If you want to make your garden a truly lovely place to be, there is nothing that beats having a water feature. However, if you want your garden to always look great, it’s crucial you know how to maintain your water feature and can ensure that it’s always looking its best. Read on to find out what you need to do to keep your water feature clean and working properly.

Cleaning

One of the best things about having a water feature is that there isn’t a huge amount of maintenance involved. However, you will need to keep it clean; if it gets dirty, not only will it look terrible, but it will also stop working. A lot of the time, having a good Oase Living Water pump to help circulate the water will do much of the work for you, although there will still be some manual tasks to do.

The best thing you can do is clean the entire water feature every four to six months. When you do this, you need to switch off the water and remove any debris that might have entered the system. You can also scrub the outside of the water feature to remove any rust, grime or dirt that might be there, even using vinegar to ensure a clean finish. If you can, it’s a good idea to use a pressure washer to remove every last speck of dirt.

Don’t Turn It Off

Although you should turn the pump off to clean it, this is really the only time the water feature should be turned off. It’s far better to keep the water running at all times, as this will keep the pump working for longer. When you keep switching it on and off, there is more chance for something to go wrong, which would result in you needing to replace either the pump or the entire water feature.

Plus, when the pump is off, water can stagnate quickly. This will lead to additional algae growth, which can block the pump and cause further problems when it comes to cleaning and maintenance.

Check The Water Level

No matter what kind of water feature you have or where it is located (even if it’s inside), the water will experience some evaporation. How much water you lose will depend on the water feature itself: for example, the taller the feature, the longer the water has to fall, and this will cause additional water loss because of the larger splashes made. It will also depend on how much sunlight there is and how hot the temperature is generally.

Whatever the case, you need to monitor the water level in your water feature. If it gets too low, the pump could fail, as it is being overworked. It’s ideal if the water level can be around two centimetres from the top of the water feature at all times.

Type Of Water

You might assume that the type of water used in your water feature doesn’t really matter; if there is water there to keep the water feature running, the fact that it has come from the garden tap shouldn’t be an issue, should it?

The truth is that this can actually cause problems due to the minerals within the water that allow bacteria and algae to grow more easily. The best water to use to prevent this and prolong the life of your water feature is distilled water.