TotalPond 1200 GPH Waterfall Pump, Black

This is a very nice pump. It has a quality feeling in the way it looks, feels and operates. It is nearly silent and very smooth running. The flow is very steady and uniform. It easily achieves the claimed 1200 GPH, and I have confirmed this by timing it in emptying 400 gallons from a pond. I have included a photo of the pump in use in its mesh filter bag, and also of the flow it creates over a 12 inch wide spillway (at only a few inches lift) through about 20' of 1.25 inch tubing.I have used the pump for over six months so far with flawless performance, and will update if any problems arise with more use.*Update* The pump has been in continuous use (24 x 7 x 365) for almost four years now with no issues. It is still running perfectly.*Update* This pump lasted for almost exactly six years of continuous use, then failed without warning. While in use it was smooth, quiet and flawless. I consider that to be good durability for the cost. I would have replaced it with the identical pump, but needed to get up and running again quickly. I had to buy something locally instead of ordering and waiting for delivery. I still highly recommend the pump. I recommend replacing it after five years, and keeping the old one as a spare in case of failure. Well worth the money.

This is a good pump and a good value. It uses less power than my last pump, yet it pumps more volume. It's great in my 500 to 1000 gallon pond with an external filter, a waterfall and a spitting frog.EDIT:I'm editing this review after about 15 months. The pump is weakening in the amount of water it is pumping. After thorough cleaning of every component in the system, this pump is pumping much less forcefully than when new, and that was only 15 months ago. I didn't expect 5 years, but for the money, I thought I'd approach 2 to 3 years. Other than this, the pump works well for a 1000 gallon pond with waterfall and spitting frog. I'm going to try a different pump when I buy a replacement. I think a "guesstimate" of how long the pump should last should go with the warranty. We folks with ponds with fish in them run the pump 24/7/365, so the manufacturer should be able to test their own product and offer a range of lifetime, say 1 year or 2 years, and back that up with a warranty. Still, the pump works well, just not as well for as long as I expected.

I bought this pump over a couple of months ago, because the one I had stopped working for me. The pump that I just received keeps my water clear and clean. The one I had before didn’t keep it cleaned. Same pump!I give it a 5 because it deserves it!

This is the second TotalPond LL1200 that I have purchased. The first quit working and is covered by warrantee. I replumbed my pond to function with the size of tubing recommended in instructions...1" ID flexible PVC. Dug the trench for it myself, and I'm not a kid. I purchased a similarly rated pump of another brand to keep the water circulating while I went through the process of getting the first pump repaired or replaced. Brand X was much less powerful, so I ordered the second LL1200. I kept it in the package until I finished some revisions to my waterfall, got that done and was relieved to finally have the new pump ready to install and get the water flowing again. LO AND BEHOLD! TotalPond apparently has drastically changed the size and fittings of the pump but retained the SAME MODEL NUMBER!!!! After that shock, I still took it out to try out, although it will need different fittings to hook up to my water line to the waterfall..........and the new LL1200 is DEAD AS A DOORNAIL. Unbelieveable. Just about as goofy as it gets. I took a photo of the two pumps and their packaging for comparison. My kitchen counter was messy, but it gets that way when I spend all of my time on pond plumbing. The new pump is the one on the left. Forgive me if I seem grouchy!

Once again, Made in China has cropped up in another consumer market. That alone may dissuade pump customers, but they should be prepared to fork over a lot of money for the satisfaction of comparable non-Chinese equipment. Unhappy about this, I still went ahead and bought a Total Pond 1200 gph pump. (BTW, Total Pond is Geoglobal Partners, a division of OASE.) Fortunately, I've had better luck with this pump than other Amazon customers. It has served a medium sized pond with a 5 foot head waterfall through about 30 feet of 1.25 inch tubing for two seasons. Aside from continuing to operate properly, what I like about this pump is the easy disassembly for cleaning. This is critical for longevity of ceramic shaft pumps. It uses 82 watts, info that is not easy to find. Customers complaining about outlet connection sizes: I gave up trying to make proper plumbing connections on pond pumps when it seemed that every manufacturer (and perhaps product runs of the same manufacturer) produced outlets with different size / threads. Finding fittings is just too much work and expense. My advice to everyone for any pond pump: take the pump to a decent hardware store, find tubing that fits snugly over the pump outlet, and secure it with a stainless steel aircraft clamp (see photo--the pump is sitting on the filter box I run it in, just a black storage container with slots cut in it). My last observation for what it's worth is that pond pumps of any manufacturer (I've had many) are fickle; they may last a long time, they may not. They are tiny little machines that work in often tough conditions 24 hours a day for months; that they may last for years is amazing in itself. The best bet is to use a prefilter of some sort (even the bag that comes with this one) and clean everything frequently.