Two way present

Although my wife and I decided to buy a single gift for ourselves for our 28th anniversary, this is not about that. And although my in-laws took us out for a wonderful meal and great conversation, it's not about that either. This is actually a product review and evaluation.

I was thinking that other pond owners that have an inclination to purchase a pond vacuum would want to know about our gift to each other. It is the Pondovac 3-CE, made by Oase, an English company. It somehow makes me feel more like it is of quality construction, being British. You know, Land Rover, Jaguar, McNaughton guns, all top quality. But how about pond vac's? Well, we are going to find out.

I have made a couple of pond vac's with mixed results through the years. With some experience there I had a good idea of what it needed to do to work for us. Of course it has to suck well to remove algae, leaves, twigs, and well, you know, gunk. It needs to be relatively easy to move around and use. But, very important to me, the water mizer, it needs to return any removed water to the pond. And clean water to boot.

Soooooo, who do we know that is qualified to test the new vac. The queen of clean of course, my wife. With a cleaning business for over twenty years, she has worn out more vacuums than most people will ever get to use. And she's just freaky about her equipment and how well it works.

The vacuum is not cheap at around $350 so some prior research was done to try and make sure it was what we wanted and would be worth it. It looks like a cross between a tall shop vac and a space ship. It has two identical sized chambers so that as one fills the other empties, in that way allowing for constant vacuuming where others can only vacuum till they are full and then must be emptied. Fine particles are trapped in internal filters and larger debris is passed through to a collection bag on the end of the water return hose that puts the water back in the pond.

After much use by said queen of clean, we have determined that it is quite good. Our ponds have never looked cleaner and she says that it is fairly easy to move around, hoses look stout and are long enough and the return line is easily kept up with. I got to use it once and I liked it but did vacuum up a fish. After taking him out of the bag he was released unharmed. Because of that the vacuum was put on the list of appliances that I don't get to use like the answering machine, the DVD machine, the dish washer and the washing machine and dryer. That' right, it's not on the list, I get to use the computer. Well, I mean, only when the queen is home.