Peeved over a gross disappointment

[John]

Ok, I bought a nifty, inexpensive magnetic-drive pump, a Pond Mag
Drive 700.
Doubtless, a fine machine. What it isn't is, more powerful than my
Little Giant PCL-025 475GPH. It's the same. I'd promised SWMBO it
would be noisier. Bummer.

[Roy]

On 26 Aug 2004 23:04:37 -0700,
(John) wrote:

>===<>Ok, I bought a nifty, inexpensive magnetic-drive pump, a Pond Mag
>===<>Drive 700.
>===<>Doubtless, a fine machine. What it isn't is, more powerful than my
>===<>Little Giant PCL-025 475GPH. It's the same. I'd promised SWMBO it
>===<>would be noisier. Bummer.


I found the Little Giant PCL-020 that I just bought to be kind of
noisy........unless its running with no restrictions. Just ever so
slightly reduce outflow and it makes noise.........At full flow it was
much to much for a decent effect coming out of the hand pump
aereator......Reduce flow and you had noise........my solution was to
punch a few holes in the plastic tubing that connects the Little Giant
to the hand pump feature and allow some flow to be diverted prior to
getting to the hand pump and noise all but went away.

One thing lead to another though. I used the hole punch thingie that
is commonly used to punch holes in the plastic drip irrigation system
tubing. I inserted a T fitting and attached a piece of the 1/4" low
pressure drip irrigation tubing to the T fitting, and ran it to thr
opposite side of the tub under water, where it discharges. It sets up
a sort of circular flow of water along the tubs perimeter. Adds more
circulation that is not forcefull and dumps some built up pressure on
the pump and eliminated the noise pump had when it had flow reduced
with ball valve. I imagine you could install one of those micro drip
irrigation mister or sprinkler heads and use it as an aereator as
well, or a sort of miniature fountain in a small water garden tub.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wife,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

On 26 Aug 2004 23:04:37 -0700, (John)
wrote:

>Ok, I bought a nifty, inexpensive magnetic-drive pump, a Pond Mag
>Drive 700.
>Doubtless, a fine machine. What it isn't is, more powerful than my
>Little Giant PCL-025 475GPH. It's the same. I'd promised SWMBO it
>would be noisier. Bummer.

What would be noisier? The pump or water fall? If waterfall, perhaps it is
the tubing you're using, not the pump that is the problem? Go to a bigger
diameter, assuming I'm on the right track here, of what the problem is.
~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

[artships]

~ jan JJsPond.us > wrote in message >...
> On 26 Aug 2004 23:04:37 -0700, (John)
> wrote:
>
> >Ok, I bought a nifty, inexpensive magnetic-drive pump, a Pond Mag
> >Drive 700.
> >Doubtless, a fine machine. What it isn't is, more powerful than my
> >Little Giant PCL-025 475GPH. It's the same. I'd promised SWMBO it
> >would be noisier. Bummer.
>
> What would be noisier? The pump or water fall?

Water fall. Pump is pleasantly inobtrusive.

> If waterfall, perhaps it is
> the tubing you're using, not the pump that is the problem? Go to a bigger
> diameter

On further reflection, I seem to be suffering from the erroneous
impression that, for pond distances (5-15 feet), a hose needn't be any
larger in diameter than the pump outlet, as if we were discussing
electricity, here. Although I've doubled the diameter of the hose over
that of the original, there is only cheapness keeping me from buying
another even larger hose.

[Derek Broughton]

artships wrote:

> On further reflection, I seem to be suffering from the erroneous
> impression that, for pond distances (5-15 feet), a hose needn't be any
> larger in diameter than the pump outlet, as if we were discussing
> electricity, here. Although I've doubled the diameter of the hose over
> that of the original, there is only cheapness keeping me from buying
> another even larger hose.

You're absolutely right. Surprisingly, the outlet size has little effect on
the amount of water you can pump through a large enough hose. There is a
limit to how much increasing the size of the hose will help, but if you
take your hose, straighten it out and measure the flow, and it's
appreciably less than your pump puts out without a hose, you should
probably use a larger hose. Then, when you run the plumbing, make your
corners as gentle and as few as possible, because every corner lowers the
flow.

Or you can just consult someone who knows how to calculate the head loss due
to your plumbing. We used to have someone here...
--
derek