December 7, 2007, Newsletter Issue #41: How To Select The Right Sized Pump

Tip of the Week

Selecting the most appropriate size pump is essential to having your water feature running properly. You want one that’s powerful enough to supply the right amount of water flow to your water feature. However, you don’t want to end up with a workhorse pump in a small pond either. To help you figure out what size pump you actually need, we’ve put together a few guidelines.

A pump may have an electrical power rating in amps or watts. However, you need to look at the gallons of water per hour a pump will put out in relation to the height, called the head.You’ll need to find out the volume of your water feature to figure out which pump you need. You can do this mathematically or by taking a meter read after you’ve dug and lined your pit. Take a water meter reading right before you fill your pond or pool. Then fill up your water feature, and take another reading. You should have a figure in cubic feet. Take the amount of water used and multiply it by 7.48 for the volume.Determine the pump size you need by using this rule of thumb: select a pump that can move out half the volume of the water feature in a half an hour’s time. For a 200 gallon pond, you’ll need a pump that can deliver 100 gallons per hour.Remember that water features with moving streams and waterfalls require more power because the water needs to head uphill and adjust your needs accordingly.

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