solar pond pump ?

[logman]

I've seen adverts in news papers and magazines for solar powered fountains for garden ponds, not sure how effective they are ? but if they do work well then great, no messing with cables around the garden and no extra on the already high electricity bills to fork out!

The main point of my question is, dose anyone know of, or have any experience of a solar device that would be effective and have sufficient power to run a small water feature ie a gargoil to trickle water into a pond, if it only worked on sunny days, I would be over the moon! Thanks in advance for any help!

[BillyNoMates]

They are a great idea in principle but are not particularly powerful and tend to only work in bright sunshine.

Some of them you can adapt to mains - transformer indoors and low voltage outdoors so no worries about regulations or sunshine. But at the end of the day they don't pump much volume of water - just about suitable for a small gargoil if the height that the water has to be pumped is relatively small.

[logman]

Consider yourself Billyonemate, That just what i wanted to hear, my gargoil sits about 6-8" above the water and if it only works on the really brightest days, well thats good enough for me!

All I need now is to locate a retailer. Cheers..

[pugwash52]

logman. I bought a solar "fountain on a lily pad" last year and it works well in the sunshine.I suppose it is only decorative, but that's all I wanted for my small pond. I bought from one of the pond pump suppliers, but they are available in a lot of the Garden Centres now.

[logman]

Thanks pugwash, I did look in one shop yesterday, but no luck yet, they sell a lot of the large,more expensive electric pumps, so I will look elsewhwere. Its mainly for aesthetic purposes to work my "greenman" gargoil, but even a small trickle should dissipate surfice film and add a little more oxygen in hot weather when its needed.

Thanks..