Water disappearing from small fountain

I have a very small urban backyard. I have a small fountainin the yard with a recirculating pump. I’ve lived here almost a year and the fountain is one of the first things I set up.

*Background which may not be relevant to current problem: *The first recirculating pump I bought at Home Depot simply stopped working after a couple of months. I replaced it twice. The last one stopped working the other day right in front of my eyes–it just quit. I had a slightly larger fountain at my former home and in 15 years, I only had to replace that pump once. Anyway, I went on amazon and looked at pumps and found one that seemed to have more longevity than the ones I’d been getting at HD. BTW, at no time did the fountain run dry. The pumps ceased while they were still submerged in water.

*Current problem: *This is just weird. I set up the new pump yesterday morning in a bowl identical to the one pictured, which holds maybe 3-4 gallons. During the day, the water level went waaaaay down. This had never happened before and I didn’t know why it happened, But I filled the bowl up and came back later and the water level was waaaaay down again. I wondered if maybe the bowl (which is almost a year old) had a little crack in it? So I went this morning and got a new bowl and put the new pump in it. I started the pump this morning and looked at the fountain from time to time and all looked well.

This evening about 5 pm I went to walk the dogs and before we left, I looked and the bowl was full of water. We got back 20 minutes later and the bowl was half empty. WTF? I filled the bowl and came inside, ate dinner, watched some TV, and then thought maybe I’d better go out and take a look. Sure enough, the bowl was half empty.

So I unplugged it and came in here to consult with my consultants (that would be y’all.)

You can see from the first picture that my backyard is MINUSCULE. Tiny. Small. In that picture, you are seeing the whole thing. It is completely fenced. Yeah, there are a couple of squirrels. Occasionally a neighbor cat will get in the yard. Doves and grackles drink the water. But a couple of GALLONS in TWENTY MINUTES? It’s not like I have elk, deer, or grizzly bears climbing over the chain link and guzzling water.

It didn’t get over 75 today so it wasn’t evaporation. Anyway, during the summer, it was routinely over 100 and water didn’t disappear like this.

And why did this start happening just when I got a new pump?

This new pump is slightly more powerful than the old pumps that kept breaking down. I have the height of the water dialed down so it’s an energetic gurgle just above the surface of the water by about three inches, not a replica of Old Faithful. IOW the water is not spraying so high that it’s splashing outside the bowl.

The only thing that seems possible is that something is *drinking *the water. But what creature would drink that much water in a short time without me seeing it? The new bowl definitely does not have any holes or cracks in it. It is glazed inside and out, so this isn’t evaporative loss.

This is just weird. Any ideas?

Wild animals can exist quite a bit further into urban areas than many people think, especially if they have any kind of path to follow. In my area of suburbs north of Seattle, there’s a green belt corridor for power lines, where no development is permitted. There’s also a protected wetland and bike trail. Coyotes and deer use these to make appearances far deeper into the cities than you’d expect.

Birds might be splashing in the water and not just drinking it.

I suppose there’s also the possibility of feral cats.

The only explanation not related to hose leakage would be a family of animals living under your house coming out to drink when you have left and it’s quiet. Go dark re not making any noise and see if anything comes out.

If there is pinhole in the pump hose assembly somewhere the water may be misting out unnoticed and escaping by evaporation but that would be continuous and you say the water disappears all at once at intermittent times which is not consistent with steady loss.

I forgot to mention that there is a container of drinking water for animals about four feet from the fountain. In the summer I want to make very sure there’s plenty of water, as I often leave one cat and one dog in the yard when I’m gone during the day.

When I bought the new basin yesterday morning because I thought the old one might have a crack in it, I filled the old one with water and set it next to the drinking bowl to see if it leaked during the day. The water level did not go down in the bowl yesterday. So no crack. And if animals were drinking, why not from the container that’s been there for months, plus the additional bowl?

The only variable in this situation is the new pump. :confused:

Unless there’s something really obvious that I’m just not seeing.

I think the water has to be splashing out.

Put newspaper around the pump and see if it is getting wet re splashing.

install a perimeter of wax paper around the bowl. It will collect the water instead of absorb it that way you can see just how much splash there is vs. evap or small leak somewhere else.

I’m voting for the issue being a neighbor messing with your head.

It’s that Jesus dude next to the fountain: he’s turning your water into wine, then chugging it down when no-one’s watching.

:smiley:

just cause there is a container of drinking water doesn’t mean they won’t choose the airiated water that sounds like it is from a fresh clean cool string.

That would be St. Francis of Assisi. Hmmm… he did seem to be sort of tilted to one side…

Did I mention the footprintnext to the fountain?

But seriously folks, I dialed down the volume of the pump as far as it would go and I just got back from being gone for about six hours and the water level has not gone down. Thanks for the ideas.