Fountains 101 - Pond Fountain Supplies

For more information please call one of our fountain Pros at 800-351-8814!

At Eagle Fountains we take a common sense, heavy duty approach to building fountains. If you are just getting started looking for a fountain, here are some important facts that will help you get the right type fountain for your pond.

At Eagle Fountains we use stainless steel trash pumps to build all of our fountains and NOBODY ELSE IN THE FOUNTAIN INDUSTRY DOES. This is very important especially in corrosive and abrasive environments including farm and livestock pond applications where there is a high level of nitrates in the water, in brackish water conditions, fish ponds, in dirty water retention ponds and in rain runoff filled ponds.

Recently some online fountain resellers have resorted to directly copying the text in our ads in an attempt to make their fountains sound equivalent to ours but DO NOT BE FOOLED! These outfits are marketeers not manufacturers and they do not offer stainless trash pump fountains like we do. However they do a great job misleading people in order to make a sale any way possible even by promoting products that they can't supply. When copy cat outfits have such limited knowledge and lack the ability to even produce their own ad copy can you trust them work in your best interest and provide you with a high quality heavy duty fountain like an Eagle Fountain? Not a chance. We are well known as being the heavy duty fountain standard in this industry for over 24+ years and most of the "Johnny Come Lately" competitors base their product ads and their prices off of ours. It's been that way for a long time and we are seeing it happen more and more. I guess when you can't keep up you just try to copy.

We are a BBB A+ rated family operated Florida Sub Chapter S Corporation owned by 4 brothers. We build our own fountains that we designed and have perfected over many years and we stand behind them unlike any other company in the fountain industry. So if you want the ORIGINAL heavy duty fountain that's been proven at NASA, GE, Anhauser Bush, Waste Management, Waste Pro, Phillips 66, US Military installations, Federal Military Cemeteries, Colleges, City and County Parks, HOA's, Mom & Pops backyard pond, ETC. then you are at the right place.

Since 1997 Eagle Fountains has used only the most rugged and durable components available in the construction of our fountains. Our all stainless steel trash pumps are capable of withstanding dirty abrasive water conditions commonly found in retention ponds and in corrosive water conditions in nitrate heavy ponds where other pumps quickly fail. We offer 3/4hp and 1hp lighted and unlighted fountains in 115volt and 230volt models. Our bigger 3hp and 4hp fountains are available in 230volt only. Eagle Fountains only uses all stainless steel corrosion resistant heavy-duty trash pumps on our EFS1900 and EFS2000 unlighted fountains as well as the EFL190 and EFL250 lighted fountains. These same high quality trash pumps are used on our bigger fountains as well. Eagle Fountains is constantly upgrading our fountain product line and with the addition of the new stainless steel trash pumps by Stancor we have achieved a new and important advantage for many pond owners and future customers.

In addition to the beautiful dancing water displays in your landscape our fountains will dramatically improve the overall health of your pond by moving and aerating the pond water reducing algae bloom and you will also have very happy fish. Our heavy duty outdoor pond fountains are what you should compare other fountains to in your fountain search because you won't find any better built fountains than our Eagle Fountains.

Eagle Fountain Comparison Chart

First and foremost fountains supplied with sump pumps and/or well pumps are not designed to be used in dirty water retention ponds and they are not intended by the pump manufacturer to operate for many hours a day like a de-watering trash pump is. Sump pumps and well pumps can not handle the heavy particulate concentrations found in rain filled retention ponds. Sump pumps are designed to run for maybe 30 minutes every once in a while to pump water from a flooded basement. Well pumps are designed to run for about 2-3 minutes at a time to fill up a bladder or pressure tank for your house water. Neither well pumps or sump pumps are designed to run for 12 to 16 hours a day pumping dirty pond water. We have seen companies selling sump pump & well pump fountains come and go over the years because all of the fountains they sell with these types of pumps come back on warranty after a very short time. These companies typically sell all the cheap fountains they can in a year or so and then go out of business and come back in a year or two under a new name so their old customers can't identify them. So the buyer who didn't do his homework typically spends $800 to $1,200 on one of these fountains, puts in his pond and in less than a year winds up with zip and nobody to turn to. Be careful and be informed before you spend your money! Always check a companies Better Business Bureau report, warranty statement and past customer feedback before you spend your money so you won't get ripped off by investing your money in a fountain that never had a prayer of lasting in a retention pond from the start.

We reference ponds as two basic types, clean water ponds or retention ponds.

1. Fountains For Clean Water and/or Lined Ponds
First is the clean water pond that often has a concrete bottom or a plastic lined bottom and is filled using a well. The water in these ponds is generally clear with little or no cloudiness. A clean water pond is not filled by rain runoff. Clean water pumps have lip seals that separate the water chambers from the electric compartments of the pump. Dirty water will dramatically shorten the lifespan of any pump with lip seals, this is not our opinion but rather a fact. In clean water ponds these pumps are OK but not in dirt bottom rain filled retention ponds.

2. Fountains For Retention, Drainage & New Ponds
Second is the retention or drainage pond which is the type most of us have. A retention pond gets most or all of its water from rain runoff and the water is cloudy especially after rains. The cloudiness is caused by particulates like sand, dirt and clay that are washed into the pond by rain runoff. The type of pumps used in retention ponds for dirty water applications are called trash pumps. Our EFS1900, EFS2000 and EFS3000 unlighted fountains both come with trash pumps. Also the EFL190, EFL250 and EFL350 lighted fountains have trash pumps. We use severe duty all stainless steel trash pumps that are top of the line! These pumps give excellent performance and longevity and are built using 2 internal sets of high-grade, mechanical, silicone carbide on ceramic face seals as well as an outboard set of lip seals. These are commercial grade pumps and are made to pump dirty water. If you have any doubts about which type of pump is right for your pond then get a trash pump and you can't go wrong!

If you are going to buy a fountain, be sure to get the right one. Any pump will work great when you first install it but if you have dirty water conditions after rains then a clean water pump will not give you the years of service you're looking for. The particulates move thru the pump very fast and actually sandblast the seals which begin to leak. The water then gets into the electrical motor compartment and destroys the pump.

It's ultimately up to the customer to choose the right pump for the job. Be honest with yourself and your fountain supplier when evaluating your pond water condition, if not then you are setting yourself and your fountain supplier up for problems which nobody wants. Our goal is to have ZERO warranty claims and we believe a big part of accomplishing that goal is to educate our customers so they can choose the right type of fountain pump for their application.

If your pond is 6 feet deep or less then our stainless mesh filter cage will prevent clogging of the spray head and most importantly will keep your pump out of the mud should your water level drop in times of drought. Stainless mesh filter cages are included with every Eagle fountain.

As you look around the web at fountains be sure to focus on the pump that comes with the fountain. The pump is the single most important component of any fountain as it does all the work. Get the right pump and ENJOY!

Fountain Lighting 101 - Halogen or LED, submersible or above water, which is better?

When putting together a lighting package for a fountain there are a number of ways to go. Some manufacturers’ use 120 volt lighting and some use 12 volt lights and by most either Halogen or LED bulbs are used with varying results. Also there is the consideration of using underwater submersible lights or surface mounted light fixtures. But which style is best?

As a fountain manufacturer since 1997 we have seen and tried many variations of lights and light bulbs to achieve the maximum illumination effect for our fountain sprays. We found that the bottom of the sprays is easy to light up but to illuminate the top of a 40’ high sprays like on our big EFL450 fountains special bulbs are required. The key points we looked at were effectiveness of the light beam to do the job and the reach of the light, longevity of the light fixture and life expectancy of the light bulb in rated hours of use. We found that underwater light fixtures are subject to leakage resulting in corrosion and condensate formation during the cool down period and refraction or scattering of the light as it passes through the water. Plastic above water light fixtures can only use low power bulbs and they cannot handle the heat generated by higher powered line voltage light bulbs necessary to brightly illuminate the sprays. We found that each light must have its own set of wire leads to produce the maximum brilliance from the light and that daisy chaining lights, using one cord running from light to light, greatly diminishes the lights effectiveness and brilliance. Both Halogen and/or LED bulbs can be used with our brass light surface mount light fixtures but we recommend the high power Focused Beam LED  bulbs that we supply on all our lighted fountains for best results.

To sum it up we suggest and use surface mounted, machined brass lighting fixtures with LED 8 watt focused beam projection bulbs. We use this light setup in combination with a 100 watt low voltage, 12 volt, multi-tap transformer in a stainless steel cabinet operated by built in photo controls to power our lighting package. This is the lighting package we offer on our smallest lighted fountain the EFL190 right through our biggest fountain the EFL450. So no matter which lighted fountain you buy from us you will get the best, brightest and longest lasting lighting package on the market built from the most rugged components available. Life in a pond pumping dirty water is not easy on any fountain so be sure you spend your money on a fountain that is built for severe duty and built to last without breaking the bank.

New LED lighting package now standard on all Eagle Lighted fountains!

Now all Eagle lighted fountain models come with our new LED focused beam projection lighting system. As new advancements in LED lighting technology have developed in the past few years we have located a USA manufacturer of high quality LED lighting capable of being used in sealed lighting fixtures and in wet locations. We have incorporated this new LED lighting technology into the design of all our new Eagle lighted fountain models for the ultimate in brilliant lighting effects of the fountain sprays after dark.

In addition to supplying the new LED lighting package standard on all of our new lighted fountains these same LED bulbs are compatible with all Eagle lighted fountains built since 2006. So whether you are buying a new fountain or upgrading your existing fountain the next generation of lighting is now available to you. Lighting is available in 4 color choices, warm white, red, blue and amber. For brilliant fountain spray lighting effects after dark demand only the best LED lighting for your fountain by Eagle Fountains. As of 2016 we now have new higher power bulbs producing extremely brilliant after dark effects.