SwimSkim 25 surface extractor

Unfortunately this year has started badly for me. I've had a garden pool18,000 plus litres for years but had to replace the liner.what went wrong went wrong big time. The Cherry blossom has been fantastic, the May blossom outstanding and unfortunately my skimmer couldn't cope on its own. Needed an emergency service so ordered an Oase swim skimmer 25 to help out. Wow weee I'm so impressed by this small work horse it went to work immediately and apart from discharging the blossom it's never stopped. A serious bit of equipment to help keep your pool in prestige condition.

The skimmer , works really well . But it does need cleaning regularly , for my pond every day ....but my pond is near bushes. At first I had been worried about the blast of water and air , it had dislodged all the dirt from the base of my pond , but i have now found this to be a bonus because it actually helps the main pump feed my filter .Be prepared to deep cleanse your main filter , after a week or so , it dislodges all the muck . But what a great addition to my pond , ps am no expert on ponds , but my waters clear .

This item works really well and has managed to clear our pond surface beautifully. The reason for the 4 stars rather than 5 is that in retrieving the skimmer to clean the filter the basket fell out and is now sitting on the bottom of the pond somewhere. We emails oase to ask if we could buy a new one but have not had a response so I called this morning and they don't work on Saturdays. I left a message so now waiting to see if they call back. The design would be improved if the basket could be secured better so it didnt fall out quite so easily.

I can't give it five stars purely because of how often it rides up out of the water. When it does this it makes a godawful sound which can't be doing the internals much good... They absolutely should have built in a simple auto shutoff to stop the pump once the unit rides up out of the water. However, it still does a good job for the intended purpose. UPDATE: I've now had two of these things die on me - motor just gives out - seems to be cheap rubbish.

Near useless instructions, took me a while to figure out the assembly. In operation the aerator function caused the unit to go all over the place, often making it unstable, and sometimes tipping over so I blocked the air intake hole at the top of the unit to disable it. Once I found a stable 'holding' pattern for the unit it cleared 99% of my duckweed within a few hours so it gets 5 stars. Basically its one of those gadgets you need to experiment with to get the best results. I only intend to use once a week to clear my duckweed so for that it does the job nicely, drop it in for a few hours, then clean and store sway. For bigger ponds with a lot of debris needing continuous operation I'd go for a different solution as the filter will need regular cleaning.

This is not a review about spec - I'm sure you can get there else where. Background - 15'000 litre pond - 5mx3m ..so ideal for the Skimmer 25. Initial impression - what you'd expect, lots of plastic, iffy instructions and a long lead! Having removed everything, actually it was pretty easy to assemble - 5 or 6 parts although the outlet piece for the airiator takes 30 seconds to understand where it goes! Connecting to electrics - the end of the lead is cut clean, I would have preferred the three bare wires (LNE), cut clean and soldered as this makes it easier to add to your electric box. So you have to de-sheaf the Live Earth Neutral yourself and fit to suit. Once assembled and electrics sorted, drop the Skimmer into the pond and sit back. Clearly if your pond is full of detritus the skimmer will fill up quickly. However, for pond keepers, one would expect a pretty clear pond with minimal surface "floaters". Personally I've fed the cable into the pond via a stone in the bottom as a tether. The aeriator does cause the skimmer to move but on a short lead, its minimal. I've a few floating plants which I've put in a (black) pond pot and they float about but do obviously get sucked into the skimmer so I've tethered them to the bottom - no biggy, but beware anything on the surface will eventually get sucked in - including food. Personally I add food to one end of the pond and if it reaches the skimmer, clearly the fish aren't that hungry. Slightly wasteful so I fed the fish very small amounts but more regularly; clearly the other option is turn the skimmer off! Hopefully the video is clear as the "pulling power" is very good. One "complaint" is the skimmer rides up out of the water, which Ive experienced. One issue is if the aireator is pointing directly under one of the flotation pods, the pod will rise slightly causing the whole of the skimmer to rise; simple solution, adjust the outlet of the aireator by90 degrees and problem solved. The other issue is the skimmer just rises. I've pushed t down a few times within a few hours of getting it but not experienced any "riding" since. I can see this being a frustrating element so if this happens again, I'll update this post. Lastly, it's quiet but not silent - again, no issues for me but thought is mention it. This is the third skimmer I've bought (Oase connected to a pump), Velda and now this "powered" Oase Skimmer. For me, the best to date - currently very pleased with buy. Five stars as cable sheafing and slight noise are no issues ... Happy to help with any questions. ****** Update June 2017 The impeller (rotor), gave up the ghost. Simply the water wasn’t being skimmed but the motor was running. I called Oase - brilliant customer service - and identified the impeller (rotor), was kaput. How do you test this ? Take the slimmer apart and the white propellers shouldn’t be able to move on the axle round and around. It means there’s an interior fault with that element. I called my local Oase Stockist and ordered a new part - 18013 - fifteen quid *****

I'm giving this product three stars. It's not spectacular, and it's not awful. I've had it about a week and have vacillated between loving and hating it. Here are my thoughts: -Be realistic. This is not a true replacement or retrofit for a pond that doesn't have a proper (swimming pool type) skimmer built into it. It is not going to handle autumn leaves. See the attached pic with oak leaves. The Oase skimmer quickly fills up, and the basket needs to be emptied. This is no real surprise given the size of the small basket. -Keep in mind that if you have debris in the water, the basket will need to be emptied regularly. If you don't, the skimmer rises out of the water and the pump will run dry and make an awful noise. Therefore, you really can't leave this running 24/7 or when away or sleeping. You have to regularly inspect it. Honestly, I'd rather just skim with a net if there is a large amount of debris. -It has to be anchored to the bottom of the pond. See the pic, and there is a rock and rope attached. It's really ugly. I'm going to sit the rock in a black water plant basket, and I ordered some black polypropylene rope, but there really isn't anyway you can make this look aesthetically pleasing in a clear pond. It's an eyesore. -Speaking of anchoring. The reach of the skimmer cannot be anywhere near a wall. The device tends to turn and draw against the wall. Consequently, it rises out of the water, and the pump runs dry when this happens. -Do not watch the skimmer, or it will drive you mad. You will see leaves pass within inches and not go in. However, leave it to work, and it will be full when you come back later! Why am I keeping this? - I can see it being useful for intermittent cleaning of things like blossoms or pollen or for polishing protein from water surface. -It can be moved around the pond or between ponds. -It provides additional aeration which is good if you have koi. -It won't take up that much room to store in the shed whilst not in use. In summary, if you are looking for something magical to eliminate the need to clean your pond or make up for poor original pond design, this product will greatly disappoint you. If you want some extra kit to occasionally help with modest amounts of debris, then this Oase skimmer may be useful to you. Have realistic expectations given your circumstances.

Good product. Previous reviewer may have struggled to set it up properly. Mine has been running for a year and works well. If it's rising up you need to 1) flood it properly and 2) adjust the aerator direction. If your skimmer finds itself over your air stones, the upward moving water may also lift it - as might your pond filter return flow. There are various ways to tether the unit. The power cable may do it but I used stainless steel 316 wire and attached it to the one of the brackets underneath. Fishing wire would have probably done the trick. I've also seen a video online where I noticed someone had poked wire into two of the round float plugs on the top (not the one that takes in air) and attached it to the pond wall. I've also seen someone cut the aerator feed tube to reduce the noise created by the exploding bubbles, bursting on the surface from the aerator - but I think that's a bit overkill. So yes I do recommended the item.