Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I was excited when I saw this skimmer. I have a small pond and it was the size I was looking for, and at a great price. It is a new product, however, and you can definitely tell that they have not fixed all the kinks. First, there are stickers all over it -- on the lid, on the weir and at the base. There are even a few "Made in China" stickers. Since this product is supposed to be placed in the water, I figured it was a good idea to remove the stickers. Wrong! Only the one on the weir came off easily. The others were hard to remove and left a lot of glue. These are big stickers -- the one on the lid covers almost the entire lid and the one at the base covers half the base. The only way to remove the glue is to use turpentine or something similar. However, the lid is made of cheap plastic that began to melt with the turpentine, causing my rag to turn black. Now I'm kinda nervous all of this is going to poison my pond water. Then, after I put it together, I realized two problems: 1. they had to bend the basket to make it fit and then, you have to place the basket just right and 2. the hose that connects the skimmer to the pump DOES NOT fit the fittings that are included in the package. I purchased the Tetra Pond pump recommended for the skimmer and the fitting screws onto it without a problem, but the hose is clearly too large for the barb on the fitting. It falls right off. Tetra Pond apparently figured out this at some point but their solution was to suggest that the hose be clamped with clamps that are "optional" and "not included". That's like saying the engine mounts in a car are "optional" and "not included". Basically, there is no way the skimmer and pump will work without the clamps or a hose that fits over the barb on the fitting so I'm going to purchase those now. I also noted that the skimmer does not come with straps like other skimmers so you have to lay something under it to get it to the right height. Basically, if you are handy and have free time, and want to save some money, this might work for you. But if you want it to work with the minimum of muss and fuss out of the box, try another small skimmer like Cal Pumps Small Pond Skimmer or PondMaster's Mini Pond Skimmer.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Tetra Pond Skimmer
No comments:
Post a Comment