Pond Pump

[fmueller]

I assume the Pondmaster pumps I see in NZ on TradeMe and at Petmart:

http://www.pondmaster.petmart.co.nz/

have nothing to do with the Pond Master pumps sold by Danner in the US? Is that right? Are they any good regardless?

I absolutely love the Danner Mag Drive Supreme pumps, and have years of good experience with them in the US, but I fear they only work with 120V. I am not aware of any 240V version. So I need to find a NZ equivalent. Any suggestions for die-hard mag drive pumps?

[#!CrunchBang]

If it's sold in NZ it has to work in NZ, so those will be 230V~240V

[David R]

The local "pondmaster" pumps are pretty cheap IIRC, you get what you pay for. And I believe (if my memory serves me correctly) the magdrive pumps from the US are pretty inefficient with the amount of power they burn. I've had a great run with Laguna pumps, and they're pretty efficient too, but some of the new Jebao ones are just as good if not better, and cheaper too. Check out www.fish-street.com

[fmueller]

The NZ Pondmaster pumps cost about the same as what I paid for the Danner pumps in the US. The Danner pumps are just about the best mag drive pumps I have had the pleasure to use - comparable to the longevity and quietness of pumps used in Eheim classic series filters. I guess the catch is that I should expect everything to be 2-3 times as expensive in NZ as the rest of the world, which makes the NZ Pondmaster pumps cheap dreck. :dno:

For the record, I ran two Danner Mag Drive 18 on my 240G for many years, and their impact on my power bill was negligible. But I have no data comparing their efficiency to other pumps in detail.

That all said, many thanks for the advice. I'll check out both Laguna and Jebao. I am not familiar with either of them.

[camtang]

On David's advice I swapped over to a Laguna pump and have not looked back. Previous to that I was using a Pondmaster from memory, I still have one as a back up but so far so good with the Laguna.

[David R]

For the record, I ran two Danner Mag Drive 18 on my 240G for many years, and their impact on my power bill was negligible. But I have no data comparing their efficiency to other pumps in detail.

People often worry about the cost of heating a tank, but the cost of filtering it is sometimes where you can save more money long-term by buying energy efficient gear as pumps/filters usually run 24/7/365.

MagDrive 18 = 150W, 1800GPH max

Laguna MaxFlo 7600 = 75W and 2000GPH

I'm running a Laguna MaxFlo 11000 = 112W, 2900GPH max.

MagDrive 18 = 25.2KWH per week, or 1310KWH per year.

MaxFlo 7600 = 12.6KWH weekly, or 655 per year.

My MaxFlo 11000 = 18.8KHW weekly, or 978 per year.

I think our power is costing us about $0.22/KWH (I'll have to check with wife/accountant to be sure!) so the MagDrive would cost $288.20 a year to run and the Laguna 7600 $144.10, and my big Laguna is $215.16 while pumping over 1.5 times as much water as the MagDrive. Quite a difference! Likewise, the ever-popular FX5 canister burning 51W is going to cost nearly twice as much to run as the comparable Eheim 2080 at 27W.

As for the quality, I've had several Laguna pumps and they've all performed flawlessly, and they are pretty quiet by my standards. The only thing is they're designed as pond pumps, so they don't have suction cup mounts for aquarium use. I have my 11000 sitting on a piece of high density foam in my sump, and about 2' of flexible plastic tube connecting it to the rigid plumbing. The sump is downstairs directly below out bedroom, and in the still of the night [in the middle of rural Northland] there is barely a detectable vibration/hum to be heard.