Why We Are Different

We Think About Ponds and Pondless Differently

At Russell Watergardens, we believe the best pond and water-feature products begin with a simple question:

"What is it going to be like for the person who owns it?"

How difficult will it be to install? Where will leaves, fish waste and other debris go? How will you remove that debris? Can you easily reach the pump? What will routine maintenance involve? And years from now, will you still be happy with the system you chose?

Those questions have guided Russell Watergardens since 1997.

We don't simply design equipment to make water move from one place to another. We design complete systems around the people who will own, enjoy and maintain them.

Designed for the People Who Own Them

Before Russell Watergardens became a manufacturer, we were pond builders.

We installed ponds and water features. We maintained them. We operated a three-acre retail water-garden center filled with working displays. We taught homeowners and professional contractors how to build ponds and pondless waterfalls. Most importantly, we spent years listening to the people who actually owned them.

That experience taught us to look beyond the day a project is completed.

A pond or waterfall can look beautiful when it's new.

But what happens after the leaves fall?

What happens when the filter needs cleaning?

What happens when you need to reach the pump?

What happens to all the organic debris that enters the system year after year?

Those are the questions that interest us.

Because good design shouldn't end when the installation is finished.

Solve the Problem — Don't Hide It

Many of the products we've developed started with something about conventional pond or pondless construction that we believed could be made simpler, easier to maintain or more practical for the owner.

Our approach is straightforward:

If debris enters a system, give the owner an easy way to remove it.

If a filter needs cleaning, design it to be routinely cleaned.

If a pump will eventually need service, make it accessible.

If there's a simpler way to accomplish something, don't make the customer do it the harder way.

This way of thinking has led us to develop products and complete systems that work differently.

Products With a Purpose

HydroSieve™ — Capture Debris Where You Can Remove It

Leaves, seeds, blossoms, fish waste and other organic debris don't disappear simply because they're out of sight.

The HydroSieve™ was designed to capture debris before it reaches downstream equipment, putting collected material somewhere accessible for routine removal.

The idea is simple:

Don't hide debris. Remove it.

HydroChamber™ — Make the Pump Accessible

A pondless water feature needs water storage and pump access.

But why bury the pump beneath a large reservoir filled with rock, gravel and water-storage blocks if you don't have to?

The HydroChamber™ combines water storage and accessible pump placement in a compact underground chamber.

That can mean less excavation, fewer buried components and easier access to the pump when you need it.

Hydro Vortex™ — A Waterfall Filter Designed to Be Cleaned

Biological filtration is an important part of many pond and pondless systems.

We designed the Hydro Vortex™ waterfall filter around routine cleaning and backwashing, so accumulated material can be flushed from the filter rather than requiring the waterfall to be dismantled for major cleanouts.

The filter isn't designed around avoiding maintenance.

It's designed around making maintenance easier to perform.

HydroClean™ — Pond Skimming With the Owner in Mind

A pond skimmer should remove floating debris—but we also think about the person who has to clean it.

HydroClean™ pond skimmers were developed around accessible debris collection, convenient routine maintenance and flexible installation.

Because even something as ordinary as emptying a skimmer is worth designing better.

We Design Complete Systems, Not Just Individual Products

Sometimes improving one component isn't enough.

That's why Russell Watergardens has developed different systems for different types of ponds and water features.

Our HydroPure™ Filtered Pondless Systems separate debris before the pump, provide accessible water storage and pump access, and use backwashable waterfall filtration—without requiring a gravel-filled underground water reservoir.

Our Koi Pond Systems are designed around the requirements of a dedicated koi pond, with smooth unobstructed interiors, bottom-drain waste removal, pre-filtration, external filtration, UV clarification and aeration.

And our Hybrid Pond™ concept was created to bridge the gap between the natural appearance of a water garden and important design principles associated with dedicated koi ponds.

Different projects have different needs.

We don't believe one type of pond—or one type of filtration system—is right for everybody.

Easy to Own Is Part of the Design

We believe maintenance should be considered before a pond or water feature is built, not after it becomes a problem.

That's why you'll see us talk so much about routine maintenance.

Routine maintenance isn't a failure of filtration. It's how accumulated material is intentionally removed from a filtration system.

We'd rather design equipment that makes regular maintenance straightforward than design something that allows debris to accumulate somewhere difficult to reach.

And whenever practical, we want routine maintenance to be something you can perform yourself.

We Don't Want Our Customers Dependent on Us

This may be one of the biggest differences in how we think.

We don't measure the success of a product by how many additional products or services we can sell you after you buy it.

We'd rather make something that works well, lasts, is understandable and gives you greater control over your own pond or water feature.

If we can reduce the amount of excavation required, we will.

If we can make a filter easier to clean, we will.

If we can make a pump easier to reach, we will.

If we can help you avoid an unnecessary service expense, we consider that a good thing.

We don't design products to keep customers dependent on us. We design them to help customers succeed without us.

Customer Service Before Sales

Russell Watergardens has always been a customer-service-driven company.

That means we're willing to explain the differences between systems, help you understand the advantages and disadvantages, and tell you when a particular product or pond design may not be appropriate for what you're trying to accomplish.

We believe an educated customer makes a better decision.

Our job isn't simply to sell you something.

Our job is to help you build something you'll be happy you bought years from now.

Products Should Solve Problems — Not Create New Ones

This may be the simplest explanation of how we think.

A product shouldn't create another problem for us to sell you the solution to.

It should solve the problem you bought it for.

That's why we continue to question conventional approaches, develop new products and look for better ways to build ponds and pondless water features.

Not because different is automatically better.

Because when we believe there's a better way to serve the person who owns the system, we think it's worth pursuing.

Nearly 30 Years of Asking, “Can We Make This Better?”

Russell Watergardens began in 1997 as a pond installation company and grew through decades of designing, building, maintaining and teaching others about ponds and water features.

Along the way, the problems we encountered—and the customers we listened to—helped inspire products, systems and pond concepts of our own.

There's a much bigger story behind how we got here.

READ THE HISTORY OF RUSSELL WATERGARDENS