Yesterday evening was a nightmare.
I'd been doing a bit of dead heading of the roses in the garden and was about to come indoors around 8.00pm. when I decided to change the water in our Marinelli fountain. Easily done, I just put a bucket under it and pulled out the drain plug. Then filled it up. I then decided to check that it was working. We don't have it on that often. I can overide the switch for it in the lounge by plugging the supply into a spare socket in the garage.
I turned it on, everything in the garage tripped out. Tried it again, same thing happened. I removed the fountain's mains plug and re-set the RCCB and everything else came on again.
Fortunately, I've a fairly sophisticated RCCB that protects everything in the garage, shed, the old pool systems, tea-house, all the garden lighting, the jukeboxes, plus two freezers.
The fountain sits on top what was the former koi pool pump sump on this concrete stepping stone.
I had my suspicions, so I decided to try to sort it out as heavy rain was expected today, Friday.
So I dragged all 71kilos of the fountain off the stepping stone on which it sits and took a lump hammer and a bolster chisel to the mortar plinth below it to free up the stepping stone.
As I suspected, the sump was full of water, to the level it would have been when the pool was working.
This is what it looked like, when we had the pool. This holds 40 gallons. You can see the mains supply that connects to the pumps via waterproof connectors, though they were never immersed, just got a bit damp.
When I installed the fountain, I blocked off the outlets to the filter, the waterfall and the overflow drain. The sump is connected to the pool bottom drain, by a 4" pipe. I drilled several one inch holes through the sand and cement base of the pool and one through the bottom drain, so when the pool was filled in and paved, the water would be able to drain away. It's worked well for a few months, there's never been any surface water on the new paved area.
I'd retained the mains supply to the pumps which were in the sump, disconnected one in the garage and connected the other one to a 13 amp socket, at the top of the sump, under the rim into which I plugged the fountain transformer which I situated next to it. The low voltage supply coming up through a hole in the stepping stone.
Last night I found the sump full of water and the socket with its plug and transformer, submerged!
So I got my wet n' dry vac out and pumped out the water. I then saw that the water was still coming in through one of the holes I drilled in the side of the sump where I'd attached the socket. So I blocked it up and the other screw holes with mastic.
The fountain is designed for the low voltage cable to enter under the fountain through a groove in its base and I'd drilled a 1" hole through the stepping stone to accommodate it.
I decided I wasn't going to risk putting mains electricity into the sump again, although it had worked perfectly well supplying the two pumps it contained for thirty-odd years.
I put the transformer on the garage wall, above all the sockets that control functions in the garden, via switches in the lounge and the plug into the socket which originally supplied the mains voltage to the fountain and connected it up and have just the low voltage go to the fountain. I drilled a 1" hole in the centre of the stepping stone and pulled the cable through and cut off the wire from the transformer and connect the pump and LED lights up.. The connector now sits in the tiny recess under the fountain base. I then replaced the stepping stone and dragged the fountain back onto it, filled it up, turned it on and it's working again. It took me until 9.30pm.
This was the way I was going to do it when I bought the fountain, but when I had a conversation with the supplier before I bought it unseen, when I had no idea what sort of transformer etc., came with it, I was told any alterations would invalidate the guarantee.
But now I don't care. It's working fine.
Fortunately the transformer is completely sealed so no water got into it.
It doesn't really matter if the sump fills again.
What I think happened is that the ground water has been rising, it's probably come up partly through the 4" pipe and through the side of the sump through the screw hole, water probably got between the plastic sump and the concrete into which it was set as it shrinks as it cures so leaves a tiny gap all the way round . The 20 tons of compacted hardcore in the pool probably offered more resistance.
I've still to re-make the plinth, but that will have to wait until it's dry on Sunday.
