Customer Reviews

Sunforce 81210 Solar Floating Fountain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this about 6 months ago and it worked like a dream. I have bought other solar fountains in the past, this one lasted the longest before dying. I think that the technology for encasing solar panels in water just isn't there yet. I loved this fountain though and really enjoyed watching my humming birds take showers in it! I would (and maybe will) buy it again because it is perfectly suited to my needs. But beware, as with all solar fountains... they do not last long. The technology needs to improve!!!

This was wonderful for the first two weeks. Now it is barely working even on the sunnest day. I do not recommend this product.

We wanted a small pond in our backyard but didn't want to have to use electricity. I thought this solar fountain would be perfect, giving some circulation in the water, plus looking pretty. It did just that for a couple of weeks ONLY when in direct sunlight, but since then, has decided to quit working most days. I don't know if there is a short or what, but the fountain does not even come on most days now, even in direct sunlight. Unfortunately we threw away the box so I haven't tried to return/exchange it. I'm now looking for an alternative.

well, I must have gotten a defective one. I placed it in our pond which has full direct hot sun and it made lots of noise but didn't pump at all. I tried putting it in just a big barrel full of water to see if it would pump in that, and nothing. I returned it for a refund and won't try again, too disappointing. I have other solar products doing just fine in the blistering sun here.

Simply put, this doesn't work well at all. It gets clogged up with the tiniest algae and even when it is working, the "fountain" is a joke. The water barely reaches 4 inches. It might work in a bird bath if it wasn't so huge.

I bought one of similar design from Harbor Freight. It worked as advertised, until after a few weeks. It became waterlogged on one side and the flowing water from the fountain part would tend to flip it over upside down, such that the sun wouldn't hit the solar cells anymore. I have been able to remedy the problem by drilling 1/8in. holes in the bottom of the base floating unit, to more evenly distribute the water inside base. That helped to stabilize it in the tub of water where it sits in the sun. The plastic cover fogs up, which blocks out some of the light to the solar cells, but it still will push water up 5-6inches in the bright sunlight.

It is convenient to use. However, IMHO the best solar-powered fountain would probably not be self-contained, you would want to buy a quality 12v DC pump and then run it off separate wiring, batteries, and solar panels which are remote from the fountain pump itself, which would be installed somewhere in the pool/birdbath. That's what I plan to do later myself.

It allows you to have a small pond or container with circulating water. A delight to watch, keeps the water from getting stagnant, etc., with ZERO operating costs. I love it.

Placed it in a pool of clean water it spun up and the fountain squirted a few onces of water the it just went silent. I tried drying it out but no luck... Definitely a piece of junk. Mfg will only issue a refund if I pay 13.95 to ship it back to them.

I read the reviews before buying and therefore didn't expect this to last long, but I was quite irritated when it stopped working in the middle of the first day! So I checked it out and discovered that apparently we have TOO MUCH sun here in inland SoCal! It worked great until the middle of the day, but by noon, the sun was so strong that the motor went too fast for the impeller and it just couldn't keep up and quit. So I put a piece of duct tape over half of one of the solar panels to cut the power a bit and it now works like a charm. Today, it went right through the middle of the day without a hitch.

This solar fountain has no battery reserve, so it only works in direct sunlight. The direct sunlight has to be pretty intense for it to even have a 3 inch spray. Do not buy unless you live somewhere with really intense sun, not ment for New England summers!