Indoor Fountain Pros Ultimate Guidebook
Here at Indoor Fountain Pros we have created a comprehensive guidebook to help you find the perfect indoor fountain and to answer any questions you might have. We’ll compare types of fountains, weigh the merits of different surface materials, touch on some of the benefits of indoor fountains, introduce you to top-rated manufacturers, and discuss installation and maintenance. By the time you’re done reading, we hope you’ll have a vision of the right fountain for you!
We believe that indoor fountains can help transform your home or business, and we think you’ll agree with us once you’ve found your own dream fountain!
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Table of Contents
Wall fountains
Glass Benefits of an Indoor Fountain
Humidify the air |
Manufacturers
Adagio
Gathering materials
Leaky tray
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Types of Indoor Fountains
No two spaces are alike, every space deserves a fountain that flatters its layout and function. That’s why we offer a diverse selection of indoor fountains. Whether you’re looking to make a dramatic statement in your lobby or to fall asleep with the music of running water beside your bed, we have the right type of fountain for you!
Wall fountains
Nothing saps the life out of a room faster than a bare wall. If you have blank space on your wall, a wall fountain can be truly transformative. With color, movement, and sound, fountains are the most dynamic type of art you can use to cover your walls. They will even change the air in the room by adding humidity and filtering out dust particles!
At Indoor Fountain Pros, we know that there’s know such thing as a one-size-fits-all fountain. Our wall fountains are highly customizable. Start by choosing the dimensions of your fountain. Next, you get to choose the finishes for your fountain. We have a variety of trim options: black for a minimalist vibe, bronze for an antique feel, silver for a chique space, copper patina to bring out your inner artist. We also have a variety of stunning backdrops, from sleek mirrors to rugged slate. We even have one-of-a-kind, hand-painted art fountains.
There are so many possibilities. Personally, we love the idea of:
- a large, mirrored wall fountain that stands in for a window in a room that needs more natural light
- a niche wall fountain that transforms your bathroom into a spa
- a floor-to-ceiling wall fountain that wows customers every time they walk into your business
- a wall fountain with an artistic backdrop that showcases your personality in your living room
Floor fountains
Floor fountains have all the wow-factor of wall fountains with a bit more convenience. You can place them anywhere within reach of an electrical outlet, and since you don’t have to mount them on the wall, they are renter-friendly!
Just like our wall fountains, our floor fountains can be tailored to fit your space and your style. Black, bronze, silver, gold, and copper trims are available, and the backdrop can be slate, glass, or mirrors.
One of the special advantages of floor fountains is the opportunity to enjoy them from 360-degrees. Our glass fountains can be made with ultra-clear glass, so no matter where you’re sitting, you can enjoy watching the tranquil flow of water. These fountains can be placed against a wall, in a corner, in front of a window, in the center of a room.
Our bubble fountains are also mesmerizing from every angle. Unlike most fountains, which draw their beauty from open cascades of water, our bubble fountains dazzle you with the movement of bubbles trapped inside them. They are funky statement pieces, full of color and motion.
If you want a statement piece but aren’t quite into the glitter and neon of a bubble fountain, look for one of our smaller, more sculptural floor fountains. Curved frames and multi-level fountains can make your watershow even more entertaining.
Some of our favorite ways to use floor fountains are:
- bubble fountains as an exciting addition to a kid’s room
- transparent glass fountains as zen room dividers
- traditional slate fountains in a rented space where wall fountains aren’t allowed
- etched glass fountains tucked into a corner of the garden
Table fountains
Sometimes, all you need is a small dose of water to set up a harmonious environment. Table fountains will do the trick! These charming works of art play with water, light, motion, and sound to create a rich sensory experience.
The small size of a table fountain allows designers to focus less on structural support and more on artistic design. Different natural and historical elements can be incorporated to fit with any style, from ancient Asian to modern minimalist, and Colored lights can be used to capture the warmth of firelight or the grace of moonlight.
Altogether, table fountains provide a very different look than wall or floor fountains. We think they look great:
- in a meditation corner, along with candles and incense
- on a bookshelf, near your reading corner
- on a sconce shelf, with nothing to distract from their beauty
Surface Options
You could make the argument that surface material matters even more than size when you’re choosing a fountain. After all, a large glass fountain will blend with its backdrop, while a small marble fountain will draw eyes from across the room.
At Indoor Fountain Pros, we offer 5 surface options to make sure you find a fountain that matches your style. Whether you want a minimalist fountain with a subtle, soothing effect or a dramatic fountain that fills the room with grandeur, we’ve got you covered.
Glass
Flip through a recent interior design magazine, and you’ll find glass, glass, and more glass. Designers can’t get enough of the stuff--and with good reason. Glass is the sleekest building material on the market. With clean lines, lots of light reflection, and unique transparency, glass can brighten your space without seeming to take up space.
Glass’s transparency makes it ideal for fountains. With a glass fountain, you can watch water flowing from any angle. At first glance, you might not even realize the glass is there. The fountain looks like a magical sheet of water, running from the top of the fountain to the stone pool at the bottom, almost inviting you to step into another world.
Colored glass is also an option for some of our fountains, if you want to add a little extra personality to your room. Our blue and green glass can change the ambiance of a room, giving you a fountain that mimics the surface of the ocean or a rain shower in a summer forest.
Glass also measures up to practical demands. Our glass is tempered to withstand impacts, so there’s little need to worry about breaking it. Its smooth surface makes cleaning easy, and its durability makes it suitable for use.
Mirror
A close cousin of glass, mirrors have a similar effect in making rooms seem brighter and more spacious. At the same time, they provide a little more privacy and have an undeniably glamorous vibe.
We create our mirrors by polishing precious metals like silver and bronze to a high sheen. With water gliding over them, our mirrors capture soft reflections and diffuse light. They also dramatize the movement of the water running over them, doubling the dynamics of the fountain.
Silver mirrors give off a chic vibe. They look amazing in rooms with cool colors and rich textures, like fur throws, eucalyptus wreaths, and carved candlesticks.
Mirrors are a practical option too: durable enough for indoor use or outdoor use and easily cleaned with a wipedown.
Slate
For a one-of-a-kind fountain with rugged beauty, look no further than slate. Slate grounds the ephemeral qualities of running water, giving your eye something solid to rest on. It adds depth and history to a space and brings the outdoors in with its rich, earthy colors.
When you buy a slate fountain, you can be happy in the knowledge that your fountain is one-of-a-kind. No two pieces of slate are the same, so the blend of colors and the chunky texture of your fountain is as unique as a fingerprint. Slate can range from black to gray and from brown to gold. It can even have purple or red undertones!
Up-keeping a slate fountain is a little trickier than glass or mirrored fountains. Slate can be quite heavy, so you’ll need to be careful during installation. We will send all the instructions and materials you need.
Feather Stone
If you want the look and feel of slate, but you aren’t ready to commit to hanging hundreds of pounds of stone on your wall, we’ve got you covered. Our Feather Stone was engineered for people just like you!
Feather Stone uses a slate veneer to get the same rich, natural look as slate. It’s very realistic, like something you just dug up in your backyard! The difference is in the weight. Feather Stone weighs just 7% of what slate weighs. In fountain terms, that means 10 pounds of Feather Stone vs. 150 pounds of slate!
Obviously, Feather Stone’s weight makes installation easier, but it’s rough surface can call for detail cleaning, just like slate.
Marble
Nothing says luxury like marble. This beautiful stone has cropped up in royal palaces for centuries, and now you can bring it into your own home.
Like slate, marble gives your space a deep connection to the earth, but marble is not quite as rough-around-the-edges as slate. It has a polished finish and swirls of high-contrast colors that almost look like a painter’s palette.
Marble is a bit easier to clean than slate, but it can be just as heavy, if not heavier, so be prepared for heavy-lifting during installation.
Benefits of an Indoor Fountain
Spend ten minutes relaxing in a room with a fountain, and the benefits of indoor fountains will become clear to you. The sound and motion of the water relax your body and free your thoughts. You feel more connected to nature, and sources of stress like your job or a difficult relationship seem far away.
If these are the benefits you can get from sitting by a fountain for ten minutes, imagine what owning a fountain can do! Fountains:
Humidify the air
Indoor fountains often seem to fill the room they’re in--and it’s not just because of their aesthetics. Fountains can literally transform the air in a room. As water flows over the fountain and bounces off the polished rocks in the bottom of the pool, small amounts of water vapor will escape. Gradually, this vapor will begin to humidify the room. It’s a more subtle change than you would get from an industrial humidifier, but you can still feel the change in the air.
Humidifiers, like indoor fountains, have been shown to have numerous health benefits. They:
- reduce the risk of infections, since airborne pathogens can’t travel as well in moist air
- give your skin a healthy glow by preventing dry skin
- soothe your throat and sinuses, since these organs are at their peak performance in warm moist conditions
As an extra perk, humidifiers can make your houseplants flourish and lower your heating bill.
Purify the air
In addition to humidifying your air, indoor fountains can actually purify the air you breathe. How? Most allergens and dust particles floating in the air carry a faint electric charge. They are attracted towards water just like lightning is attracted to water. The water in your fountain will trap these particles and carry them down to the fountain’s filter. Over enough time, this process can lead to significantly purer air, which means less odors, allergies, and infections for you!
Make you feel at home
We all dream of beautiful, balanced living spaces that reflect our personality--and the ability to create them, we all need art. Indoor fountains are one of the best artistic additions you can make to your home. The high level of customization you’ll find in our fountains also helps you showcase your personal style.
Use indoor fountains to:
- create a sitting space that invites guests to linger
- balance your environment according to the rules of feng shui
- highlight your personal style or brand
- make your space seem luxurious, like a place where all your needs will be met
Manufacturers
Of course, a distributor is only as good as his suppliers. We turned the fountain market inside out to find the most beautiful, technologically advanced products available, and we think we found them!
Adagio Water Features
The beauty of an Adagio fountain speaks for itself, but when we learned more about their production process, we were wowed all over again.
Adagio starts with high-quality materials, natural slates, rainforest-sourced marbles, premium metals, and state-of-the-art lighting and pump systems. From there, they follow a meticulous production process, refining their techniques as they go to flatter each piece of stone. Their process yields hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind fountains. These aren’t products off an assembly line. They’re unique works of art.
Adagio Water Features has been operating out of Salt Lake City, Utah since 2001. We’re proud to support business and the arts in the United States buy purchasing their American-made fountains.
Bluworld
When we decided to go into the fountain business, stocking Bluworld fountains was a no brainer. Bluworld is one of the most trusted names in the water feature world. They have designed water displays for mega-corporations like Burger King, McDonalds, Whole Foods, Hilton, Marriott, Trump Palace, Ritz Carlton, and the Atlanta Hawks.
Bluworld’s products are made in a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility full of high quality materials, state-of-the-art machinery, and experienced technicians. Their team of engineers has patented numerous construction techniques and design features that make their fountains the best on the market. And, of course, they have interior designers on staff to balance technology with amazing visual aesthetics.
Bluworld has been operating out of Orlando, Florida for the past 15 years. They employ hundreds of engineers, artists, and technicians, and we are proud to support them!
Installation
As soon as you unwrap your indoor fountain, you’ll be excited to get it up and running. We try to make that process simple as possible. We’ll send you the necessary hardware for installation and step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process.
Here’s a rough idea of what you can expect:
Gathering supplies
First and foremost, we recommend having two people on hand for the installation. Glass, slate, and marble can be heavy, so you might need two people to lift and install it.
You’ll also need to make sure you have:
- a flat head screwdriver
- a Philips head screwdriver
- a drill (for wall fountains)
- pliers
- a tape measure
- a level
Bonus points if you have a stepladder and a stud finder!
Choosing a Location
There are lots of variables to consider when you’re installing a fountain. First, think about your fountain’s purpose. Is it meant to wow guests? Place it so that it will be visible as soon as you open the front door. Is it to help you relax? Your bedroom might be a good option. Next, you should read up on interior design and the rules of feng shui to make sure you’re fountain isn’t going to throw the room out of balance.
And then there are practical considerations.
If you’re hanging your fountain on the wall, you need to think about the material that makes up the wall. We recommend hanging fountains on sheetrock, and the hardware we’ve included to hang your fountain is designed for sheetrock. However, it is possible to hang fountains on tile, stone, concrete, or block walls if you buy the right hardware.
Most importantly, you’ll want to make sure your fountain has a power source. All of our fountains require electricity to power the lights and the water pump. In order to illuminate your fountain and get the water moving, you’ll need to plug it in! Fortunately, you can plug your fountain into most standard outlets. The plug is designed to lay flat against the wall, so you won’t need a recessed outlet. If you’re hanging your fountain in front of the outlet, we recommend that you avoid GFI outlets, which will be difficult to reset if they flip.
Assembling the Fountain
You can expect to receive:
- a hanging bracket (if you bought a wall fountain)
- a water distribution unit
- a backdrop made of stone, metal, or glass
- a hose and pump
- a water tray
- a hood
Our detailed installation instructions will tell you exactly how to put these parts together. In a nutshell: the bracket hangs on the wall, the distribution unit clips to the top of the backdrop, the hood hides the distribution unit, the water tray attaches to the bottom of the backdrop, and the hose and pump carry water from the water tray up to the distribution unit.
Of course, not all of our fountains require assembly. Some of our smaller table and wall fountains are shipped to you as a whole unit. All you have to do is hang it up or set it on a table!
Filling the Fountain
You’ve assembled your fountain. It’s time to get the show on the road by adding water to your fountain and plugging it in.
First, you’ll want to get your hands on some distilled water. Distilled water prolongs the life of your fountain because it doesn’t contain the salts and contaminants found in tap water that might corrode metal or leave mineral deposits.
When you’ve got your distilled water, make sure the fountain is unplugged or turned off. Carefully pour the distilled water down the backdrop, so that it runs down into the tray, just like it would if the fountain was on. Pour slowly and keep an eye on the fill line marked in the water tray. If you can’t find the fill line, pour until the pump is covered by a half inch of water, no more than that. Overfilling your fountain might cause leaks!
In the future, you’ll need to fill your fountain as the water begins to evaporate. Evaporation rate will vary depending on the environment. Never let your fountain run dry, as this can damage the pump’s motor. Instead, top the water off whenever it drops below the fill line. If this sounds like too much of a chore, ask us about an auto-refill system. They can be installed in most fountains! But a water line is needed when auto-refill systems are added.
Maintenance
As far as appliances go, fountains are pretty low maintenance. For every hundred hours of pleasure you get from watching them, listening to them, and showing them off to your guests, you might spend ten minutes doing routine maintenance. For example, you’ll need to fill your fountain (as described above) every few days, clean the backdrop once a month, and remove the liner in the water tray twice a year to wipe away algae, calcium build-up, or sediment.
While it’s unlikely that you’ll have to perform other maintenance, it’s always a good idea to be prepared.
Leaky Tray
Adagio fountains have a durable plastic liner to hold the water in the water tray. Most “leaky trays” are actually cases of overfilling the liner so that water spills out into the tray. This can happen easily if you leave the fountain on while you’re filling it with water.
If you think you have a leaky tray, first try removing the liner, drying out the tray, replacing the liner, and refilling the fountain. In most cases, this will solve your problem! If the leak continues, you might have a problem with the liner itself. To test for this, remove the liner, set it on a dry surface, and fill it with an inch or two of water. Check back in an hour or two to see if any water has leaked out of the liner. If it has, contact Adagio to get a new liner.
Bluworld products are less prone to leaks because their water trays don’t feature the plastic liner. They are made from hand-welded plastic that has been tested against leaks. In the unlikely even that your Bluworld tray does spring a leak, contact customer support.
Uneven Water Flow
You’re going to spend a lot of time gazing at your new fountain--and you might notice that the water does not run quite evenly. There are lots of reasons why this might happen.
If the water is veering to one side of the fountain and leaving the other dry, your fountain is probably not level. If it’s a floor fountain, try measuring the floor with a level, then slipping a penny under the lower side. If it’s a wall fountain, measure the fountain with a level, then adjust the wall bracket and re-hang the fountain so that it is level.
If your fountain has dry spots on the backdrop, try cleaning it with a sponge. You might have touched the backdrop, and the oil from your fingers could be repelling water. The sponge will wipe your prints away so the water runs evenly.
If your water flow still isn’t even, you might need to adjust the baffle, the distribution unit, or the pump. See your fountain’s manual for details.
Noisy Pump
The most common cause of a noisy pump is low water. If you begin to hear unpleasant gasping or gurgling noises from your pump, make sure it is covered by at least a half inch of water!
If the noise continues, your pump might be vibrating against the water tray. Try holding the pump still underwater. If the noise stops, vibration was the problem! Fine tune the positioning of the pump and adjust the rubber pads that came with it until you’ve found a more stable arrangement.
If you’ve ruled out low water and vibration, your pump might have a more serious problem, like a broken propellor or mineral deposits. See your fountain’s manual for more details.
Algae and Mineral Deposits
Like anything dynamic, your fountain can gradually collect gunk. The two most common pollutants are algae and calcium deposits. Luckily, there are specialized products available to help you protect your fountain from algae and calcium. A few drops of an algaecide like Protec can stave off algae, and calcium (which appears as white scales on your fountain).
For any other problems, consult your fountain manual or call Adagio or Bluworld’s customer support. They are fountain experts and can guide you through even the hairiest of problems.
Conclusion
We hope that this introduction to indoor fountains has sparked your interest and answered your questions. Whether you choose a small, Asian fountain to sit on your desk and keep your mind tranquil or a floor-to-ceiling waterfall with your company’s logo etched into the glass to wow each customer who walks through your door, you’ll be glad that you decided to add a fountain to your life!
When you’re ready to take the next step towards transforming your space with an indoor fountain, contact us at Indoor Fountain Pros. We’re always happy to provide more information and to help you make choices as your customize your fountain.