by routing the tube the long way round.
- Check for kinks after assembly, not before. Soft tube kinks when you push the tiers down onto it. You will not see this, because the tube is inside the column.
- Push and twist rather than force. The TetraPond guide describes the connection as "Push and twist tubing onto fitting."
- If the fittings are threaded, tape them. The Pondmaster manual is explicit: "Do not use glues or solvents to connect the pumps threaded fittings. Use Teflon pipe tape."
Filling, and why a new fountain sometimes will not start
This is the step that gets blamed on a faulty pump more than any other, and the Pondmaster manual explains the mechanism in one sentence: "In order to start, pump must be below water level and filled with water. Unless the air can escape from the outlet, the pump will not start."
Read the second half of that again. It is not enough for the pump to be underwater. The air that was inside it has to have somewhere to go, and the only way out is up the tube and out of the outlet. If the outlet is blocked, or the flow valve is closed, or the tube is kinked, the air stays where it is and the pump spins against it.
- Fill the reservoir first, with the pump already in place and connected. Not the other way round.
- Open the flow valve fully before the first start. You will turn it down later. Right now it is the escape route for the air.
- Let it stand for a minute. Water needs time to work its way into the pump body and displace what is in there.
- Then switch on, and watch the top outlet rather than the pump. A short cough of air followed by water is normal. Sustained nothing is not.
The first ten minutes, setting the flow
Most fountain pumps have a flow control on the outlet, and the TetraPond guide gives it its purpose plainly: "Use flow control valve to regulate water between fountain spray and additional water feature."
It is worth spending ten minutes on this the day you install the fountain rather than living with whatever the default happened to be. What you are looking for is the lowest setting that still wets each lip evenly all the way round. Past that point the extra flow does not improve the look, it just travels further from the lip, and some of it travels past the basin.
- Too little
- The lip wets in patches. Water finds one low point and runs off there in a rope instead of a sheet
- About right
- A continuous film all the way round the rim, falling close to the tier below
- Too much
- Water leaves the lip on a trajectory rather than falling off it. Look at the ground outside the basin after an hour
- Worth knowing
- A fountain set too high does not look broken, it looks like a fountain that needs topping up twice a week. That is why this failure gets blamed on a leak
Running dry is what kills these pumps
Both manuals we opened for this article say the same thing in different words. Tetra: "NEVER RUN THE PUMP WITHOUT WATER." Pondmaster puts a clock on it: "Although the pump will continue to run if there is no water, after 30 minutes damage may occur if allowed to run dry."
Thirty minutes is not long. A fountain that has been slowly losing water for a fortnight can cross that line while you are out.
The practical consequence for installation is that the reservoir level, not the pump runtime, is the thing to protect. Where the water actually goes is the subject of the article on fountains losing water, and keeping the basin from fouling in the first place is covered in the article on keeping fountain water clean.
Power, cords and the outlet
We are quoting the manuals here rather than paraphrasing electrical code, because the code text we could reach was behind a paywall and we do not cite sources we have not read.
- Grounded receptacle
- Tetra: "To reduce the risk of electric shock, be certain that it is connected to a grounding type receptacle"
- Ground fault protection
- The same guide directs the pump to be connected "to a receptacle that is protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI)"
- Extension cords
- Tetra: "Use only extension cords that are intended for outdoor use." Pondmaster adds the reason: "A cord rated for less amperes or watts than the appliance rating may overheat"
- What we are not telling you
- Whether your local rules require a permanently installed outdoor outlet rather than a cord. That is a question for an electrician in your jurisdiction and we are not going to guess at it
Installed, and still not pushing water
Work through these in order. The order matters, because the cheapest checks are also the most common causes.
- Is it completely underwater, right now, with the fountain running. Not when you filled it. Top up and look again.
- Can the air get out. Open the flow valve fully. Disconnect the tube at the pump outlet for a moment and see whether water comes out of the pump on its own.
- Is the tube kinked. If water flows freely with the tube off and stops with the tube on, the problem is in the tube, and it is usually where the tiers press on it.
- Is the intake blocked. Tetra: "Check cage, pre-filter or submersible filter for blockage." On a brand new install the usual culprit is packing debris or a leaf that went in during assembly.
- Only now consider the pump. If it is submerged, the outlet is open, the tube is clear and the intake is clean, and it still moves nothing, then you have a case.
Frequently asked questions
Does the pump have to sit on the bottom
It has to be fully submerged, which in a shallow fountain basin usually means on the bottom. What matters more is that the intake is not pressed against the floor or buried under whatever has settled there, and that you can still reach it.
Can I run the tube outside the column instead of through it
Mechanically yes, and it makes kinks visible, which is a real advantage. It also puts a tube where you can see it for the life of the fountain, so most people route it inside and accept the inspection problem.
My fountain ran for a minute and then stopped pushing water
That pattern usually means the level dropped below the pump rather than that the pump failed. A minute of running is enough to move a surprising amount of water out of a shallow reservoir and onto the tiers and into the air.
Should the flow valve be fully open in normal use
Only during the first start, to let the trapped air out. After that, set it to the lowest position that still wets every lip evenly. Fully open is the setting most likely to throw water past the basin.
Do I take the pump out for winter
Both manuals say to remove it. Tetra: "If there is a danger of the water freezing, the equipment should be removed from the water, cleaned with water, and stored in a frost-free location." Pondmaster: "Do not install or store the appliance where it will be exposed to the weather or to temperatures below freezing." The rest of the shutdown is in the fountain winterizing guide.
References
- Reference: Water Garden Pumps, Filtration and Fountain Kits, submersible pump instruction guide | Tetra Holding (US) Inc, TetraPond product instruction guide
- Reference: Care and Operating Instructions for Magnetic Drive Pumps | Danner Manufacturing, Pondmaster Pond-Mag owner manual
- Reference: Choosing a Pump for Rainwater Harvesting | University of Hawaii CTAHR, Hawaii Rain Follows the Forest resource library