Pond Vac

Ordered Thursday for FOC 3-5 days delivery, arrived Saturday so that's the 1st good point.I have a 4.5 x 3 x 1m pond overstocked with various fish (the first year that we had them they were very productive!) surrounded by fruit trees, and relies on a pupmed filter that I clean out 3 times a year, so I knew that after 1 year since my last water change that there would be a lot of c**p at the bottom.Having previously caused a leak by scooping out the debris with a net I didn't want to go through the palaver of a new liner again.Having read some of the adverse comments about frequent blockages I thought that it was worth a try as I just wanted to remove all that lurking fish poo.Well yes, after 3 minutes it blocked with a small pebble, and then every so often with a bit of weed or harder fibrouse stuff.But, did it suck up all of the gunk? YES it did.Did I mind the occasional blockage (mainly weed) that took 2 mins each to clear? NO, not at all.Could I see the bottom of the pond? NO, but the clear part of the tube showed me when I needed to move the pump head.If you would prefer spending 3 days moving your fish to a temporary holding area, and doing a complete water change / clean then you don't need this vac.For me, this is much better than the ones that filter the water back into the pond, just suck all that nasty up and dispose on the flower beds.Summary: gets rid of the gunk, followed by a water replacement (no more than 1/3 of the pond at any one time), some lost time for the odd blockage (and this will reduce with more freequent usage), = I am more than pleased.One minor criticism, the discharge hose is on the short side, so you need to extend it using whatever piping you have available.

Four stars for a horse that fits my course.I have a seven foot long by four foot wide by three feet deep pond with butyl liner which I built myself about a year ago, it was clean from the start save for a few grains of sand. It has a pressurised filter and the water is very clear. The pond is by my own admission well over stocked and I do tend to overfeed my fish as I love to see them battle to gourge themselves.I needed a pond cleaner that was easy to use once a week to keep the pond floor clear of fish waste. In this respect the Hozelock works perfectly. It was very easy to assemble, there is no disassembly when not in use, I take it out the shed put the drain hose in the flower bed and plug it in. It is comfortable to hold and use simply by use of a sweeping motion back and fourth. The fact that it drains water is useful for topping up with clean but you could put a filter bag on the outlet pipe and flush the drain water back into the pond. It has a useful clear window in the handle so that you can see what you are drawing up. The whole process takes 5 mins each week, very simple, no fuss or bother or without clouding the water, perfect for my needs.What it wont do is pick up stones or sizeable vegetable matter (it does pick up sand and grit). My pond is new and I have kept it clean from the off, and I dont suffer with leaves or vegetation falling into it, if yours has stones in the base or routinely suffers from roting vegetation then the rotors will block and stop the machine. The rotors are relatively easy to clear out as the nozzle is removable but it will be a pain if you need to do it often.If it had an on/off switch it would get 5 stars, you turn it off by pulling out the plug, not ideal with wet hands.

I've had this for a while. The main reason I brought is that you can keep using it without having to empty a container. Great for pumping out. However, you have to have fairly deep water to keep the whole unit submerged and it's fairly heavy to manipulate (for a woman). Having no on/off is a pain, when you suck up some chunky weed and bung it up or want to move to a different area. So I re-engineered and fitted an in/line waterproof on/off button on the cable. So much easier but probably not recommended by the manufacturer! The best thing is the toothed rubber head which works really well. Good and bad. Great for pumping out, but I've ended up using this to do a water change and pulling rubbish from the bottom and a pond hero sluge mucher with the hozelock toothed head for more defined cleaning.

With the vacuum machine at the front, its a but weighty to use. Its a pity there's no on/off switch on the device, it has to be switched off at the plug. Great suction and did a great job, but if you remove the nozzle from the water, and return it, it doesn't continue to suck water, curiously enough. Nozzle must be submerged and the device switched off and back on. Easily assembled and disassembled to store neatly, taking up so little space.Overall, I'm very pleased with the job it did.