Small Patio Fountains Under £200: What You Actually Get

Most of what gets written about garden fountains is about the large ones, because they photograph well. But a good proportion of people buying their first water feature are not after a three-tier fountain in a Clarence surround. They want running water on a patio, they have a couple of hundred pounds in mind, and they want to know whether that buys something decent or something disappointing.

It buys something decent. Here is the honest version of what it is.

What these actually are

The small patio fountains are self-contained: the reservoir is inside the piece, so there is no separate pool surround, no digging and nothing to assemble beyond setting it down. You put it on a level base, fill it, plug it in, and it runs.

There are seven:

• Patio Fountain with Millstone — the plainest and, to a lot of eyes, the best of them. Water over a stone disc, nothing figurative.
• Pebble Pool Water Fountain — water bubbling up through pebbles, with no open water at the surface at all.
• Patio Fountain with Modern Ball Sphere — the contemporary one.
• Patio Fountain with Ramash Urn — a classical urn pouring into its own base.
• Patio Fountain with Compassion Buddha
• Patio Fountain with Frog and Patio Fountain with Duck — the two with a character in them.

They are the same cast stone, in the same hand-applied finishes, as everything else we make. A small piece is not a lesser material.

What they do well

• Sound, immediately. The main reason people want a fountain, and a small one delivers it the day it arrives.
• They fit where nothing else does — a patio corner, beside a bench, among pots, at the end of a short path, on a balcony with a solid floor.
• Genuinely no installation. Level base, socket, water. That is all of it.
• They can be moved, with help. You are not committing the garden to a decision.
• They are good for wildlife, particularly the pebble and millstone types, where bees and small birds can reach shallow moving water safely.

What you give up

Being straight about it:

• A small reservoir needs watching. This is the real difference. A large pool can go weeks; one of these in a hot July week wants checking every few days. Let the level drop below the pump and it runs dry, overheats, and that is how most small fountain pumps die.
• It is quiet. A short drop makes a gentle sound. Lovely next to a bench, no use at all for masking a road.
• It will not carry a large garden. Put one in the middle of a big lawn and it looks lost. See below.
• Less presence in winter, when it is drained and the garden is bare.

Most pieces in this range come ready to run with a pump suited to them, but check the individual listing, and ring the office if it is not clear. Better a two-minute call than a surprise.

Making a small fountain look deliberate

This is where most of the difference lies, and none of it costs anything.

• Put it against something. A wall, a hedge, a fence with a climber. A small piece in open space looks stranded; the same piece with a backdrop looks placed.
• Give it a job. At the end of a path, in the corner you see from the kitchen window, beside the chair you actually sit in. A fountain on a sight line is worth twice one that is merely present.
• Group it. Pots of varying height around the base, or low planting softening where it meets the paving. The unresolved join between stone and slab is what makes a small piece look like it was put down rather than sited.
• Raise it. On a plinth or a low wall, a modest fountain gains a surprising amount of presence, and the sound reaches you better.
• Light it. A set of three underwater LEDs or the solar set doubles the hours you get out of it, and on a small piece the effect is proportionally greater.

Is it worth spending more?

Only for a reason. Spend more and you are buying volume — a bigger reservoir that needs less attention, a taller drop that makes more sound, and a piece that can hold a larger space. If none of those are what you are short of, the extra money buys you nothing you will notice.

If you do want more presence, the next step up is a larger self-contained fountain, which keeps the plug-in simplicity. The step after that is a fountain with a pool surround, which is a different scale of object and a different afternoon’s work — see our guide to easy assembly fountains.

Have a look at how other people have placed theirs in our customer gallery. Prices include delivery to most mainland UK postcodes.