Oase Pontec Pondomatic Pond Vacuum

What customers say about Oase Pontec Pondomatic Pond Vacuum?

1. 38 of 38 people found the following review helpful

   
   Simple design but work intensive, 25 May 2014

   By 

   talskj –

   Verified Purchase(What is this?)

   This review is from: Oase Pontec Pondomatic Pond Vacuum (Garden & Outdoors)

   Bought this for my Dad. He is pleased with it as he can now see his fish but tends to wait until I’m around to help.

   In the lid is a vacuum pump, no water passes through this pump. The main body of the Pond Vacuum is basically a bucket with an inlet hole near the top and an outlet hole near the bottom. The inlet (sucking) hose has a range of heads which can be attached. The outlet hose has a simple valve at the far end formed by a flap of flexible plastic. When the pump starts, the air pressure in the bucket is reduced so the valve on the end of the outlet hose is sucked shut and water/mud/small twigs/leaves are sucked in to the bucket via the inlet hose. The pump runs for long enough to fill the bucket then auto-shuts off. The valve at the end of the outlet hose can now move freely so the bucket self-empties. After a pause which is long enough for the bucket to empty, the pump auto-starts again.

   Things to be aware of are:
   - The Pond Vacuum must be higher than the whole outlet hose for it to function.
   - The water removed from your pond is lost unless you set up your own, separate, filtration/collection/return system.
   - Small twigs and leaves can get snagged under the outlet hose valve (plastic flap) therefore it does not seal and you loose suction. This is where an assistant comes in handy to keep it clear (it’s a great job, you’ll be inundated with volunteers, honest)

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2. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

   
   Very effective, 5 Jan. 2017

   By 

   Deke –

   Verified Purchase(What is this?)

   This review is from: Oase Pontec Pondomatic Pond Vacuum (Garden & Outdoors)

   Very effective and, I think, good value. I use with a filter to catch sludge escaping from the outlet hose. I place the hose & filter in the pond to allow the filtered water to return. Do be careful when emptying the sludge from the chamber! (The bottom hose detached when I was transferring the sludge to the compost heap; you can imaging the outcome!!) Inevitably the water clouds when you’re using this vacuum and you cannot see where you’re going, but just move it around slowly & the sludge will be collected; the water clears overnight. I would advise against trying to clear all the sludge as it contains bacteria and organisms beneficial to the ecology of the pond. I just clear some of it when it gets too deep in order to obtain a greater depth of water. I do remove leaves regularly, though.

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3. 63 of 64 people found the following review helpful

   
   It works!, 1 May 2013

   By 

   Eddie P (Berwick-upon-Tweed UK) –

   Verified Purchase(What is this?)

   This review is from: Oase Pontec Pondomatic Pond Vacuum (Garden & Outdoors)

   I was very pleasantly surprised how effective the vacuum was. I spent about 2 hours cleaning a load of gunge from my pond. It dealt with the blanket weed with ease and dumped it under the hedge.

   The vacuum cycles in 25 second bursts, first it sucks up the muck then the vacuum automatically switches off and the muck is dumped out of the discharge tube, in my case I put it under the hedge. The ‘floor’ tool blocked up a couple of times with dead leaves, but that is to be expected.

   My only concern is the amount of water removed from the pond. If you are only interested in removing the worst gunge from the bottom of the pond you could put the discharge pipe directly back into the pond and only the thickest stuff would remain in the vac tank. But I think you would need to empty the tank every second or third cycle to make this work as the creamier mud is also discharged down the pipe. I am thinking that something like an old pair of tights stretched to make a strainer would be the answer and discharge through that back into the pond. It would save having to put in a lot of fresh water in to top up the pond.

   Cleaning up the vac afterwards needs a good pair of rubber gloves.

   This is a machine that will get used many times during the summer.

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