Make your own pond vacuum cleaner

One of our readers made his own pond vacuum cleaner. He reports it works great and was cheap to make. He graciously shared how to make it with the readers of pondlady.com. I though it would be nice to post it here as well for readers who do not get to pondlady.com regularly.

Thanks for sharing, Darrel. We all appreciate it.

From Darrel:

Here's a list of the parts I used:
(1) Utilitech 0024840 Lawn Pump or Flint & Walling/Star Water
#HSPJ100(any 1hp utility pump with 1" intake/outlet)
(1) Culligan HD-950 Whole House Water Filter
(2) Union 1" slip X slip
(4) 1" male adapter, 1" slip socket by 1" NPT
(1) 1" 90º elbow slip
(1) 8 ft. of 1" spa flex hose
(1) 10 ft. of 1" PVC pipe
(1) 1" coupling
(1) Circular brush attachment from a vacuum cleaner to fit the PVC pipe.

Procedure:

The filter is attached to the inlet side of the pump.
(1) Screw a male adapter into the pump inlet.
(2) Cut about a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(3) Glue this into the male adapter.
(4) Glue one side of one union to the pipe.
(5) Screw a male adapter into the filter outlet.
(6) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(7) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(8) Glue the other side of the union to the pipe.
(9) Screw another adapter into the filter inlet.
(10) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(11) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(12) Glue one side of the other union to the pipe.
(13) Glue the other side of the union to the spa flex hose.
(14) Glue the coupling to the hose.
(15) Cut a 6' length of PVC pipe.
(16) Glue the pipe into the other side of the coupling.
(17) Screw an adapter into the pump outlet.
(18) Cut a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(19) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(20) Glue the 90º elbow onto the other end of the pipe.
(21) Glue the remaining PVC pipe (approx. 2') to the elbow.

You want the filter on the intake side of the pump so you're not sending crud through the pump. There's also the possibility that if you suck up something living, you may be able to rescue it from the filter housing.

The pipe for the wand should not be more than about 6' or it bends too much and is difficult to control.

Lawn pumps need to be primed. They have a port for priming. You can also fill the pump/filter/pipe with water from a hose, or by scooping it from the pond. Just know that the pump, to begin with, will not suck the water up by itself.

You may notice that I used two additional male adapters, one on either side of the filter. This was only because the store had only one slip union. I had to buy one 1" slip union and one 1" NPT union. I then mixed the two halves of the unions so that each one became a 1" NPT X 1" slip union. The additional adapter then screwed into one side of each union.

When glueing the flex hose to the union hold it for a long time. The glue does not seem to set as fast as on the PVC pipe.

I've included a picture to help.

Darrel