Creekstone 2500gph pumps from Harbor Freight

[ZEROPILOT]

I recently purchased 3 CREEKSTONE 2500gph pond pumps from Harbor Freight.
They're $89 not on sale. Which is a similar price to other China made pumps on Amazon. Etc. But these have customer support from HF. I thought of that as a plus.
I've been using SMARTPOND 2000gph pumps. They're not that great. But last about 3 years each in my ponds when used with a pump bag. They cost $200 each.
The first thing I noticed was the size....Although they look just like my SMARTPOND pumps, side by side They're actually about 30% physically smaller.
The next thing I noticed was the output: Even though they are "rated" at 500 more GPH. They actually deliver far less water. I'm thinking that these are more like maybe 1600 gph?
So, the last test will be longevity.
I'll update this post if the first pump detonates prematurely...
(And I'm thinking it might)

 

[TheFishGuy]

I would never purchase a piece of life support equipment from harbor freight, but I will be interested to see how this pump does.

 

[EricV]

Whenever I have looked at HF pumps they draw so much power a top of the line pump is cheaper to run over the course of a year or two. I have a couple of HF pumps I use for maintenance and so forth. But I'd never run one 24/7.

 

[SarahT]

I replaced a dead Smartpond pump (1200 gph) with a 2500 gph Creekstone/HF pump last summer (I needed a pump PDQ) and haven't seen much increase in my electrical usage (i.e. Kw). I can't weigh in on how much water it pumps versus the 2500 it claims. I increased the pond size and re-did all the hoses and flows at the same time (within days) as the pump failed, so there's not as easy way to analyze how much water flow then/ now. Works fine so far.

 

[DrDave]

I recently purchased 3 CREEKSTONE 2500gph pond pumps from Harbor Freight.
They're $89 not on sale. Which is a similar price to other China made pumps on Amazon. Etc. But these have customer support from HF. I thought of that as a plus.
I've been using SMARTPOND 2000gph pumps. They're not that great. But last about 3 years each in my ponds when used with a pump bag. They cost $200 each.
The first thing I noticed was the size....Although they look just like my SMARTPOND pumps, side by side They're actually about 30% physically smaller.
The next thing I noticed was the output: Even though they are "rated" at 500 more GPH. They actually deliver far less water. I'm thinking that these are more like maybe 1600 gph?
So, the last test will be longevity.
I'll update this post if the first pump detonates prematurely...
(And I'm thinking it might)

Over the years I was maintaining 3 ponds all with a waterfall and a stream connecting them, I used Harbor Freight pumps. I never had to replace one. That said, I always had a backup just in case. I never worried about the power consumption as the cost over a year was negligible compared to the cost of the more efficient pumps that cost 3X as much.

 

[DrDave]

As a patriot, I will never purchase another product made in China. That said, make sure you look at where your purchases were made. Harbor Freight gets most of it stuff from China.