[Turtle]

Anybody have experience with 3-4 tier fountains. I have a client that had a 4 tier fountain installed nice one 100 inches tall

everytime this fountain shuts off all the water drains from the upper tiers into the lower bottom tier. It however is not large enough to hold all the water. inevitably when the fountain comes back on the pump takes the water to the top but then the pump runs pretty dry until the float valve that fills the bottom bowl catches up to it.

Ive installed a smaller one like this at my brothers house and we siliconed around the pipe that goes up the middle after each layer. very time consuming but his holds its water at each tier.

The fountain guy says they never seal the bowls and that the fountain is made to run 24hrs a day That seems a little excessive to me. they do not want to seal the bowls and said if anyone touches the fountain it voids the warranty. I'm definitely not touching this one but just wanted to see what was the "norm"

[4seasons]

Why not let it run 24hrs a day?
waterfalls for fish ponds run all the time.

[PSUscaper]

Most tiered fountains sit in a large 'bowl' that contains enough water to replenish the tiers. It seems this one doesn't. I would tell the customer to place the entire thing into a small pond, usually they are sold as one with the fountain.

The main thing is you are doing something it was not designed for, and that is turning it off. I'd tell the customer to deal with it and walk away.

[agla]

Could you connect a hidden tank to add to the water volume outside of the fountain itself?

I don't think it is realistic to expect that there will not be an interuption of of power from time to time that will shut the system down whether or not anyone shuts it off.

You could set up an automatic refill, but that would not be my first choice.

The real problem is that the fountain people are not addressing the situation and your client is asking you to fix the problem instead of getting aggressive with the fountain people themselves.

[springfever]

Turtle,

Get yourself a big tub of plumbers putty. It will seal the tiers, but will not attach itself to the concrete like silicone. If you have to pull the thing apart, just get some more putty and you will be back in business in no time. Also don't overlook the pump system. If it does not have a checkvalve, the water could be coming back down the pipe to the pump and coming out of the pump itself. A checkvalve prevents the water from going backward in the system. Hopefully one of these cheap "quick" fixes will work for you. Good luck!

[Pelican]

There should be a threaded PVC fitting cast into the bowl, a length of PVC pipe goes into this that is slightly higher than the water level for the water line to pass through. Either teflon tape or plumbers putty will seal the threads and keep them from leaking.

[Turtle]

Pelican now that would definitely be nice but they dont cast them like that here anyway.

She has the owner of the company coming out Tuesday to meet with her. Should be interesting.

[Pelican]

Every fountain I've installed has been set up this way and there is very little water loss. Too bad you don't have this set up. Is there a way you can install some type of similar system?