retrofitting fountain for solar power

I have a large, 3-tier Italian style fountain that I would like to retrofit for use with a solar pump, but I haven't been able to determine if the solar pumps I've seen online would be adequate to move that much water up to the top tier. The basin at the bottom is about a yard in circumference and holds several gallons of water. The amount of solar energy available isn't a problem, to put it mildly, in Bakersfield, but the solar fountains I've seen advertised seem much smaller than mine. Also, I'm not sure if the connecting tubes would be long enough. The top tier of the fountain is about five feet from the base.

Your problem stems not from the lack of sunshine but in the fact that you need a pump that produces a head (distance the pump has to elevate the water, i your cast about 5 feet above the pump) equal or greater to the top of the fountain, where the water comes out. As far as tubing, clamps and all that are concerned, that is readily available at Home Depot. But your pump must be able to lift that water high enough to come out the top of the fountain.

Good luck with that.
Sylvain.

I don't know if they make solar pumps big enough to handle your particular fountain, but I will share my experience with my solar fountain (which was purchased as a solar fountain, so the pump is definitely sized appropriately for it). I have it in a west facing garden bed that I consider to be in very full sun from about 10 AM until sunset, and it's a ways away from the nearest electric outlet so in my mind I thought it would be the perfect location for a solar fountain. The reality however is that if the least little tiny bit of shadow falls across the solar panel, the water stops flowing. So my fountain which is in basically full sun only ends up having water running for maybe an hour a day at most (and probably not even that much on many days) because other times there was a little tiny shadow from the wires in my fence, etc. So I would take a REALLY close look at your area and how much of the day it spends in absolutely full sun with not the slightest hint of a shadow from anything else before you decide to try going solar. I'm not that upset because it still looks nice and the birds enjoy using it as a birdbath, but if you actually want water flowing through your fountain for a good chunk of the day I'd stick with electric.

I agree about solar pumps. I have bought 2 pumps and moved the fountain into two different locations. The first pump was relatively cheap and it didn't surprise me when it did work very well, but the second one was more expensive. I moved the fountain to a full sun location and I still had problems. I mounted the panel on top of my arbor so there would be the least amount of interference possible. The pump I bought had a battery in the panel, so that it should run for several hours in the evenings. Never really did effectively.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It sounds like this technology is far from ideal, at least as of yet. Let's hope it can be improved in the future!