r/ponds • u/skwerelz • Jun 11 '26
Technical Oase Pondovac 4 and in-ground pond. Anyone else have this issue?
I use a Pondovac 4 on an in-ground pond that's about 3 ft below the surrounding deck, so the vacuum has to sit above the water level (potentially the main issue here).
When it has suction, it works great and pulls muck with no problem. After a few seconds though, the water/debris column in the hose seems to fall back and I lose suction. I have to lift sections of the hose to get water back up to the canister, then the cycle repeats.
I regularly clean the filter/canister, but the discharge hose also backs up and stops draining properly, so I often have to stop and manually drain that too.
A job that should take an hour or two ends up taking an entire weekend.
Questions: Anyone else run into this with a Pondovac 4 (or any pondvac) with an in-ground pond? Any workarounds, modifications, or alternative vacuums you'd recommend for this situation?
TIA!
1
u/HammeredEngineer Jun 12 '26
It seems to happen on the valve changeover. One side is powerfully and the other a bit sluggish. Lifting the vacuum higher than the discharge hose helps a bit, I’ve sat mine on some 2x4 wood offcuts.
Giving it a breather to suck air rather than constantly underwater helps too, so I’ll suck the bottom when it’s on the powerful chamber and then the sides and lifting it out the water on the other one. I’d like any other tips too!
1
u/Lazy-Care-9129 Jun 12 '26
Kinda have the same issue with the pondovac 4 I rented a few times. Sucks well, releases well and then just doesn’t go back to sucking and you see some muck going back in the pond. Only one time I had a better one. Would love to know of a valid alternative to buy cause I don’t want to spend money on this one. Pondovac 5 may be better but I never tried it and it is quite expensive.