Sunspray® SE 500 Solar Fountain for Garden Ponds/Water Features, with Dry Run Protection, Battery Backup and timer function

We created our pond in Summer 2014 and wanted a solar water feature, after checking out reviews of this and other products we decided that the Sunspray SE 500 was the one to go for.Delivery was quick and assembly and siting very easy as the supplied cables are very long. For the size of our pond roughly 2m x 3m it is perfect.The performance in summer was superb benefiting from the very strong sunlight, the supplied solar panel is more than up to the job. Lots of attachments to change the fountain effect or height. We are quite happy with a spray type effect with height of about 1.5ft.During the winter it is increasingly difficult to obtain a full charge on the batteries courtesy of the overcast British weather. Today as I write this there is no sunshine so the fountain is running on batteries and has lasted a couple of hours so far and looks like it's good for another hour or so maybe two.As the daylight and hopefully the weather begin to improve I'm going to leave the fountain permanently on and will post an update here over the summer.Overall I would say this is a superb purchase for your pond.

I received the pump a few days before I expected and I checked through the accessories. The pump was easy to put together and I was replacing an old water feature pump so I was delighted with the small and compact size. It has a timer that will run for 15 mins every hour so I decided to use this feature as I didn't want to keep switching it on and off. The flow is more of a trickle but it pumped it up about a metre as described and it has a dial so you can reduce the flow as well. I turned the dial down so that there was a small splash over some pebbles. Overall I would rate it as an excellent small water feature pump with a small but consistent flow. Excellent value for money, but don't expect the flow to be the same as a mains one. The timer worked well for about a week in bright sunshine days and then I looked and the battery box it had a red light flashing. It was brilliant sunshine in the morning, so I reset it green and it was then ok again. So I will have to see how it goes.

Had this for a year or two now, it works. I already bought one new battery but that was only about ten pounds from a nearby Maplins equivalent. I usually leave this set on timer. The main issue is that it runs out at night, then takes half the day to charge up again (solar panel faces south so doesn't get the east sunrise), so it only starts up again mid-afternoon. It would be great if I could plug another panel in to face east as well, but I don't have the knowledge for that - or maybe replace with a bigger panel. As with most fountains, the only way you'll get major height is by using the cap that only has one hole in, so there is a single narrow jet going straight up, and who wants that? I get 30-40cm out of the 8-hole jet.

I bought this pump as the description seemed to indicate it met the requirements I was looking for (450 LPH flow rate and ~1 - 1.2m max lift)Unfortunately, this pump, whilst it works well, only delivers ~330 LPH and definitely not the 4ft (1.2m) max lift as the description seems to indicate.I would have rated this higher, however the seller does not allow returns (contrary to UK consumer law).

I purchased this eco-friendly fountain set whilst my garden was getting a massive make over so I had it in my cupboard for a while, I honestly couldn't wait for my pond to be built to see what it was capable of. Once everything was in place and the pond had been lined I whipped out the box and set up the whole thing (as per instructions) at the start of the summer when we had a good run of sunshine. Once it started I was so pleased with it, the stream of water was just the right height and the amount of water pumped up was a good steady stream which gave a pleasant splashing sound. All in all very happy with it.But within the last month I noticed the battery was no longer holding its charge anymore, so I switched the settings to timer in order to conserve its energy so it worked for 15min intervals in the evening when we were outside and the sun had gone down. It started failing and had to resort to switching it off then back on to get it working; now for the past month it hasn't come on at all - even after checking and rechecking the connections, unplugging it then back again, trying it with the timer on and off, adjusting the height of the stream control, taking it out of the pond to clean it....nothing is working.So after a little run (about 4-5 months in total) the fountain has died a death. Sad times. It was good while it lasted.

Does most of what it says on the description... Overall it's a good piece of kit that does the job. The only negative is that the photos are perhaps a little generous in showing the height of the spray. The single jet can certainly reach the claimed height, but the spray-heads with more holes result in lower fountain heights. Flow rate is good.I'm very impressed with the electronics. The solar panel seems very powerful (but I am using it in a full sun location in a hot country...) and the battery seems to last as long as is needed. A bigger battery could be fitted easily.Also the generous cable lengths are a good feature. The supplier could consider selling an extension cable to allow the units to be set even further apart. I've put the cables inside plastic tubing to defend against accidental spade strike.One small negative factor is that the centre of gravity of the motor is not central under the float, meaning that the fountain leans to one side. It might be possible to cut the float material to obtain a vertical jet, but I opted for removing the float and mounting the pump on a brick. It would be so much better if the float was not on the surface. Maybe it could be tied down so that it stays just below the surface.

This pump worked quite well for the first Summer, but the following Spring pump was found to be faulty. Contacted seller but they just kept sending me a phone number to ring for advice. I now have the pump attached straight to the panel and it works fine as long as the sun is shining, but not possible to store energy and use timer anymore.